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| A blog apparently written by Zach, a 16-year-old who lives in Bartlett, Tenn., detailed the days leading up to his admittance to an ex-gay camp earlier this month. The blog led to protests outside the facility near Memphis. | |
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By DYANA BAGBY
Jun 15 2005, 7:29 PM |
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A Tennessee teen apparently admitted into an ex-gay camp by his parents after coming out as gay chronicled his anxieties about attending the ex-gay ministry through a blog, gaining attention from media outlets and gay activists. Zach, a 16-year-old from Bartlett, Tenn., was sent to the ex-gay 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. -IMG- Gay activists tracking the teen’s plight organized daily protests since June 6 outside Love In Action’s facility in Memphis. On Wednesday, the organization announced it would hold a press conference Thursday in response to the protests. “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 the press statement. Wayne Besen, a gay author who tracks the ex-gay movement, said the teen’s blog is the “modern age of a message in a bottle.” “This is significant child abuse,” said Besen, author of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.” “He is very innovative, and it shows the power of the Internet for our community,” Besen added. 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, joing [sic] 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 on June 3. The teen also posted what he said were the 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 … "LIA 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. FI 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.” Refuge offers a two-week program for $1,500 and also a six-week program for $4,000, according to its Web site.
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