Jun 24, 2005  |  By: EARTHA MELZE  | COMMENTS     

The state of Tennessee has begun an investigation in response to allegations of child abuse at Love in Action, a Memphis facility that advertises homosexual conversion therapy for adolescents, according to a department of health source.

K. Daniele Edwards, a spokesperson for Child Services at the Tennessee Department of Health, confirmed an investigation is underway but declined to comment on the details. She noted that she presumes the Love in Action program would require licensing by the state.

Love in Action is not licensed by the Tennessee Departments of Health, Mental Health, Human Services, Child Services or Education, according to Rachel Lassiter of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s communications office.

“Refuge,” Love in Action’s program for adolescents, became the focus of public concern earlier this month after a Bartlett, Tenn., teen, “Zach,” blogged that his parents had responded to his coming out as gay by sending him to a religious institution to be converted to straight.

“Emotional abuse is difficult to prove in the state of Tennessee,” said Pamela Dickey, director of the advocacy center for Childhelp USA in Knoxville. “You have to document that the child is undergoing depression or suicidal ideation, that he can’t sleep, or can’t eat.”

Officials from Love in Action appealed for “tolerance” of their program at a June 16 news conference.

“It is our spiritual conviction that sexual behavior outside of heterosexual marriage is considered wrong in the sight of God,” said John Smid, the program’s director, who describes himself as “ex-gay,” according to a partial transcript of the news conference.

“This program is operated on the will of the guardian or parent. We will work with the minor children as long as they are not overtly distracting to their own program or the program of others,” Smid added. “If it is shown that the client is overtly treatment resistant, we will work with the parent towards alternative options for their care and overall relational health.”

Blogger EJ Friedman said that he had been corresponding with Zach via e-mail since March and became alarmed when he saw that Zach had begun to write that his world was coming to an end and that his parents were isolating him.

“When I saw Zach had written in his blog, ‘all I can think of is killing my mother and killing myself’ I felt that clearly something needed to be said about the program,” Friedman said.

No word from teen
Word of Zach’s situation quickly spread around the blogosphere. By press time, more than 1,000 messages of support had been posted to Zach’s blog and an online petition demanded that he be released from Love in Action. Comedian Margaret Cho contributed a message of support.

But Zach has not posted to his blog since the first week in June and sources contacted by the Blade would not confirm Zach’s full name. His parents also could not be identified. Morgan Fox, 25, who said he was a friend of Zach’s, said he believed Zach was in a two-week program.

Meanwhile, concerned citizens formed a group called the Queer Action Coalition. QAC began daily demonstrations in front of Love in Action offices to raise awareness of the dangers of “ex-gay” therapy.

Homosexuality is not considered an illness by the medical community and no major counseling or psychological organization supports therapy that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation.

The American Psychological Association has said that it is unethical to subject an adolescent to reparative therapy.

According to Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, “Several major professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have all made statements against reparative therapy because of concerns for the harm caused to patients. The American Psychiatric Association has already taken clear stands against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Peterson Toscano is a gay man who spent two years in the Love in Action program as the last stop in a 17-year struggle to suppress his sexual orientation.

He said that the program, which cost $950 per month, was highly restrictive. While he was in the program he was forbidden to go to most parts of Memphis, could not touch other men and had to submit to lengthy meetings where participants criticized each ...