Defectors from the religious right’s gay “conversion” therapy programs speak out about the damage inflicted on themselves and countless LGBTQ youth in Kristine Stolakis’ powerful doc, exec-produced by Jason Blum.
So-called reparative therapy designed to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, using religious indoctrination and bogus psychology, has been dealt with in both dramatic features (Boy Erased, The Miseducation of Cameron Post) and comedies (But I’m a Cheerleader, Saved!). Not to mention a fabulous Will & Grace episode from 2017 called “Grandpa Jack” that featured out queer actors Andrew Rannells and Jane Lynch having a subversive blast playing counselors at “Camp Straighten Arrow.” Wherever they fall on the spectrum between serious social realism and cheeky satire, those depictions have shared a wholesale rejection of the barbaric notion of forcing people to live a lie.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/pray-away-review-tribeca-2020-1290312