Sunday, June 12, 2005

Holy Shit

Some of you may have seen this around. It's a blog by a kid in Tennessee who recently told his parents that he was gay. So, mom and dad put him into a "fundamentalist christian program for gays" for some re-educatin'. Essentially, the program sounds like a lot of other "tough love" programs wherein self-centered parents get to treat their child like slaves as "therapy". Apparently, it's a lot of people yelling at him, then therapy, work, therapy, work, work, and regular visits wherein his parents berate him for three days. Now, maybe he'll get his own Pepsi!

So, the kid found the list of rules that the program had emailed to his parents and posted them to his blog. By now, they're all over cybersapce!

The rules to the place are both amusing and ominous.
"Phase 1 clients are restricted from television-viewing, internet access, secular media, or reading of any kind without specific permission. Clients may not enter any non-Christian bookstores."
"Clients are expected to avoid peer-to-peer physical touch. Brief handshakes or a brief affirmative hand on a shoulder is allowed."
"On-level clients may not speak to each other unless there is a potentially life-threatening emergency.
2. On-level clients are to spend no time alone with each other.
3. On-level clients are not allowed to ride in the same car unless C.O.C. permission has been granted, in which case, one must sit in the front of the car, and one must sit in the back of the car."

But, the thing is, the list goes on and on and on. These people make EST groups look chill.

"LIA wants to encourage each client, male and female, by affirming his/her gender identity. LIA also wants each client to pursue integrity in all of his/her actions and appearances. Therefore, any belongings, appearances, clothing, actions, or humor that might connect a client to an inappropriate past are excluded from the program. These hindrances are called False Images (FI¹s). FI behavior may include hyper-masculinity, seductive clothing, mannish/boyish attire (on women), excessive jewelry (on men), mascoting, and "campy" or gay/lesbian behavior and talk."

As if Jesus wasn't all about mascoting! Yeesh! And as if a place as well-decorated as Heaven is all hetero!

I think this is the new generation gap. I don't know anyone my age who hates gays like middle aged people do. It's as if (get this!) we're just not that interested in what other people do with their privates! Crazy, I know. Also, so many of us are just sick to death of homphobes. Check out how many teenagers are rallying for this kid. Actually, just check out how many people are rallying for the kid. It's enough to make your day. Hopefully, it'll make his.

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