Confronting the Horrors of Conversion Therapy: The Miseducation of Cameron Post
CW: conversion therapy, homophobia, mentions of death
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) is a truly phenomenal film – from the subdued autumnal pigments to the dominant denim duds to the storyline itself, I would highly recommend it to absolutely everyone (regardless of your status as a cohort of the alphabet mafia). If you enjoyed the queer cult classic But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), I can assure you that you’ll dig this, because it harbours a lot of similarities narrative and vibe-wise, treating an intense, traumatic topic with both severity and light-hearted humour. This film confronts issues of consent within the process of admitting LGBTQ+ youths to conversion therapy programs. These kids are essentially forced to choose between maintaining relationships with their families or existing authentically within the world. The “choice” itself is thus not really a choice, but a decision for survival. Those pressured to attend conversion therapy often agree to do so simply to appease their families and maintain their support, and because they’ve been conditioned to perceive themselves as needing to be fixed – thinking that the way they love makes them broken and sinful.
The religiously rooted love the sinner, hate the sin mindset is challenged throughout this film. Operating under the guise of “helping” these kids, the leaders of God’s Promise are attempting to re-program the relationship that they have with their sexuality to make them conform to the heteronormative status quo. One of the most striking quotes in the film is Cameron’s line “How is programming people to hate themselves not emotional abuse?” – which is an accurate rhetorical question given the happenings within this fictional religious conversion therapy facility and within such programs in reality.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post has been on my watchlist since it came out, but I finally brought myself to watch it following the recent vote in Canada to criminalize the practice of conversion therapy – which passed with 263 votes in favour and 63 opposed. Of the 63 opposed, 62 of them are members of the Conservative party, which speaks to the persisting prevalence of ignorance and homophobia within the party itself. While I’m so glad that the bill passed, I also found myself enraged that nearly a quarter of those voting on the matter were in favour of maintaining such harmful practices, and that, of the 113 Conservative members of parliament, 62 of them voted in opposition – that’s over HALF of the total Conservative MP’s. Despite the positive changes that have been occurring to make the world more LGBTQ+ friendly, it’s hard not to acknowledge the pervasiveness of hatred and ignorance. Being gay is still criminal in 71 countries. Being a gay is punished by death in 11. Being transgender is criminalized in 15 of them. Take a moment to consider these statistics the next time you find yourself thinking that homophobia isn’t a ubiquitous problem anymore.
