Therapies designed to shock you

Therapies designed to shock you

There will be a free screening of the moving and at times shocking documentary Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-Gay Movement, this Friday April 4, hosted by the Gay Christian group Freedom 2b[e].

Directed and produced by Alicia Salzer MD, an openly gay psychiatrist, the documentary captures the effects of evangelical attempts at conversion therapy on people grappling with their identity as a gay person, as well as a Christian.

Abomination profiles the lives of four gay Christians attempting to overcome their homosexuality by following the advice of ministers from the ex-gay movement. Following them as they seek treatment options which range from the mildly ludicrous -˜gender coaching’ to the more disturbing electro shock therapy, the detrimental affects on the subjects’ pysches become apparent as their -˜relapses’ into gayness take a toll.

While for some the process leads to an eventual acceptance of both sides of their being, for others in the film the repercussions are more tragic.

Despite having come out myself, I did not comprehend, until I made the film, the hurdles faced by conservative Christians, Salzer said.

They are not simply forced to change by their community, they are encouraged to hate themselves and to believe God hates them.

They are bombarded with false statistics and propoganda, sheltered from mainstream and scientific thought, and then they are asked to undertake bizarre and unethical treatments that rarely work.

Created by a group of psychiatrists looking for a way to contest the ever increasing rise of fundamentalist christian propganda denouncing homosexuality, Abomination is a carefully constructed, informative and thoroughly gripping piece.

Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-Gay Movement will be screened on April 5 at ACON, level 2. 7.15pm start. For more information contact [email protected]

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