Oscar buzz on film featuring story of a Lincoln man

A new film hit theaters this month, it’s called “Boy Erased.”

One of the characters in the film is loosely based on Lincoln man Aaron Aupperle.

The film is based on a memoir by Garrad Conley.

The novel turned film includes the story of Aupperle, who’s experiences are in the film.

“One of the characters is loosely based off of Aaron. The character of Cameron, who ends up having a fake funeral, we borrowed that story from his life,” said Conley, the author of the memoir: Boy Erased.

After seeing that his own story would be used in the film boy erased, Aaron decided to reach out to Garrad to send thanks.

“I reached out to him and said, hey I just wanted to say thank you for this movie, by the way, I am the real person behind that funeral that you included in your book as well as the movie adaptation,” said Aupperle.

Aaron was invited to attend the red carpet event for the movie in New York earlier this month.

The film features Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.

In it, a religious family decides to put their teenage son into conversion therapy to cure his homosexuality.

Garrad Conley and director Joel Edgerton wanted the film to reach as wide an audience as possible.

“Joel’s and my main goal from the very beginning was to raise awareness to make sure that every single household in the country knows what conversion therapy is so they don’t send their kids to it. Joel was very clear about, we’re going to get Nicole Kidman and Russel Crowe so that people who otherwise might not see it will see it,” said Conley.

Aupperle was sent to conversion therapy twice in the 1990s.

To this day he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, and now he’s ready to come out against the practice of conversion therapy.

“People that I have heard from like to say this is a thing of the past. It’s not, it’s still going on. There are 77,000 people still involved in conversion therapy, 20,000 of those people are minors,” said Aupperle.

The film is already generating buzz for Oscar nominations in early 2019.

“It’s a very powerful movie and it has hit me in a really touching way, I suggest that everyone go out and see it,” said Aupperle.

For those who are struggling with their identify in need of help:

There are resources available at Stoperasing.com.

There is also a podcast that Aaron Aupperle is featured in called “Unerased: The History of Conversion Therapy in America.”

Aupperle is in Episode four of the series.