While we were updating the Wiki entry for ClearView Horizon, we discovered that the facility where the girls are housed are not on any maps to be found.
The so-called address is:
20 Bearfoot lane, Heron, MontanaWe also found an article:
MassResistance Ringleader Cyberbullies Queer Youth, Daughter Released from Anti-Gay Camp - Still Proud to be Queerby Mark Daniel Snyder, Queer Today, June 13, 2009MassResistance is a small, right-wing, radical hate group operating out of the suburbs of Boston. Brian Camenker and Amy Contrada are the ringleaders of the organization, which has been categorized a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
For years the two of them have been attending every event held by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender (LGBT) community of Massachusetts. They photograph people at events, and post them on their website along with hateful commentary chock-full of lies.
MassResistance is especially known for attending events that are designed to offer support and hope to LGBT youth, who according to the Massachusetts Risk Youth Behavioral Survey are between 3-5 times more likely to attempt suicide, and regularly face violence and discrimination at school and on the streets.
Most recently MassResistance infiltrated the annual LGBT Prom organized by the Boston Alliance of LGBT Youth. It is the original and largest LGBT prom in the country. It is held at City Hall with the support of Boston's Mayor Menino. MassResistance published photos of youth as young as 14, with commentary making fun of them for everything from their outfits to their choice of dancing partner. Imagine for a moment you are a 14 year old coming to terms with your sexuality. You're in the closet. Your freinds and parents do not know. Now your gay prom photo is featured on MassResistance.com. The suicide rates are not just a statistic. The cyberbullying perpetrated by MassResistance is on shaky legal ground, and is increasingly responsible for the well-being of queer youth.
For the past year, while MassResistance ringleader Amy Contrada was busy cyberbullying queer youth on her hateful website, her lesbian daughter had been issuing pleas for help.
Last year Amy Contrada's daughter came out as a lesbian exclusively on QueerToday.com when it was revealed that she had a prominent role in her High School's rendition of The Laramie Project. Mommy Dearest was furious, and although her daughter was one of the stars in the play, she continued to protest it. She also used her hate website to rant about her own daughter, even going so far as posting photos of her daughter's bedroom, and calling her "special needs."
Ultimately Contrada pulled her daughter from school and sent her to a sort-of gay conversion camp also serving as a "program for troubled teens" called Clear Horizons. On the camp's website, they continue to state that they are Christian-based, and mentor youth on "boy/girl" relationships.
In June of 2008 Amy's daughter sent me several chilling e-mails asking for support such as links and hotlines to LGBTQ organizations.
Clearview Horizon is homophobic, and has highly questionable youth development programming. One such practice is making their youth do "hills." That is a punishment that involves having the youth run up and down a huge hill over and over. They counsel their youth to be straight. The youth are not allowed to contact friends or family. They are punished, and even pulled out of college if they are caught contacting outsiders.
The "house moms" at Clearview Horizons regularly quit because of bad working conditions and conflicts with the morality of the program. Sexuality is not to be discussed among the youth, and youth get in trouble for "dressing too much like the opposite sex." Makeup is often taken from girls as a form of punishment, otherwise the girls are praised for dressing as feminine as possible. Appearance is a big focus of the program which can have negative effects on girls attending who already have body issues.
The physical and labor punishments are abusive. They give girls up to "60 hills" which is about 30 miles, and that is all you are allowed to do from 8am to 8pm. "Woodpile" means that you move the entire woodpile from one side of the barn to the other. Sometimes the youth are forced to run "Ballinger's Loop" which is about 8 miles. You get in trouble for walking, even if you have exercise induced asthma. Youth are forced to do outdoor activities even when it was blizzarding.
One alumni of Clearview reports:
"...I got in major trouble for "dressing like a boy" even though all I was doing was wearing boxers and baggy pants...
They basically brainwash you into thinking you can't handle the outside world on your own and that you need them, so even when you're 18, you're too scared to actually leave. One girl was given a bunch of consequences like doing hills every day, dishes (when it's for about 20 people it gets really, really stressful), silent ban (no talking at all), etc. and she was really upset so she drank bleach. She couldn't talk to anyone and she'd gotten her journals taken away. They still have a bunch of stuff that belongs to girls that have left, including me. In particular, they kept girls' journals if they could. I kept all of mine with me luckily. I got in trouble for being depressed and going to a house mom to tell her that I was scared to be by myself that night because I was feeling really depressed and suicidal. Mary, the director, made me write an essay because of that about how I got my "panties in a twist", and completely trivialized the whole thing. They switched psychiatrists because the one we were going to didn't prescribe meds to everyone. Their solution for my eating disorder was to put me on anti-depressants. They also wouldn't let me be vegan, claiming it was my way of controlling my eating, even though it is my beliefs and morals, not my eating disorder. When I first got there, they wouldn't give me Lactaid for when I had to eat dairy, because they claimed they had no proof that I was lactose intolerant. Lactaid is an enzyme replacer, not a drug.
...Other girls have been diagnosed with PTSD from that place. Many refer to it as Hell."
Today Contrada's daughter is no longer at Clearview Horizons, and is doing fine. One of her recent tweets read "my mom looks like George H. W. Bush."
Contrada's son , Anthony, somehow gave $2,300 to John McCain's campaign even though he is only an intern at his father's consulting company.
