Thank you to the protesters. I appreciate what you're doing, on behalf of all of us. Thank you for having the courage to get out there and shed some light on the atrocious deeds of Sembler and others.
I too think that Stripe's posts have been consistently thoughtful, articulate, fair, brave, and honest, and I was surprised to see Ft. Lauderdale attack her personally in this thread. I was also surprised that Lauderdale mocked the anti-hate/anti-straight protests, and seemed to suggest that protesting itself is some kind of ludicrous relic from the 1960s. God help us if that's true; if that's the case, we can really kiss our democracy goodbye.
It's actually been a cleverly used right-wing propaganda tactic, I think, that you see expressed in the media from time to time--dismissing the relevance of any type of protest by deeming it "reminiscent of the sixties."
I'll also say that, though Lauderdale is explicitly on the other side of the fence from me in these discussions about the Seed, it's also warmed me at times to read his friendly, funny posts, like when he's teased Greg about his sex appeal and so forth. I think that's sane and beautiful. What the heck, we're all here now, posting on the internet; we might as well lighten up with each other.
As for similarities and dissimilarities between The Seed and subsequent programs, I learned A TON by reading Maia Szalavitz's outstanding book, Help At Any Cost. I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially for anyone who wants an overview of the big picture of the "teen help" industry, both historically and currently. Excellently written too. A fascinating read. She's done a public service by writing this book and I hope it gets around.
