You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
In May, 16-year old Zach told his fundamentalist Christian parents that he is gay. Horrified by the news, they vowed to fix him by sending him to an "ex-gay" boot camp in Memphis to be reprogrammed. Like a modern day message in a bottle, Zach used his Internet blog to send an SOS. Miraculously, his desperate plea for help washed up on the shores of sanity and circulated in cyberspace at warp speed.
With all the focus on this young man, another pair of victims in this tragedy has largely gone unnoticed: Zach's parents.
I am not completely sure about it. Yes, it is true that Zach's parent's have been lied to all along by the personal interests of some churches that call themselves Christian. However, Is it that big biggotry and hate that one person can do that to their own child? I personally think that these are the kids that shoulb be taken by Social Services and placed in foster care, far away from the fanatic parents. There are horrible stories of phisical and mental abuse on the side of parents, ad this is not different. I think that the parents are sadic people, who enjoy to watch their kid suffer. I believe in God, and I pray that Zach overcome this test, so he can come out stronger as -yet-another gay man who can testify of about the wrongdoings of his parents and his church.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/20/2005 12:49 PM
So if I understand your logic, Wayne, queers have to prove that we didn't choose to be queer in order to be entitled to any kind of respect from the culture.
But Zach's parents choose to believe Christian homo-haters and we shouldn't hold them responsible?
Come on. It's impossible for any objective individual to believe what the Starks believe. They choose those beliefs because they think they're god would rather destroy their son's life to change him rather than love him as he is. And notwithstanding that, they still stand by their god. That's perverse and insane. Stark insinuates in the CBN interview that he knows the culture would never support Love In Action but he wants to give Zach "options" the secular culture wouldn't.
He knows what he's doing is considered wrong by the larger culture. He's choosing to ignore them. Nothing about that makes me want to feel sorry for him. Nothing at all. Heather
posted by Anonymous, at
7/20/2005 3:59 PM
Any parents that would willingly send their child to somewhere like Hate in Action, no matter the reason, are guilty of child abuse. Period. I don't care how misinformed they are, and I don't care how well-intentioned that may be. By choosing, yes CHOOSING, to send their child into a place that will crush his spirit, a place where his already suicidal feelings may be pushed to the breaking point, they are engaging in abuse and neglect. It's true that they may one day embrace Zack and love him as they should, but I can't feel sorry for them, and I refuse to see them as victims. Even as misled as they were, they should have been able to see that what they were sending their own flesh-and-blood into had nothing at all to do with love.
