Last week, I went to a local, non-profit theater and saw "Boy Erased" starring Lucas Hedges, Russell Crowe, Troye Sivan, and Nicole Kidman. My friend and I had seen the trailer months beforehand and had been anticipating the film ever since. "Boy Erased" told the story of Jared Eamons, who is sent to a conversion therapy program after coming out as gay to his heavily religious parents. The film goes back and forth between his therapy sessions and the year or so leading up to his parents finding out about his sexuality.
The first thing about this film that made me really upset is the fact that people still genuinely believe that being gay is a choice, and that it can be fixed with therapy. I know that everyone has their own thoughts and feelings about homosexuality, but I wish that people would stop trying to fix people that aren't even broken. One thing that has angered me for such a long time is the fact that people aren't okay with letting LGBTQ+ be who they are. It is apparent in the film that the therapy techniques aren't effective and many people struggle to feel "fixed," from the program.
Another aspect of the film that made me happy was the gay representation. The film industry is slowly producing more mainstream films that feature gay leads. We still have a ways to go with producing more mainstream LGBTQ+ films, but with recent ones like "Love, Simon", "The Miseducation of Cameron Post", and "Call Me By Your Name" to name a few, we are slowly getting to a place where LGBT+ characters are more common in popular films.
The film in general was very eye opening. I know that conversion therapy programs are real in certain areas of the world, but that is something I never really thought much of, mostly because I don't agree with the ideology of it. I never knew really knew what it could be like to be a part of one. I think why it hit me so hard is because of how strongly I advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. It definitely made me upset that after all this time, they're still being treated like it is a choice.
The film had some harsher themes that I was definitely not expecting. If you are planning on seeing the film, I would be mindful of this, especially if themes like rape make you uncomfortable — just a forewarning. I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll be brief about this but, as intense as these couple scenes were, they definitely were things that needed attention.
To summarize, I thought Boy Erased was a very well done and eye opening film, that I'm sure will touch the hearts of people who have been in a similar situation. I recommend you go and see it!
