Well, there is this thing called gaydar …” - some parts of the church believe gaydar is the ability to see a demon in another person. I asked them, “Does this mean that I’m not going to be gay anymore?” They were like, “Yes.” I was like, “Wait a minute, so that means I’ll no longer be attracted to women?” They were like, “Yes. There was one really abusive act, where three ministers held me down for six and a half hours and were screaming in my face, trying to get the gayness out of me. A big part of my conversion therapy happened within my own family walls. While everyone we spoke to underwent conversion therapy in Christian-affiliated programs, not all people who undergo conversion therapy are from religious backgrounds.īeing brought up in a Christian fundamentalist family, I knew from the get-go that I was not going to be accepted. We talked to eight survivors of conversion therapy about trauma, recovery, and seeing their own experiences reflected onscreen in Cameron Post.
Yet despite being rejected as harmful and ineffective by all leading medical and mental health experts, an estimated 20,000 LGBTQ youth will undergo conversion therapy in the U.S. Currently, conversion therapy of minors is banned in 14 states, and advocates are working to pass legislation across the country.
While conversion therapy may seem like an antiquated relic to those of us living in progressive enclaves, it still happens in the United States all the time - in camps like the one seen in Cameron Post, in religious institutions, and in one-on-one “counseling” sessions. Desiree Akhvan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post (adapted from the novel by Emily Danforth), out now, follows a young gay woman named Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) who is sent away to a gay conversion camp in the mid-1990s, where the close friendships she forms with the other participants serve as a respite from the ongoing psychological torments inflicted upon her. In November, Lady Bird’s Lucas Hedges will star in Boy Erased as a pastor’s son who undergoes conversion therapy, based on a memoir by Garrard Conley. Also known as “reparative” or “ex-gay” therapy, these programs use various forms of psychological manipulation, and sometimes physical abuse, to confront “same-sex attractions,” or “SSA’s.” "We are tired but this is all about the faith we have in the cross.This year, two high-profile films will attempt to tackle the subject of conversion therapy, the dangerous and discredited practice of attempting to “cure” LGBTQ people of their identities. "I have been carrying the cross for 30 years and I am very proud of carrying the Holy Cross with the whole town." said René Rosas, a local carrier. While only some bear the weight of the cross, the feat is regarded as a group effort of the entire town. As the carriers made brief pauses, they sang traditional "ranchera" songs, and a group of mariachis accompanied them down the hill, followed by many of the townsfolk. Many townspeople have carried the 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) cross at one time or another. According to one local legend, a convict fleeing pursuers in 1890 found a cross on the hill and believed it spared him from getting caught.īut accounts of a cross being placed here - on a spot where pre-Hispanic deities were once apparently worshipped - date back to the time of the Spanish conquerors. It is a cycle that has been going on for decades and perhaps centuries.Įach year, people across the country carry or adorn crosses along roadsides and on hilltops with fabrics and flowers representing offerings.īut for the devotees in Santa Cruz Xochitepec, theirs is not just another cross.
In a babel of voices, and after three failed attempts, dozens of local volunteers known as "cargadores," or carriers, managed to lower the 23-foot (7-meter) tall cross from its perch and carry it all the way down to the local church. The importance of the huge, fabric-draped cross to locals is reflected in the town's very name, which means 'Holy Cross of the Flowered Hill." The cross has stood sentinel over the city's south side even as what was once a village was swallowed by metropolis' urban sprawl. The ceremony on the Cerro de Xochitepec came a day before the formal day on the church calendar, Tuesday, when the cross is the centerpiece of a Mass and a new one is adorned for a return trek up the hill in a week.
SANTA CRUZ XOCHITEPEC - Dozens of men strained and struggled as they hefted a huge cross adorned with colorful ribbons and trudged down a steep hill in a yearly ceremony of the Day of the Cross celebrated in the Mexico City neighborhood of Santa Cruz Xochitepec.