Here’s an update from the Associated Press on Tennessee Child Services’ investigation of Love in Action’s “Refuge” program. The state did not find evidence of psychological abuse, as legally defined, in the program. Given their pronouncements about the legal strictures as they began their investigation, the result is not surprising.
Best to all,
M.
I’ve been following the story of “Zach”, a gay teenager in Memphis whose parents have put him into a program that’s supposed to turn him straight, or desexualize him, or something. (Typically such programs hold out the promise of “converting” from homosexuality; typically their effect, if any, is simply to suppress someone’s sexuality entirely.)
The latest news, as reported at washingtonblade.com is that Tennessee Child Services is looking into (at least) licensing issues connected with the “Love in Action/Refuge” program, in the face of allegations of child (emotional) abuse following Zach’s blog entries as he faced going into the program.
Best to all,
M.
For various reasons, about some of which I may have more to say later, I have changed the title and focus of this blog. I’ll now be using it as a distribution point for news, commentary, and who knows what else to interested friends.
All the best to all of you,
M.
For those of you who are unaware, here’s an introduction to the plight of “Zach”, a 16-year-old gay teenager whose parents have committed him to a Christian gay conversion program.
John Smid, director of “Love In Action”, has been quoted as saying, as part of what is called a “Final Indoctrination” from the program, “I would rather you commit suicide than have you leave Love In Action wanting to return to the gay lifestyle. In a physical death you could still have a spiritual resurrection; whereas, returning to homosexuality you are yielding yourself to a spiritual death from which there is no recovery.”
Zach asked a friend to publicize his situation, and also documented details of the program through his blog. There has since been agitation against Love in Action. There are at least two (naïvely earnest) online petitions to “Free/Save Zach”, one directed to the U.S. Congress, and one, interestingly, to “The Christian Church”.
You can find more details and commentary at PlanetOut.com.
Best to all,
M.
edit 2007-10-02: The widely-circulated quote I’ve used as a title is disputed by John Smid. The best authentication of it I’ve found online is anecdotal; its publication in the SF Weekly* precedes the Zach controversy by some ten years:
Also unable to kick his sexual appetite, Tom Ottosen, 25, plunged into a suicidal depression toward the end of his second year at Love in Action in 1993. Months earlier, Ottosen’s house leader had attempted to kill himself by swallowing an assortment of pills. Rushed to the hospital, the man lived but never returned to the ministry.
After a secret lunch-hour visit to a pro-gay counseling group in Marin, a guilt-stricken Ottosen confessed his waywardness to Smid, Love in Action’s director. As the two sat alone in a small bedroom, Ottosen told Smid of his feelings of suicide. “I wasn’t surprised at what John said. Almost word for word, he said he’d rather have me commit suicide than go back to the gay lifestyle,” recounts Ottosen. “He said if I committed suicide, I could at least save myself spiritually. That was the final icebreaker for me.”
Smid denies he encouraged the resident to kill himself. “I said he had to commit to the Lord,” the director says, “and it isn’t a good thing to walk outside what God tells you to do.”
* “Rear Window” by Vince Bielski and Marta Sanchez-Beswick Published: March 1, 1995
