kewpid.net

a pulp fac­tion: Love in Action or Child Abuse?

News from the States about a kid, Zach, who came out to his par­ents. Ordin­ar­ily, it would be under­stand­able for the par­ents to be shocked and sur­prised, and maybe even a little dis­ap­poin­ted. Being from the Deep South how­ever, these par­ents go a couple of steps fur­ther. In what is obvi­ously an act of deep love and com­pas­sion, they decide to send him to Love in Action, essen­tially a de-gayification clinic.

There’s no evid­ence at all that these places actu­ally work. They are premised on the idea that being gay is a choice. That’s not the case, and it’s ridicu­lous to imply oth­er­wise. What sort of rational per­son would choose to lump them­selves into one of the most reli­giously and socially hated minor­ity groups in the world? If it is a choice, per­haps these enlightened folk could put on their homosexual-hats for a day, and “choose” to be gay, and see how laugh­able the notion that it is a choice is. There is no con­ceiv­able way that Love in Action could pos­sibly help kids. If any­thing they are likely to cause a great deal more psy­cho­lo­gical harm.

The refuge’s web­site states:

Two-Week Intens­ive: The adoles­cent will attend meet­ings at the des­ig­nated facil­ity Monday through Fri­day from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Par­ti­cipants in Refuge will be offered indi­vidual coun­sel­ing ses­sions as sched­uled by staff, recre­ational oppor­tun­it­ies with other cli­ents, as well as an atmo­sphere of account­ab­il­ity and sup­port. The cost is $2,000.

Six-Week Exten­sion: The adoles­cent will attend meet­ings at the des­ig­nated facil­ity Monday through Fri­day from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Par­ti­cipants in Refuge will be offered indi­vidual coun­sel­ing ses­sions as sched­uled by staff, recre­ational oppor­tun­it­ies with other cli­ents, as well as an atmo­sphere of account­ab­il­ity and sup­port. The six-week dur­a­tion of this option pro­motes more time for heal­ing and work­ing on under­ly­ing issues that may not be covered dur­ing the two-week Refuge pro­gram. The cost is $4,500.

From that rather bland and util­it­arian descrip­tion, it seems that these places exist not so much for the kids’ bene­fit, but for par­ents who frankly aren’t able to cope, which is sad in so many ways. There is noth­ing ‘wrong’ with the child they have raised for 16 years. He is still the same per­son they have always loved and cared for. That he is gay is simply some­thing new about him that they have just learned. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s a good, intel­li­gent and hard-working son.

The fact that the Church stands to gain a sig­ni­fic­ant fin­an­cial kick­back for every case that goes through their able Bul­worth rip Silent Run­ning divx hands is merely a fringe bene­fit I sup­pose .

Zach’s blog does not make for par­tic­u­larly pleas­ant read­ing. The pos­it­ive com­ments are how­ever, con­sol­a­tion that there are tol­er­ant and pro­gress­ive indi­vidu­als out there who are not blinded by petty ideo­logy.Bor­der Wars