A Stitch in Haste

Remember "Zach," the gay teenager whose parents committed him, against his will, to an unlicensed Christian "reparative therapy" facility with the obnoxious name "Love in Action," where the reported practices were so outrageous that some thought the whole story a hoax?

It was no hoax, as state officials proved when they investigated and reprimanded the facilities and its unlicensed "therapists."

"Zach" was eventually released from "Love in Action" and faded into a well-deserved private life (but his MySpace page, which sparked the whole controversy, is still available).

Now another youth, admitted the same day as Zach, is also free of involuntary confinement and is speaking out:

Lance Carroll, now 18, entered the program the same day as Zach did ... and remained in the program for two months ... just as Zach did...

"In January of 2005, I came out to my parents as being gay. After an initial positive and supporting reaction they began to change their minds. They had me see three separate counselors, the last of which was a Christian counselor in St. Louis who worked for a fundamentalist, evangelical church. He told me that I wasn't really gay, in fact no one was "really" gay. He tried to convince me that the whole idea of homosexual orientation is a lie, and that I felt the way I did because of some sort of early emotional/psychological deficiency. This counselor recommended Love in Action to my parents.
...
while I was there, it just seemed to make people more depressed and self-loathing than they already were. I, myself, went through several of these depressive periods.

Reparative therapy is not only a fraud but a dangerous, cruel and inhumane fraud. To subject a minor to such treatments is per se child abuse and must never be tolerated.

Parents have a right -- up to a point -- to raise their children as they see fit, but that does not extend to a right to scar them for life.

More thoughts at Ex-Gay Watch, Wayne Besen.