Check out Camp Revelation, an upcoming independent film from writer Jack Bryant and director Kerstin Karlhuber, produced by Silent Giant Productions. It takes a critical look at so-called “reparative therapy” programs and conveys a message of acceptance, love and tolerance. According to Karlhuber, the film is targeted towards straight audiences, with the goal of helping them to understand the intense, unjustified pressure that these fraudulent programs put on patients to conform to outdated gender norms. Here’s a little synopsis of the film’s plot:
Meet Rex Jordan, a young man who lives and works in New York City. Rex comes from a socially conservative family upbringing, and is shocked to learn that his younger brother David has been outed as a homosexual and sent to a reparative therapy camp by their parents. Rex doesn’t know much about homosexuality or ex-gay camps, but at the urging of a friend he decides to get David out. The only way he can reach him, however, is by pretending to be gay and enrolling in the camp himself. Once inside, Rex is forced to confront his own personal beliefs about sexuality and the value of following socially conservative traditions. The film follows Rex, David, and a host of counselors, campers, and their families, on the path to self-acceptance, equality, and love.
And a preview:
Seems like a neat film, right? Well, there’s only one problem: it’s being financed through a Kickstarter campaign, meaning that Karlhuber and Bryant only have one month to raise enough money to cover the cost of producing it.
I hope you’ll visit the Kickstarter page for Camp Revelation and perhaps even consider making a contribution. (I did!) I’ve decided to support it because as far as I’m concerned, every blow we can strike against dangerous and discredited “pray away the gay” therapy brings us one step closer to the extinction of this cruel and scientifically baseless practice.
