Garrard Conley | |
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| Born | 1984or1985(age 38–39) United States |
| Notable works | Boy Erased: A Memoir |
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| garrardconley | |
Garrard Conley (born 1984or1985 [1] ) is an American author and LGBTQ activist known for his autobiography Boy Erased: A Memoir , recounting his childhood as part of a fundamentalist family in Arkansas that enrolled him in conversion therapy. The book was adapted for the 2018 film, Boy Erased . [2]
Conley was raised first in Cherokee Village and then later in Mountain Home, Arkansas. His father is a Southern Baptist preacher and former car salesman. Garrard "spent years struggling to reconcile his sexuality with his faith". [1] His family had a house on Lake Thunderbird where Conley would spend time on their pontoon boat. [3]
He attended Lyon College for a semester before returning home after being outed to his parents by a student who had raped Conley. [4] Conley was sent to Love in Action to undergo conversion therapy—the controversial pseudoscientific practice of trying to change someone's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual using psychological or spiritual interventions—in 2004. [5] At Love in Action, he underwent treatments by John Smid, who later left the organization, disavowed conversion therapy, announced he was still gay and stated he had "never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual". [6]
In 2016, Conley taught English literature at the American College of Sofia in Bulgaria. [3] He is the author of Boy Erased: A Memoir , which was based on his experiences at Love in Action. [7] The book was later adapted into the 2018 film Boy Erased by Joel Edgerton, with Lucas Hedges playing Conley. [8] He leveraged his newfound fame to "educate the public about the abusive practice of conversion therapy". [1] Conley released a four-episode podcast titled UnErased: The History of Conversion Therapy in America [9] shortly before the release of the film. [10] In 2018, Conley led GrubStreet's Memoir Incubator program. [11] He has continued to travel worldwide telling his story: in 2019, he presented to Southern Utah University, Equality Utah, venues in Germany and Switzerland, and gave a keynote speech for Iowa Safe Schools. [1]
In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, [12] Queerty named him one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people". [1] [13] Conley is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at Kennesaw State University. [14]
Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have been used to this end include forms of brain surgery, surgical or hormonal castration, aversive treatments such as electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, hypnosis, counseling, spiritual interventions, visualization, psychoanalysis, and arousal reconditioning.
The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship. Beginning with the founding of Love In Action and Exodus International in the mid-1970s, the movement saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s before declining in the 2000s.
Restoration Path, known as Love in Action (LIA) until March 2012, was an ex-gay Christian ministry founded in 1973.
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Ex-ex-gay people are those who formerly participated in the ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, but who then later went on to publicly state they had a non-heterosexual sexual orientation.
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John J. Smid is the former director of the Memphis, Tennessee ex-gay ministry Love in Action, a group that claims to convert lesbians and gay men to heterosexuality.
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Boy Erased: A Memoir is a 2016 memoir by Garrard Conley recounting his childhood in a fundamentalist Arkansas family that enrolled him in conversion therapy. According to The Week, it aims to bridge the cultural divide—"one that makes gay conversion therapy seem a natural choice in some places and unfathomable in others". It was adapted into the 2018 film Boy Erased.
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Boy Erased is a 2018 American biographical drama film based on Garrard Conley's 2016 memoir of the same name. It was written and directed by Joel Edgerton, who also produced with Kerry Kohansky Roberts and Steve Golin. The film stars Lucas Hedges as Jared Eamons, a fictionalized version of Conley, the closeted gay son of Baptist parents, who is forced to take part in a conversion therapy program. Edgerton, Joe Alwyn, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Cherry Jones, and Flea also appear in supporting roles.
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