The new Netflix documentary ‘Pray Away’ is a very powerful film.
In it, repentant former leaders of the disbanded US group Exodus International – which promoted so-called ‘conversion therapy’ in order to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity – share their painful experiences and give viewers rare insights into the so-called ‘ex-gay’ movement. It is eye-opening.
Julie Rodgers, a survivor of anti-gay ‘conversion therapy’ and a former spokesperson for Exodus, can now celebrate marrying another woman, but she recalls the years of suffering she endured denying her true nature as a lesbian. “I suffered from trauma, and it resulted in extreme forms of self-hatred. But I survived,” she says.
