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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Eighteen year-old Lance Carroll is now speaking out about his virtual incarceration at Love In Action, an ex-gay boot camp in Tennessee. A year after he was forced to attend the ex-gay ministry, he is working with the group Queer Action Coalition to protest the abusive practice of forcing gay teens into conversion therapy camps. The demonstration will take place on Jun 5.
"I am attending the protest in reaction to my own horrendous experience last summer, and as an opportunity to voice my personal opinions concerning the Love in Action Refuge program...while I was there, it just seemed to make people more depressed and self-loathing than they already were," explained Carroll. "I, myself, went through several of these depressive periods."
QAC and Carroll should be commended for continuing to speak out against these divisive and destructive programs that lead to depression and even suicide. They are surely saving many young men and women from having to endure such a bleak fate.
27 Comments:
Glad to see he survived. Some haven't. Keep up the good work, Wayne!
posted by Anonymous, at
6/03/2006 12:06 AM
This is lunacy, I can't believe I live in a time when this type of brutality is allowed to exist. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, I mean bigotry and hate crimes have always existed. This is a hate crime, these boot camps, and it makes my blood boil. We should all be outraged by this abusive treatment and stand up and say no more.
posted by Anonymous, at
6/03/2006 12:26 AM
Some months ago BBC television in the UK aired a documentary called "Sad to be Gay" in which a gay journalist called David attended Love In Action in an attempt to alter his sexuality. Wayne was featured in the programme.
It was very interesting, and disturbing, to see how David was forcced to keep talking about the fact that, very sadly, he had been sexually abused as a child by a trusted figure. The relentless insistence on talking about and focusing on this abuse proved depressing and upsetting for David, and it did not cause his sexual orientation to alter one whit. In the end, he left the programme after some weeks as it was proving continually upsetting and depressing.
The one helpful thing that he did get from going to Tennessee was that it broke a 'cycle' of compulsive and empty sex that he seemed to have been in, and made him decide to concentrate on other important things in his life.
But it was not in expectation fo that that he went on the programme - it was in expectation of change of orientation, which simply didn;t happen.
it is my belief that change of orientation is the expectation of most who go or the programme or who send thier teenagers to it.
Has that expectation ben met, for even one person?
posted by Anonymous, at
6/03/2006 8:50 AM
life is a choice. no one can makes us do anything that we do not want to do. forcing sexuality of any kind on a child is wrong.
posted by Anonymous, at
6/03/2006 10:25 PM
This may be a little off the subject,but not by much, I have always thought and now my thoughts are reEnforced, that President Bush is the WORST President I feel this country has ever had, It's very important in 2008 to VOTE republicans the hell out of Office.
Sue the bastards! "Love in Action" was billing itself as some kind of 'therapy' at some point. They (and similar groups) do this so that it seems like they have some technique that's been proven to work, instead of just being faith healing. When the commotion about Lance boiled up, they removed these references from their website. I would bet that printed materials billing their nonsense as therapy still exist however, or that someone out there has a screenshot of LIA's (should be "LIE") orginal website.
Maybe they (and similar groups) can be sued for malpractice or practicing psychotherapy without a license. Even if civil courts are loathe to rule against these groups, the time, trouble and expense of responding to (hopefully) numerous civil actions ought to bleed'em considerably.
A good lawyer ought to introduce himself to Lance (for business purposes!)
posted by Anonymous, at
6/06/2006 12:06 PM
From the peoplecanchange.com website you linked to:
"Today, 25 years later, if God were to bring me the best looking man in the world, and say, "Here, you can do whatever you want with him." My response would be, "No thank you, I'm not interested." When I look back and consider what might have been, compared to what my life is today, I can barely contain my gratitude.
--Alan Medinger, Maryland, 2000"
Having attended a few meetings of Mr. Medinger's group "Regeneration" in the mid-1990's (don't ask!), I distinctly recall him saying that his desire for men hadn't left him completely, contrary to what he writes and says on the record. Fine with me, but why pretend otherwise for the public? (That question was rhetorical.) Hasn't he heard of "Thou shalt not lie"?
posted by Anonymous, at
6/06/2006 12:46 PM
In an interview with Medinger I heard him say that his attraction to men had three components...I think they were "sexual", "emotional" and "identity".
He said when he accepted Christ to be in charge of his life the "sexual" component immediately left. He seemed dead serious about that.
However, he said it took him years to lose the other two. He said that for the longest time he still craved just to sit next to a man at a church meeting whose arm was draped lengthwise along a pew, just to feel the man's arm around his shoulder.
Medinger seemed to imply that it was good that it took him a long time to lose the other two "components", because there were things he felt God was needing to teach him and lead him through.
posted by Anonymous, at
6/06/2006 3:40 PM
BTW, the radio interview I heard with Medinger was in, I believe, 2004, so indeed it's not surprising given what he said that he might have had some remaining emotional/identity attraction (as he put it) then. The way he talks now said remaining attractions are gone.
posted by Anonymous, at
6/06/2006 3:42 PM
im gay miself lol i realy dont think tha it is wright to send people to sumer camp p.s ur realy cute marcel1414@hotmail.com
posted by Anonymous, at
7/02/2008 11:54 PM
