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Boy Erased

What a shock it was to attend a panel this weekend on conversion camps.

These are places where confused people send their gay children to be molded into "non-gays." Obviously, the camps do not attain their (twisted) goal, and obviously, they do a great deal of psychological harm in the process of not-attaining-the-twisted-goal. What is surprising (to me, at least):

*These camps still exist all over the U.S. Very few states have banned them.

*Joanna Gaines, host of "Fixer Upper," and subject of many empty "People Magazine" pieces, attends a church officially in favor of conversion camps. A while ago, her husband wrote a cowardly piece asking us all just to agree to disagree--and so one wonders if he is also secretly a fan of the Vichy regime.

*Those scenes in the Lucas Hedges and Chloe Grace Moretz movies where the campers gather and, following instructions, scream anti-gay insults at the most vulnerable kid ... are taken from actual life.

*In at least one camp, campers were required to invite a heterosexual associate, perhaps a brother, to a male bonding ritual. The campers would all disrobe and discuss body issues while swimming together. It's unclear who decided that this was a thing that hetero "bros" would normally do, and it's unclear who felt that the nude swimming discussions would result in a mass movement away from homosexuality.

*One survivor of this kind of camp is now founding a psychology practice--focusing on gay kids and their families--and using the Latin word "Arcus," which means "Rainbow." Bear in mind this guy already endured a great deal of misery in his former life. And now he's taking on this work. One imagines he could take a permanent vacation, and perhaps move to Malibu, but instead he is opting to wade back into the trenches.

*Of course if you're preying on confused kids, you can often capitalize on the fact that the kid himself *believes he does not want to be gay* ....So a theme among the survivors I heard from was that they would sometimes go out of their way to try to support and assist their oppressors. They would return to the camps and give inspirational talks. They would furtively indulge in same-sex hookups, then try to persuade young audiences that same-sex hook-ups were wrong.

And that was my weekend. Will horrors never cease! Please steer clear of Chip and Joanna Gaines.
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