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Conversion Therapy

 Last week, a couple of Trump judges moved to make conversion therapy legal in some part of this country. The judges said there was "not enough research" to show that conversion therapy severely damages many lives.

I thought of this while watching "Carol," Saturday, with my husband. It's a movie partly about a kind of conversion therapy. Carol, a gay woman in the fifties, has some trouble separating from her wounded husband. The husband--Coach Taylor, from "Friday Night Lights"--can't really let go. And it's embarrassing for him--the thought of his wife with another woman.

This guy does all he can to break Carol down. (Also, he is not entirely unsympathetic, which is one of many miracles in this beautiful movie.) Threats pertaining to child custody get trotted out. A strange man on a cross-country road trip turns out to be a spy; he is collecting audio evidence of Carol's homosexual transgressions, to be used in court.

Seemingly defeated, Carol reunites with her husband. She begins to see a therapist. (She tells her snobby in-laws: "He is not a doctor; he is a psychotherapist. Yes, he studied at Yale--but, you know, that doesn't make him a doctor....") In just one scene, you feel the heaviness in the air; Carol is surviving but suffering; it seems like great effort is required just to form one or two sentences.

Patricia Highsmith wrote "The Price of Salt" -- or, "Carol" -- in part because she wanted to defy conventions. She was going to write a gay love story in which neither half kills herself; the ending is just a quietly happy ending. And Carol does find her way out of conversion therapy. She has a dignified, sensible speech, which might have earned Cate Blanchett an Oscar--but the Oscars didn't really like "Carol." (The movie failed to secure a Best Picture nomination, and this is seen as one of the ugliest, more egregious snubs in recent Oscar history.) Anyway, after the speech, Carol reinvents herself, and the last few scenes leave you breathless; it's like you're seeing the climax of an unusually-smart superhero story.

It's shocking that judges can still bully gay kids in some parts of our country. "Carol" is a small reminder of what is at stake. It's worth revisiting.




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