Author Topic: Is this sounding a little like Straight?  (Read 3517 times)

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Offline tommyfromhyde1

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« on: June 22, 2005, 12:21:00 PM »
Scroll down to Monday May 30
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 0604221047
This is for gay kids, not druggies.
Here's an article on AlterNet:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/22280/

Why should we take advice on sex from the Pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't.
--George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born English playwright

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Offline thepatriot

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2005, 12:41:00 PM »
Check this link

http://www.houstonvoice.com/2005/6-17/n ... n-teen.cfm

NATIONAL NEWS

Teen blogs on forced trip to ?ex-gay? camp
16-year-old says coming out prompted action by parents

By DYANA BAGBY
Friday, June 17, 2005

A Tennessee teen is claiming in a blog that he was forcibly admitted into an ?ex-gay? camp by his parents after coming out as gay, gaining attention from media outlets and gay activists.

Zach, a 16-year-old from Bartlett, Tenn., was sent to the camp Refuge, associated with Love In Action near Memphis June 6 and is to remain there at least until June 20, according to his June 3 blog entry.

Love In Action, an ex-gay ministry, is accredited by the ex-gay group Exodus International and supported by numerous area churches in Memphis. Officials with the ministry on Wednesday would not confirm whether the teen was enrolled. A friend contacted by this newspaper would not confirm Zach?s full name. His parents could also not be identified.

Gay activists tracking the teen?s plight have organized daily protests since June 6 outside Love In Action?s facility in Memphis. The organization scheduled a press conference for June 16, after this publication?s press deadline, to address the growing controversy.

?LIA is calling upon the community to extend open-minded consideration and tolerance towards young people with same-sex attraction who are currently undergoing the organization?s youth program called Refuge,? according to a press statement from the organization.

Wayne Besen, a gay author who tracks the ?ex-gay? movement, said the teen is likely to experience psychological damage.

?This is significant child abuse,? said Besen, author of ?Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals & Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.?

 

?Raised me wrong?
On May 29, the teen blogged that his parents sat him down and told him he was going to a ?fundamentalist Christian program for gays.?

?They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they ?raised me wrong.? I?m a big screw up to them, who isn?t on the path God wants me to be on. So I?m sitting here in tears, [joining] the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs ? and I can?t help it,? Zach wrote.

?I?ve been through hell. I?ve been emotionally torn apart for three days... I can?t remember which days they were ? time?s not what it used to be,? the teen wrote in his last blog entry, posted June 3.

The teen also posted what he said were an exhaustive set of rules for Refuge that were e-mailed to his parents: ?No hugging or physical touch between clients. Brief handshakes or a brief affirmative hand on a shoulder is allowed ?

?[Love In Action] wants to encourage each client, male and female, by affirming his/her gender identity,? the rules continued. ?LIA also wants each client to pursue integrity in all of his/her actions and appearances. Therefore, any belongings, appearances, clothing, actions, or humor that might connect a client to an inappropriate past are excluded from the program.

?These hindrances are called False Images,? according to the rules. ?F.I. behavior may include hyper-masculinity, seductive clothing, mannish/boyish attire (on women), excessive jewelry (on men), mascoting, and ?campy? or gay/lesbian behavior and talk.?

Camp participants are also forbidden specifically from wearing any clothing by Calvin Klein or Abercrombie & Fitch.

Refuge offers a two-week program for $1,500 and a six-week program for $4,000, according to its Web site. Since its inception three years ago, the program has hosted more than 20 participants, according to Rev. John Smid, Love In Action?s executive director, who is married to a woman and claims to have left behind ?the homosexual lifestyle,? if not same-sex attractions.

 

?Founded upon deception??
Gay bloggers and allies who track the teen?s thoughts about being sent to the program created additional blogs to support the teen and refute the reparative therapy practiced by Love In Action.
Blogger ?Zach,? 16, of Bartlett, Tenn.

Supporters also took part in daily demonstrations that started June 6, Zach?s apparent first day in the program, at Love In Action?s Memphis headquarters.

?The history of organizations like Love In Action are founded upon deception and have been proven ineffective and damaging to people,? said Morgan Fox, an organizer of Queer Action Coalition who said she is a friend of Zach?s.

The coalition formed in direct response to the teen?s blogs, Fox said.

?He?s probably been there about two weeks. But they shut you off from the world when you?re in,? Fox said.

Zach?s blog indicates that his cell phone had been taken from him and he only accessed his computer to post a blog entry by waiting until his parents were asleep.

About 30 people take part in the daily protests, said Kevin Gilliland, a member of the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center.

?We?re in the buckle of the Bible Belt, and [the teen] has brought a lot of attention to [the ex-gay movement]. A lot of the people protesting are teens. This is an issue of psychological abuse,? Gilliland said.

