New film reveals personal and political impact of anti-gay ‘conversion therapy’ – Open Democracy
One of the most powerful moments in the film is a display of remorse by former leaders about the roles they played in the movement.
Randy Thomas, one-time vice-president of Exodus, recalls his conflicting feelings when Proposition 8 (a ban on same-sex marriage) was passed in California in 2008, and massive protests erupted.
Exodus had advocated vocally for the ban, but Thomas recalls, in tears: “It was my community taking to the streets and mourning […] and a voice inside me said, ‘How could you do that to your own people?’”
‘Pray Away’ also reveals the political influence of Exodus and similar organisations. Working with conservative allies in government, they took their agenda to Washington to try and block initiatives such as same-sex marriage.
Yvette Cantu Schneider, who joined Exodus in 2008 to work on the campaign for Proposition 8, had been a top anti-gay advocate in the 1990s and 2000s, promoting herself as a “former lesbian”. She had also been a spokeswoman for the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group.
“It’s just knowing the fears that people have. What is it that I can say that is really going to scare them if they’re on the fence?” Schneider says about the arguments she once employed against equal marriage (for example: “If sexual orientation or sexual attraction were the basis upon which we were allowed to marry, then paedophiles would have to be allowed to marry six-, seven-, eight-year-olds,” and siblings would be allowed to marry each other).
‘Prop 8’ was ruled unconstitutional by courts in 2010, but that decision did take effect until 2013, when the ban on same-sex marriage was finally repealed.
‘Pray Away’ also shows how ‘conversion therapy’ is still alive today. It begins and ends with clips of Jeffrey McCall, a “former trans person”, who claims that one can “pray away” transgender identity and homosexual orientation.
But when McCall recalls his own history and explains how he founded his group Freedom March to campaign against sexual diversity, there’s no joy or relief in what he says. Anguish and grief seem to affect those who promote ‘conversion therapy’ as much as those who have endured it, and campaign against it. It is a powerful ending to a powerful film – but it is not a happy one.