Zach Stark: At Least 35 Percent Chance of Gay

Andy Towle is all over the ongoing story of Zach Stark, who was forced by his parents into the "Love in Action" camp that seeks to make straighties out of gays through sexual alchemy or some sort of magical ju-ju.

Zach's brain is just now passing through the spin cycle and he is due to be released soon.  Towleroad covers a story by Good Morning America with interviews of two L.I.A. alums, Brandon Tidwell and Gerard Wellman.  Tidwell never really bought into the whole thing, while Wellman, who is apparently held out as something of a success, still admits an "attraction" to men but claims he has "guardrails" for his behavior.  (Didn't Grace Kelly have guardrails too? --ed.)

Most startling of all, the camp's founder claims only a 65 percent success rate, although Tidwell dismisses that number and says that past L.I.A. indoctrinees are not monitored.  (I can just see how they would be monitored: Some fundie wacko skulking outside the bushes of an alum's home, listening intently for the sound of two different baritone moans coming from inside ...)

RTWT

Comments

[V the K]

I have to count myself as a dissident on this subject, which I think makes me the only one in the entire gay universe. I don't agree with people being coerced into programs like Exodus, but if an individual makes a persona choice to try and change or deal with their orientation this way, I think they deserve support and not ridicule. We're not supposed to make fun of transsexuals who have their genitilia surgically mutilated into facsimiles of the opposite sex, so why is it okay to make fun of people who want to change or deal with their orientation this way?

[The Malcontent]

If people truly believe that such therapy can help them, fine, but Zach is there involuntarily, and it sure sounds like he is being brainwashed to anyone who has read his blog.

Individual choice is wonderful, but I think it is exactly the wrong tack for the Christian Right to take in expending so much energy on trying to convince people that they can change (when the evidence does not support it), instead of focusing on embracing people of all sexual orientations as created in God's image and perfect in His eyes.