 

?Obligation? of parents
Supporters of the teen are e-mailing Love In Action to express their opposition to the program, said Smid, who underwent the program in 1987 and is now the center?s executive director.

?It appears to me, from what I am hearing, they feel a sense of bond with other young people and they desire to rescue them,? Smid said in an interview Wednesday.

Smid declined to comment specifically about Zach. But he said parents of gay teens have an obligation to teach their children to live ?healthy lifestyles.?

?There has to be a safeguard ? other than a condom. We need to work with the mind and intellect [of gay teens],? he said.

Smid acknowledged the teen blogger?s posts highlighted a breakdown in communication among the family members and that Refuge works as a ?bridge? to facilitate a better relationship between teens

and their parents.

Smid said Refuge?s rules, including a ban on secular music, specifically including non-Christian classical music by Bach or Beethoven, are critical to the success of the program.

?While here, they only listen to Christ-centered music to help ponder their lives,? Smid said. ?We try to minimize external resources and make sure they?re not bombarded.?

 

?Message in a bottle?
Love In Action International, founded 32 years ago, is the oldest known ?ex-gay? organization, said Besen, author of ?Anything But Straight.?

?These organizations hold them captive, basically as prisoners. They are boot camps,? he said.

Besen commended Zach?s courage in taking his story to the Web.

?It?s the modern-age message in a bottle,? he said. ?Here he is on this hideous island of ignorance, and he?s sent his message out and now people are trying to rescue him.?

?This is a new spin on a terrible old story. He?s very innovative ? it shows the power of the Internet for our community,? Besen added.

The author said ?ex-gay? organizations that focus on adolescents are more difficult to track than programs for adults because they often market their programs as church camps.

?These groups inflict significant child abuse. They destroy and demolish the self-worth of young men and women,? he said.
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arasota Straight Escapee

Offline Antigen

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2005, 02:01:00 PM »
Yeah, it does! And Niles spotted that story somewhere else and posted about it to Troubled Teen. Where did you find it?

Interesting shit, no? WTF! We've been belly aching about this shit for decades now w/o getting a whole lot of sympathy. But when it comes to a gay kid, the story seems to have legs? WTF!!!

Ok, lowball, lowbrow time. Anybody out there get sent to Straight or similar program, in part because your parents thought (rightly or not) that you were gay???

It's an incredible con job when you think of it, to believe something now in exchange for life after death. Even corporations with all their reward systems don't try to make it posthumous.
--Gloria Steinam, women's rights activist

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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
~ Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes

Offline tommyfromhyde1

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2005, 03:12:00 PM »
I found out about this from Niles' post a few
days ago and posted when I saw the AlterNet
article. AlterNet has recently added a comments
feature at the end of each article. Someone has
already posted a link to nospank. I'm sure
someone here would like to add their two cents.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/22280/
BTW, before anyone asks, my excuse is that they
require registration and I STILL can't seem to
get an e-mail address and am having trouble
with Hotmail.
Peace,
Tommy

Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By  any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.
http://www.masscann.org/quotes.htm' target='_new'>Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young,  DOJ/DEA

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Offline Dr Fucktard

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2005, 05:10:00 PM »
Homosexuality is quite often a symptom of chemical dependancy -- it's just another way for a druggie to avoid his or her own feelings in addition to (or in place of) the abuse of drugs. We can help people afflicted with this horrible anomaly at SIBS. Please contact us today.
_________________
http://fornits.com/SIBS
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Offline thepatriot

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2005, 11:15:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-22 11:01:00, Antigen wrote:

"Yeah, it does! And Niles spotted that story somewhere else and posted about it to Troubled Teen. Where did you find it?



Interesting shit, no? WTF! We've been belly aching about this shit for decades now w/o getting a whole lot of sympathy. But when it comes to a gay kid, the story seems to have legs? WTF!!!



Ok, lowball, lowbrow time. Anybody out there get sent to Straight or similar program, in part because your parents thought (rightly or not) that you were gay???

It's an incredible con job when you think of it, to believe something now in exchange for life after death. Even corporations with all their reward systems don't try to make it posthumous.
--Gloria Steinam, women's rights activist


"


yeah no shit Ginger, I guess if we would have had the internet in the Sarasota days we could have made some waves. But I guess alot of people don't want to hear it from a adult talking in past terms.
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arasota Straight Escapee

Offline Antigen

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2005, 01:01:00 AM »
It's not just that. Lane Brown was just on national tv talking about getting litterally drenched in pepper spray many times daily while in a WWASP program. Have you heard about major protests of WWASP facilities as a result? Has the bloggosphere been afire w/ news of WWASP?

I mean, it's like there's a tiny crack in the dyke, slowy but surely making way. But nothing like the gush of public scrutiny this issue deserves. It's one of those blind spots in our society that Terence McKenna talked about.

