Pray Away is a Netflix documentary about the “pray the gay away” movement and the damage it did. It follows former leaders of conversion therapy groups as they face what they helped build, alongside a survivor working to heal from more than ten years of it.
Two of my paintings are in it.
How it happened
A few years before the film came out, the producers reached out to me. John Paulk, one of the people at the center of the story and a former leader at Exodus International, had told them about my work. He said my paintings meant something to him, that they reflected his own path of walking away from that world and accepting himself.
I didn’t know that until they called. It still gets me.
Why it matters to me
I paint the male figure with tenderness on purpose. The vulnerable side, the eyes, the way a body holds itself when nobody’s watching. To hear that my work helped someone see himself with kindness, after years of being told to hate who he was, is about the best thing I could ever hear about a painting.
Being part of this film reminded me that art can do more than hang on a wall. It can tell someone they’re okay. I’m proud to be in it, and grateful to John for thinking of me.
If you haven’t seen Pray Away, it’s on Netflix. It’s not easy to watch, but it’s important.
