Last week I posted about a teen in the US whose parent’s had decided he needed reparative therapy.

16 year old Zach was sent to Refuge - a draconian program for children and teens that say they are gay.

(I don’t know the definition of children in this newspaper report)

Zach’s story was first picked up from his blog and spread to mainstream media.

Love In Action is being investigated by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.

The director of Love in Action is not impressed - saying an anonymous report was filed with the DCS. Well, yeah. And John Smid says:

….the investigation is without merit and was filed anonymously by someone with little knowledge of the program.

“The Internet accusations on holding kids without their permission … and the other crazy allegations are ridiculous…”

Parents pay between 1 thousand and 4 thousand dollars to ‘fix’ addictive behaviour, from drug addiction, pornography, promiscuity and homosexuality.

Smid says the internet was used “as a foundation to stir up a bunch of stuff.”

Good. Someone on Smid’s staff should be able to do key word searches.
Far more than gay advocates spoke up.

Zach’s last entries on his blog which listed the rules of therapy has received more than 1 thousand responses.

The initial uproar prompted the organization to hold a press conference June 16th.

“We are a ministry whose mission is to assist others in living a life of self control,” said Rev. John J. Smid, Love in Action’s executive director, who claims that 20 years ago he turned away from homosexuality. “We emphasize this specifically in areas that cross over their spiritual convictions.”

“I am not bound to act on my same-sex desires,” said Gerard Wellman, a graduate of another of Love in Action’s programs. “I do not have to dishonor myself and my body with anything I do not want to do.”

However, Wellman did not claim that he no longer had “same-sex desires.

Wellman is an adult.
Love in Action is not licenced by the Tennessee Department of Health, Mental Health, Human Services, Child Services or Education.

Peterson Toscano is a playwright who went through the reparative program for two years and has things to say about it on his blog. He has also written a play “Doing Time in the Homo No Mo’ Half Way House.” Peterson believes Smid and his crew are sincere - and victims of a fear and threat faith system that believes the only way they can serve God is by running an exgay facility.

One of the first gay man to enter the Love in action program, Jack McIntyre committed suicide because he was unable to change from gay to straight, saying in his suicide note that, “To continually go before God and ask forgiveness and make promises you know you can’t keep is more than I can take.”

Zach? No word on his whereabouts or his parents.