Dimensions
154 x 230 x 19mm
SAVING ALEX tells the story of Alex Cooper, a Mormon, lesbian teenager whose harrowing captivity at an unlicensed 'residential treatment program' inspired a battle for LGBTQ rights that challenged both religious traditions and legal institutions alike.
Two days after Alex Cooper told her parents that she was gay, they took their 15-year-old daughter to Utah, where they signed over their parental rights to a group of fellow Mormons who promised to "cure" Alex from her homosexuality. Forbidden from attending school, Alex was beaten and verbally abused, and forced to stand facing a wall for up to 18 hours a day wearing a heavy backpack full of rocks that literally broke her back.
God
s plan does not apply to gay people," her captors told her, using faith as a cudgel to punish and terrorize her. With the help of a dedicated legal team in Salt Lake City, Alex would eventually escape and make legal history in Utah by winning the right to live under the law"s protection as an openly gay teenager.
For the first time, Alex speaks out about her ordeal and its aftermath. SAVING ALEX is a traumatic yet uplifting story of identity, faith, courage, acceptance, and freedom that reveals what happens when religion goes too far, and how a group of dedicated Americans and one young woman fought for her rights - and ultimately for us all.
