AllMovie

The confusion of male effeminacy and female masculinity with homosexuality in the minds of two groups bent on "curing" this widespread social affliction is made clearly evident in this sometimes hilarious documentary. The sincere efforts of (basically fundamentalist) Christian groups like Exodus International to restore homosexuals to a more fitting place in society involve such risibly "helpful" exercises as taking gay men to football games and lesbians to beauty parlors, as well as practicing "healing" techniques advocated by such actively (one might even say rabidly) anti-homosexual psychological theoreticians as Dr. Paul Socarides. In addition using to such commonplace persuasive techniques as brainwashing, some other "therapies" involve "aversion" treatments; here, (in the case of gay men) susceptible individuals receive electric shocks while viewing male-to-male pornography, but are left alone while viewing the heterosexual kind. The would-be therapists might be horrified to discover that the likeliest result of such treatments (if they have any effect at all) is to accentuate any latent tendencies towards sado-masochism. The sincerity of these Christian and psychological groups is all the more chilling when it is compared with the activities and doctrines of the Nazis a few generations before. The documentary features interviews with those attempting to "cure" homosexuals, along with interviews with a number of the "formerly cured."