Episode 079: No, There Isn’t a Gay Blood Test — Boy Erased (2018) with Lee Golembiewski

Join Alex and guest host Dr. Lee Golembiewski as they discuss the harrowing true story of a young gay man enduring conversion therapy in the US South in Boy Erased (2018). The film stars Lucas Hedges as Jared, playing a version of Garrard Conley, who wrote a memoir of the same name in 2016, detailing his journey through conversion therapy in the early 2000s. The film also stars Russell Crowe as his pastor father, who ultimately made the decision to send Jared to the harmful Christian ministry, Nicole Kidman, as his mother, who makes a startling transformation during the film, and Joel Edgerton, who plays the ministry’s lead “counselor” — Edgerton also directed and assisted in adapting the book into a screenplay. They explore the therapy’s practices, religion and spirituality, acceptance, and harm done by these kinds of programs, that to this day, still exist in many parts of the US and the world, because of the view that anything different in sexuality and gender from the norm of cisheteronormativity is aberrant and must be corrected through spiritual healing. While the filmmaking is rough around the edges, the message and themes are powerful ones from a psychological perspective!

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Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool (“Gemini”). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.