Jun 17, 2005  |  By: DYANA BAGBY  | COMMENTS     

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.

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 ...