That kid from down south who was locked up..

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2005-12-24 12:34pm

The original thread was in SLAM so I'm posting this here.

Anyway, I'm wondering for information about that kid from down south--I can't remember if it was Georgia or Alabama--who was placed in a reeducation camp by his christian parents to try and cure him of his homosexuality.

Is he out yet? Does anyone know what happened, I mean, did they manage to break him or not?

Have there been any updates on the efforts of activists around his incarceration?

I've been curious about this but as I've forgotten his name I couldn't go googling around for anything.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2005-12-24 01:37pm

His name was Zach, he spent the entire course in the camp, and came out of it saying things in direct contradiction to what he was saying before he went in.

I forget all the details, but the thing that stuck out in my mind was him saying that he was no longer going to allow "gay" to define what he was...sounds like bullshit to me. "Stop alllowing gay to define who you are" sounds far too much like someone creating a problem in order to market a solution. When that idea is explored, you could get anyone to admit to allowing anything to define them.

Accept the Lovingkindness of Christ Savior and stop allowing T-shirt Wearer to define who you are.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2005-12-24 01:52pm

Love in Action, I believe. It's run by one John Smid; who said this:

Fucktarded evil homophobic blood-cultist wrote:"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." --The Final Indoctrination from John Smid, Director, Love In Action (LIA), San Rafael's "ex-gay" clan.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2005-12-24 02:35pm

Frank Hipper wrote:His name was Zach, he spent the entire course in the camp, and came out of it saying things in direct contradiction to what he was saying before he went in.

I forget all the details, but the thing that stuck out in my mind was him saying that he was no longer going to allow "gay" to define what he was...sounds like bullshit to me. "Stop alllowing gay to define who you are" sounds far too much like someone creating a problem in order to market a solution. When that idea is explored, you could get anyone to admit to allowing anything to define them.

Accept the Lovingkindness of Christ Savior and stop allowing T-shirt Wearer to define who you are. :roll:

I found his website after you wrote this, and he deleted all his previous posts to going in, which to me seems consistant with someone who's been placed in a very emotionally fragile state of mental conditioning, where literally could potentially undo it (since such conditioning is, in a word, quite fragile). He seems to say that "gay never defined who I was before" and "gay won't define me now", to paraphase.

This leads to some observations:

1. He doesn't say he's cured of attraction to men, anywhere, just the ambiguous "gay won't define me".
2. He clearly seems in a somewhat neurotic state similar to what's induced through mental conditioning techniques.

It would seem to me:

Either he's been very thinly conditioned, mentally, to produce certain reactions--that's hardly impossible--and is comparable John Paulk, "cured" of homosexuality and married to his "cured" lesbian wife (who never had sex with a woman, and was attracted to both men and women by her own statements even before her "cure"). Which means there's every possibility that someday in the future LIA's little pet media project will be found in some gay bar just like Paulk is, because conditioning like that needs to be constantly reinforced to remain in control of someone's natural impulses.

Secondarily, it's possible he's just lying out of self-preservation. Remember that he's only 16--his parents could legally send him back if he said that he wasn't cured. The experience was probably sufficiently horrific that he has very, very high motivational reasons to lie and pretend to be straight to the best of his ability to keep from going back. If that is the case, expect an some sort of shitstorm the moment he turns 18. I would not blame him for this, if this is the case.