Name: Mars McGraw

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Conversion Therapy & “Panic” Defense

Date of Fieldwork: February 3, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Dan Karslake

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On Thursday, November 3rd, my fellow group mate Ayelet and I interviewed a director and producer of many original documentaries, Dan Karslake. He has directed and produced the more well known documentaries “For The Bible Tells Me So” and “For They Know Not What They Do.” The interview consisted of us bringing up questions mostly related to religious based homophobia. Ayelet and I both know that some, if not most, conversion therapy sites are religiously motivated and come from the ideology that god hates homosexuals, and that people need to “correct” themselves to be worthy in God’s presence once again.

One question that we conducted which I found interesting was “What are some ways you’ve seen people helping to stop more people from getting hurt by conversion therapy?” Karslake proceeded to refer to the people he interviewed in 2003-2007 for “For The Bible Tells Me So.” He said that “all the people who participated in the interviews could be seen as activists.” He recalled examples of past interviewees who have gone far in their lives and careers since the release of the documentary. An example was a trans woman who had been part of the 2019 documentary “For They Know Not What They Do.” Now, she is in one of the highest powers of government that a trans person has ever been in. I thought it was amazing how even all these years later, Karslake still remembers these people. I am extremely grateful that we got to meet with this amazing man and learn so many things from him.