Tuesday, August 30, 2011

New Documentary Focuses on Ex-Gay Ministry Love in Action



I don't know if any readers of this blog followed the case of Zach Stark back in 2005, when his parents sent him to the ex-gay Love in Action program in Memphis.  Zach became something of a celebrity at that time, when he posted a plea for help on his MySpace site and protestors began to gather daily at the Love in Action facility to monitor what was happening to Zach and other teens enrolled in the LIA program.  The national media became interested in the story, and a brief national conversation about the desirability of placing teens in programs designed to "cure" them of homosexuality ensued.


Now, as Daniel Gonzales reports at Box Turtle Bulletin, Memphis filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox has made a documentary about the Zach Stark story, and the film, "This Is What Love in Action Looks Like," is making the rounds of film circuits.  Not sure if I'll have a chance to see it anytime soon, but it sounds very worthwhile.

And as this piece appears at Box Turtle, it nudges me to issue a reminder of how wonderful Quaker activist Peterson Toscano's A Musing blog is.  A Musing appears in the list of blogs I recommend here. Peterson is himself a veteran of one of more ex-gay programs, and if I remember correctly, actually went through the Love in Action program.

I find what he has to say about ex-gay ministries eminently wise and sane, seasoned with gentle, and sometimes delightfully wry, Quaker humor. 

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