(no subject)
Riot Youth was awesome. I don't know how many of you have seen But I'm a Cheerleader, but the movie was loosely based on a true story, and the woman whose story it was based upon came in to talk to us today about her experience and the issue of "ex-gay" programs. (Her name is actually "Athena", but went as the alias "Lyn" before she came out publicly.)
It was really interesting, and really scary. She kept apologizing for making our meeting "kind of depressing", but I was honestly too appalled to be depressed. We watched the tape of the story about her on 20/20, from when Barbara Walters was an anchor there.
It was...wow. Eye-opening and horrifying. Athena told us that her mother and grandparents kidnapped her in order to get her to the "school" they were forcing her to attend to "cure" her of her homosexuality. At the time, the center was run by the nephew of the leader-president-man of the Mormon Church, and much of the curriculum had strong religious overtones. If you've seen But I'm a Cheerleader, you probably recall all the over-the-top things the teenagers were made to do in order to "turn them straight". The movie may be a comedy, but as far the heterosexualizing activities go, very little artistic license was taken. These are things that these centers actually do. They also used shock therapy. And according to Athena, these things STILL happen. It isn't as easy for parents to lock their kids up in these places against the kid's will, but it can still happen.
You'd think that in this day and age, there would be some sort of law that would prevent this from happening. Sadly, there are dozens of loopholes that are used to get around what little weak legislation exists against this sort of thing. It's really scary, and there's so little information about it that it's hard to truly fight against it. Organizations perpetrating this can easily get away with what they're doing because of all the ambiguity surrounding the subject.
It was really interesting, and really scary. She kept apologizing for making our meeting "kind of depressing", but I was honestly too appalled to be depressed. We watched the tape of the story about her on 20/20, from when Barbara Walters was an anchor there.
It was...wow. Eye-opening and horrifying. Athena told us that her mother and grandparents kidnapped her in order to get her to the "school" they were forcing her to attend to "cure" her of her homosexuality. At the time, the center was run by the nephew of the leader-president-man of the Mormon Church, and much of the curriculum had strong religious overtones. If you've seen But I'm a Cheerleader, you probably recall all the over-the-top things the teenagers were made to do in order to "turn them straight". The movie may be a comedy, but as far the heterosexualizing activities go, very little artistic license was taken. These are things that these centers actually do. They also used shock therapy. And according to Athena, these things STILL happen. It isn't as easy for parents to lock their kids up in these places against the kid's will, but it can still happen.
You'd think that in this day and age, there would be some sort of law that would prevent this from happening. Sadly, there are dozens of loopholes that are used to get around what little weak legislation exists against this sort of thing. It's really scary, and there's so little information about it that it's hard to truly fight against it. Organizations perpetrating this can easily get away with what they're doing because of all the ambiguity surrounding the subject.