Hi supporters!

I've been continually blown away by the amount of attention that this issue has had since the beginning of the year. Never before has this issue been so widely talked about than now.

One of the reasons behind the recent surge of media interest in Gay Conversion is the new film Boy Erased, directed by the genuinely lovely Joel Edgerton, which tells the TRUE story of a man who went to a conversion institution run by Love In Action in the USA.

I was asked to see a pre-screening of the film and to meet Joel Edgerton to talk about what gay conversion therapy in Australia looks like. This was featured in tonights episode of The Feed on SBS Viceland (see link). I was also honoured to be on a question and answer panel at the Queer Screen Boy Erased event this last weekend.

The film was confronting for me to see. Whilst the context is very American, the messages and the ideology pushed by Love In Action as well as the deep damage experienced by the characters on-screen are very accurate.  In Australia, gay conversion is largely underground and not in overt institutions like the one depicted in the film. We still have at least ten ex-gay organisations that operate in Australia according the the HRLC/LaTrobe report Preventing Harm, Promoting Justice.

Talking with Joel and hearing his sincere hope for this movie to make a change was so encouraging. He was genuinely interested in our stories and his heart for seeing an end to Gay Conversion was obvious.

Please go and see it, and ask your friends and family to see it too. People need to know the harm that comes from growing up LGBT+ and hearing from people in your faith community that you are 'broken', 'sick' or need to change. 

If you are interested in knowing more about gay conversion in Australia, what it is and it’s prevalence in 2018, please read the SOCE Survivor Statement at www.SOCEsurvivors.com.au and the Preventing Harm, Promoting Justice report.

Chris Csabs