Watch: New documentary goes inside gay conversion therapy retreat
VICE have filmed a new three part series investigating gay conversion therapy- the practice of ‘turning’ gay people straight.
VICE have released the first part in a three part documentary series investigating gay conversion therapy.
Watch the first episode below:
The documentary features interviews with the doctors and counsellors practising the ‘therapy’, former leaders of the Ex-Gay movement who are now embracing their same-sex attraction, and survivors of conversion therapy.
Joseph Nicolosi PHD, a licensed clinical psychologist and advocate of conversion therapy says: “Everyone is homosexual. The idea that some people are naturally homosexual, or naturally gay, is a social construct.”
The episode is set inside the Journey Into Manhood programme, a retreat that charges men over $600 (£387) to partake in exercises and activities that staff members claim will help battle their same sex-orientation.
Gay conversion therapy is a topical issue in the US right now, only recently a New Jersey Judge ruled it “consumer fraud” to advertise a cure for homosexuality.
Currently, it is only a illegal in two US states, with Iowa looking like it will become the third state to make the practice a crime.
The series, which is part of VICE’s Profiles project, will air two more episodes on February 26 and 27 in which the film-makers travel to the annual Gay Christian Network Conference, speak with Former Ex-Gay leaders and hear the stories of the people who have gone through conversion therapy.