Legalizing drugs is far from a panacea for all the distress caused by drugs, but it will eliminate most of the profit and corruption from the drug trade.

--Nobel laureate, Gary S. Becker

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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Dr. Miller Newton

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2005, 02:21:00 AM »
I can only hope that they go down...

If so, SIBS will usurp what was theirs...  ::hehehmm::
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Teenage Drug Use Is A Disease

Offline Anonymous

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2005, 09:37:00 AM »
What show was Layne Brown on and when? I would like to obtain a copy of that.
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Offline Erinys

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2005, 10:46:00 AM »
I found the story on fornits and surfed about. Yeah, I'm amazed at how quickly the blogs rallied... Many of the comments express astonishment that this sort of thing goes on.  Theres been a few mentions of Straight, (including a link to anonymity anonymous) more mentions of Tranquility Bay.  I posted info about Synanon here and there (Thanks Ginger!)also the Fred Collins story (Thanks FKA!)   because no-one seems to recall where this stuff came from. Plus it would embarasss LIA  to be asked questions about their relationship to "Synanon Church"

(They are neither wise as serpents OR innocent as doves, and likely never heard of Synanon.)

It's true what Patriot said about talking in past terms. How many times have we been told to "get over it" ?



If you think about why you hate me, you might find that it's not me.
--Antigen

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Offline Anonymous

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2005, 11:05:00 AM »
Quote


It's true what Patriot said about talking in past terms. How many times have we been told to "get over it" ?




quite a few.

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?So ... =8&start=0

 :grin:
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Offline Anonymous

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #11 on: June 23, 2005, 01:05:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-22 22:01:00, Antigen wrote:

"It's not just that. Lane Brown was just on national tv talking about getting litterally drenched in pepper spray many times daily while in a WWASP program. Have you heard about major protests of WWASP facilities as a result? Has the bloggosphere been afire w/ news of WWASP?



I mean, it's like there's a tiny crack in the dyke, slowy but surely making way. But nothing like the gush of public scrutiny this issue deserves. It's one of those blind spots in our society that Terence McKenna talked about.



Legalizing drugs is far from a panacea for all the distress caused by drugs, but it will eliminate most of the profit and corruption from the drug trade.

--Nobel laureate, Gary S. Becker


"

The issue is getting ink because Zack is a member of an identified victim group (gays) not because he is a member of a stereotyped minority it is okay to hate (kids).  If the six week program still fails to straighten him out then it is just possible his parents could put him in a WWASP gulag.  Then the shit would hit the fan!
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Offline Erinys

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #12 on: June 23, 2005, 08:23:00 PM »
Tennessee Department of Children's Services gets involved.

http://www.volunteertv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3513813

Also
http://www.republicoft.com/

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
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Offline Antigen

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2005, 09:33:00 PM »
Man, I'm almost inclined to join them.

Poster contest!

How about "Thought reform is bad medicine."

The Mann family was only one of a host of influential voices being raised against the traditional reading instructions in the most literate nation on earth.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3n.htm' target='_new'>John Taylor Gatto

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Offline PerfectStraightling

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Is this sounding a little like Straight?
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2005, 02:49:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-23 10:05:00, Anonymous wrote:

"
Quote

On 2005-06-22 22:01:00, Antigen wrote:


"It's not just that. Lane Brown was just on national tv talking about getting litterally drenched in pepper spray many times daily while in a WWASP program. Have you heard about major protests of WWASP facilities as a result? Has the bloggosphere been afire w/ news of WWASP?





I mean, it's like there's a tiny crack in the dyke, slowy but surely making way. But nothing like the gush of public scrutiny this issue deserves. It's one of those blind spots in our society that Terence McKenna talked about.





Legalizing drugs is far from a panacea for all the distress caused by drugs, but it will eliminate most of the profit and corruption from the drug trade.


--Nobel laureate, Gary S. Becker



"


The issue is getting ink because Zack is a member of an identified victim group (gays) not because he is a member of a stereotyped minority it is okay to hate (kids).  If the six week program still fails to straighten him out then it is just possible his parents could put him in a WWASP gulag.  Then the shit would hit the fan!"


I agree with what you said---I think people are more moved by his story because it's all happening to him because he's gay. With a drug treatment center or behavior modification for 'troubled teens,' it's not as clear because maybe the kids were really up to 'no good,' maybe they were shooting up heroin. Maybe they need to get 'straightened out.' With this kid, it's obvious he was fine the way he was and they are trying to change something that is OK to begin with. Being a drug addict is something that people see as something that *should* be changed...which is where the confusion comes in. How do you change something like that? And what about the cases where the kid really wasn't doing anything wrong but the parents are just hysterical or misled? It's much harder to explain and harder to prove.
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