“Boy Erased”
by Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief
If you missed Boy Erased at the theatre when it was showing, you miss a great show. I see Oscar & the Golden Globe in many categories for this film. The acting is superb, as is the writing and direction.
Boy Erased tells the story of Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who must overcome the fallout of being outed to his parents (Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe).
His parents struggle with reconciling their love for their son with their beliefs. At one point, his father says to him, “Son, I love you. But we cannot see a way that you can live under this roof if you are going to fundamentally go against the grain of our beliefs.”
If you see Boy Erased, brace yourself for comments such as this throughout the movie.
Movie Synopsis: Fearing a loss of family, friends, and community, Jared is pressured into attending a conversion therapy program. While there, Jared comes into conflict with its leader (Joel Edgerton) and begins his journey to finding his own voice and accepting his true self.
It was truly empowering when young Jared begins to advocate more for himself during this “therapy.” (I use the term “therapy” loosely). Further, when Jared’s mom, played by Nicole Kidman, lays out her speech about loving her child, it was phenomenal.
Other cast members in Boy Erased include Cherry Jones, Michael “Flea” Balzary, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Joe Alwyn, Emily Hinkler, Jesse LaTourette, David Joseph Craig, Théodore Pellerin, Madelyn Cline and Britton Sear.
Writer/Director, Joel Edgerton. The movie, Boy Erased, is based on the book, Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family by Garrard Conley.
Producers are Steve Golin, Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Joel Edgerton.
It boggles my mind why anyone would subject their child to conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is defined as the “pseudoscientific practice of trying to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual using psychological or spiritual interventions.”
However, there is virtually no reliable evidence that sexual orientation can be changed at all. Of course, advocates of conversion therapy provide anecdotal reports of people who “claim some degree of success” in becoming heterosexual.
According to reports, the highest-profile advocates of conversion therapy today tend to be fundamentalist Christian groups and other organizations which use religious justification for the therapy rather than speaking of homosexuality as “a disease.”
Medical experts have warned that conversion therapy practices are ineffective and potentially harmful. Even The American Psychiatric Association (APA) opposes psychiatric treatment “based on the assumption that homosexuality, per se, is a mental disorder or based upon the assumption that a patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation” and describes attempts to change sexual orientation by practitioners as unethical.
Medical, scientific, and government organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom have expressed concern over conversion therapy and consider it potentially harmful. Various jurisdictions in Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas have passed laws against conversion therapy.
From the many friends and associates I know who have undergone conversion therapy, I’d say “unethical” is putting a mild term on this child abuse.
We must protect LGBTQ+ youth from this abusive “therapy.” For more information, visit www.stoperasing.com.
“Boy Erased” is rated R for sexual content including an assault, some language, and brief drug use.
Copyright The Gayly – December 5, 2018 @ 7:20 a.m. CST.