Troye Sivan: The Horrors of Conversion Therapy 'Shook Me to My Core'

Troye Sivan, a gay singer and actor in Boy Erased, hopes his new film is as eye-opening to the horrors of conversion therapy for viewers as it was for him.

"This movie takes something like conversion therapy and plays it step by step," Sivan told the Human Rights Campaign in this exclusive video shared with The Advocate. "And you can see how damaging and hurtful and ineffective conversion therapy is. It really, really just shook me to my core."

Boy Erased, based on the memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley, outlines the devastation that conversion therapy can wreak on individuals and their families. The discredited practice is harmful to a person's mental health and, as the film shows, can even result in suicide.

HRC is one of several prominent LGBTQ rights groups, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLAAD, and the Trevor Project, working to end conversion therapy nationwide. At least 700,000 people have been subjected to it in the U.S. alone, and only 15 states have banned use of the practice on minors.

The organization is "grateful to Garrard, [his mother] Martha, Focus Features and the cast of Boy Erased for this incredible film and their work to put a spotlight to this dangerous and abusive practice," HRC expressed through a publicist.

The cast of Boy Erased hopes that, in addition to being a piece of entertainment, the film helps educate its audience about these dangers.

"When there's ignorance, that's a very dangerous thing, so a lot of it is educating," Nicole Kidman told HRC. "Sometimes you're gonna have to shift your viewpoint if you come from a certain background or had a certain behavior that's been instilled in you."

A person whose viewpoint shifted was Boy Erased's director, Joel Edgerton. "I've been a bully and I've been bullied," Edgerton told The Advocate in a recent interview. His wish is to educate families in their understanding of LGBTQ people, so "they can actually become an advocate" for their kids, he said.

Watch the HRC video below.