This was a fascinating look at a world so often hidden because of the shame of it all.

Pray Away looks at conversion therapy and the people that went through it. We see people who have come out the other side of it still proudly in the LGBTQ+ community, people who had to hide their true selves for most of their lives due to it, and also people who have converted themselves back from what they thought they were in the LGBTQ+ community.

I find that last grouping really interesting. In the documentary we meet a man who thought he was a trans-woman but reverted back to being a man and he now preaches the word of God saying that he found Jesus and now realises that what God created him to be is what he should be, and what he thought he should be was really a sin.

I find this really interesting because you don’t often see people talk about that. You see people who were closeted and had relationships and children and everything else because they were ashamed of who they were, finally being able to be themselves, however seeing someone who thought they were a certain way to then go back to it and seem happy with who they are now is really interesting. You have to wonder who they really are internally and whether they were indoctrinated into the LGBTQ+ community because they were enveloped in a culture, or whether they are lying to themselves now.

Conversion therapy is a terrifying concept. To be told relentlessly that who you are and who you know you are deep down inside is wrong and disgusting and you shouldn’t be like that must be absolutely horrible to hear, especially at such an impressionable age as a teenager, where you’re more likely to believe it and hate yourself too. No one should go through life hating themselves because that’s just going to make the whole situation worse, and unfortunately a lot of people do end up taking their own lives because of how worthless they feel.

The interesting thing is while people can argue that a family should be a man and a woman but also that God creates everyone then surely God created the LGBTQ+ community too, and so why are they going against God’s wishes by berating these people when really we should be accepting everyone? I find with the Bible people like to pick and choose the parts that better their own lives and ignore the parts that don’t, and I think that’s very hypocritical.

They could look at the LGBTQ+ community as a work of the devil and that it’s a sin. We’ve come a long way with accepting everyone and it’s very hard to look at people who don’t accept everyone for who they are, but I do hope that these subsections of Christians and religious people are dying out because no one deserves to feel ashamed for who they are, and I hope in a western society we can make the steps towards a life where everyone feels accepted and included and shouldn’t be ashamed for being their true selves.

This is an eye-opening documentary if you don’t really understand or know too much about conversion therapy and want to hear firsthand from people who went through it. I think the saddest story was a man who went through it and married a woman who was a lesbian before her time at the camp, and they went on to have children and then he was caught in a gay bar and his whole world came crashing down. This man was a beacon of the community of showing that the therapy works and it was all a lie and I can’t imagine living all those years as a lie and having to hide who you really are just because one group thinks it’s wrong.

What do you think of conversion therapy?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding