PRESS RELEASE
Filmmaker Tom Murray is pleased to announce the premiere of his recently completed documentary project, “Fish Can’t Fly.”
The screening will take on June 12th in New York City as part of NEWFEST, the New York City Gay and Lesbian Film festival.
In this timely piece, the filmmaker takes a look at the lives of gay men and women of faith and the manner in which they ultimately put their spirituality and sexuality in harmony after their experiences with “ex-gay” programs. The stories are sad, poignant and yet ultimately inspiring. Two people known for their expertise on “ex-gay” issues, Wayne Besen and Peterson Toscano, appear in the film. A brief synopsis follows:
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FISH CAN’T FLY
83 minutes
Conversations about God, and struggling to be gay
In this timely documentary, FISH CAN’T FLY takes a secular point of view to explore the lives of gay men and women of faith as they recall their journeys to put their sexuality and spirituality in harmony. While the whole concept of changing one’s sexual orientation may be viewed with a high level of skepticism, ridicule and even humor by the larger GLBT community, these are the stories of those who have tried.
Finding that their strong religious convictions and faith seemed to be used against them, these are personal tales of people who have participated in “ex-gay” ministries and found in fact that they did not provide a “cure”; the answers seemed to come from within. The stories they recall are sad, frightening, poignant and yet surprisingly inspiring and enlightening. During our lives, each of us embarks on a journey to find our place in the world. Being gay can make that process more difficult; being gay and having strong religious convictions can make it doubly hard. This film speaks to the spirit and fortitude of gay men and women.
The film contains candid, fascinating and heartfelt discussions about God and being gay. There are even some surprisingly humorous events in hindsight. This is the second feature length documentary by filmmaker Tom Murray. His previous work, FARM FAMILY: In Search of Gay Life in Rural America, had its world premiere in 2004 at NEWFEST. FARM FAMILY has been part of the original acquisitions by LOGO-TV, set to launch later in June.
Tom Murray
Director/Producer
T Joe Murray Videos
Sarasota, Florida
TJoeMurray@aol.com
www.fishcantfly.com
“The stories are sad, poignant and yet ultimately inspiring”
Reparative therapy, as a sexual re-orientation therapy, is not safe because it works off the premise that being gay is broken and needs to be fixed. Therefore, if one fails to change in anyway, he will be left feeling broken, since the fundamental premise will have been beaten into his head.
In my opinion, an effective sexual re-orientation therapy should NOT differ too much from gay affirmative therapy.
The goal of sexual re-orientation therapy should be to first dissolve any irrational fears of being gay and internalized homophobia. That is, being gay should be looked at as a variant of the human condition, nothing more. This will go a long way towards removing anxiety/depression. The last thing we want to do is to reinforce any negative self image he may have of himself.
Then, if one still wishes to explore the heterosexual option, the therapist can assist the patient in perhaps broadening his sexual repertoire, in effect re-orienting his sexuality to a certain degree (how much depends on the individual). But such an option should only be chosen only after the patient’s irrational and negative constructions of homosexuality have been deconstructed.
The difference is in the first premise of therapy; rather than attempting to fix something which we assume to be broken, instead the mindset is that we are trying to help a person broaden his sexual horizons. Nothing is assumed to be fundamentally broken or disordered. Rather, gay and straight are looked at as two alternate pathways, and the patient is given the freedom to explore either one.
I’ve heard stories of gay men who, despite happy being gay, wanted to explore bisexuality and heterosexuality. Such choices were not borne out of homophobia or hatred, rather it was borne out of wanting more excitement and variety out of life.
Of course, my definition of re-orientation therapy would never be accepted by the religious right, since it walks a fine line and actually assumes to homosexuality to be no worse than heterosexuality.
I generally agree with your comment. Just one small point:
In the reparative therapies that I am aware of, it is not homosexuality that is being repaired. Homosexuality is viewed as a misguided response to other issues in need of repair — gender identity or inadequate fathering, for example.
Gender identity and inadequate fathering MAY play a role for SOME gays. But the mistake is assuming that it is the MAJOR etiological agent for ALL gays (which most ministries seem to do).