I want to go rescue those kids and bring them to Mickey's for dancing and sodas.

After skimming over the rules, I wondered if that place was real or not. Sure enough, they have their own website and everything.

Edit: http://www.loveinaction.org

I wondered if that place was real or not

It sounds like several "youth therapy programs" that proliferate in the Utah area. The key is to isolate the kid, use some basic personality breakdown procedures, then rebuild the kid into something more "acceptable." A lot of the programs around here are wilderness "schools", taking city kids out on long jaunts in the desert and canyons and physically breaking them down until they cooperate. They've had some kids die on these things, and it took a while to catch the organizer of a couple of these programs because he'd change his name and the name of his company and start over. There are always families who say "I don't know what to do!" for whom accepting and loving their kid the way he is isn't an option.

That poor kid. Gah.

I hope he gets through it intact.

I've read about that all over my LJ. It's really disgusting.

Fucking appalling. Oh, that poor, brave, miserable kid, and his miserable parents, and the suffering they're inflicting on him out of their own terrible fear and incomprehension.

Though I'm also tearing up a bit at the unexpected goodness of so many of the people posting comments -- folks from all over the world sharing their own coming-out stories and offering coping strategies to get him through the week, all the offers to come break him out, and all the moms (huh, it does appear to be mostly moms) who tell him how proud they'd be of him if he were their son, and the one mom who asked for his parents' phone number so she could call them and share her story with them "because sometimes it takes a parent to get through to another parent."

LILY! cutiehead babycakes.

day before my last day and I was asked to work on some stuff, like specific things. yeah, ok, I'll get right on that.

whatever, dudes.

Sure enough, they have their own website and everything.

Crap. That website has no FAQ that I can find. Because I really want the answer to the question, "Why is 'Love in Action' so full of shit?"

So my car? Yeah, the one needing a new starter? They are gonna have to drop the transmission to replace the flywheel as well. Seems the old starter was shoving the ring of teeth off the wheel itself.

So. $1200. I didn't have heart to ask if that was on top of the $500 for just replacing the starter. I get past $1k and I stop noticing the hundreds till it hits $2k.

OTOH, my parents are paying for the rental and mom just made me cry by handing me a huge check.

Mind you, I can easily afford this. They know it too. It's weird. I'm torn between feeling like I'm taking advantage (which...not, but I'm wired that way) and just...damn. It's not so much the money as the frustration and ohfuckness of it. I need to do this for someone someday.

I'll have only put in $3k to this car (mostly maintenance- belts,tires, minor upkeep,and of course that clutch) over 5 years. Which really isn't bad.

It's just ANNOYING.

"Why is 'Love in Action' so full of shit?"

As a survivor of a Freak-Ass Church, I can tell you their answer without even needing to go to the Web site: because the "loving" thing to do to someone who is suffering from the sin of homosexuality is to help them break free of that sin.

Which is bullshit of the stinkiest variety, but there you are. They justify it in their own minds and in their own churches by viewing it as a loving thing -- if someone you love is deep in the clutches of SIN, the loving thing to do is to help them out of it.

It makes me so angry -- violently so, really -- that I can hardly see straight.

And also? This particular program is violating the participants' civil rights in a big bad and ugly way, and I hope that all the attention that this poor boy has drawn to the program gets them slapped with a big fat lawsuit. It doesn't matter that he's a minor; parents still cannot sign away their childrens' civil liberties.