Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Gay Teenager Stirs a Storm
In the article I just read "Gay Teenager Stirs a Storm" it’s about a young boy named Zach, 16, from Tennessee who openly admitted to his parents that he was gay. Unfortunately his parents didn’t take it so well. He sat down today with his mother and father and had a very long talk in his room, where they let him know that he was to apple for a fundamentalist Christian program for gays. Zach started to write blogs about his life and how his parents didn’t approve of his sexual orientation and how they are making him sign up for Love in Action, which is basically a Boot Camp to try and turn gay people into being straight again. It's like boot camp," Zach added in a dispatch the next day. "If I do come out straight, I'll be so mentally unstable and depressed it won't matter. Although Zach wrote only a handful of entries about the Refuge program, all posted before he arrived there in the Memphis suburbs on June 6, his words have been forwarded on the Internet over and over, inspiring online debates, news articles, sidewalk protests and an investigation into Love in Action by the Tennessee Department of Children's Services in response to a child abuse allegation. The investigation was dropped when the allegation proved unfounded, a spokeswoman for the agency said. Links to Zach's site bounced around the country. Mr. Friedman's Web page had so much traffic, "it blew my bandwidth," he said. Mr. Smid, too, was inundated with Internet traffic, much of it outraged at the attempts to change Zach's sexual orientation. To some, Zach, whose family name is not disclosed on his blog and has not appeared in news accounts, is the embodiment of gay adolescent vulnerability, pulled away from friends who accepted him by adults who do not. To others he is a boy whose confused and formative sexual identity is being exploited by gay political activists. There was people who wrote blogs about Zach’s entries saying that they had also been in the Love in Action program and how they felt like such prisoners because they weren’t allowed to wear any name brand clothes or shoes especially Excessive jewelry or stylish clothing from labels like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger are forbidden, and so is watching television, listening to secular music (even Bach) and reading unapproved books or magazines. In his last blog entry before beginning the program, at 2:33 a.m. on June 4, Zach wrote, "I pray this blows over," adding that if his parents caught him online he'd be in trouble. He described arguments he had been having with his parents, his mother in particular. "I can't take this," his post reads. "No one can. I'm not a suicidal person. I think it's stupid, really. But I can't help it - no I'm not going to commit suicide - all I can think about is killing my mother and myself. It's so horrible."
While Zach, as his blog recounted, only recently came out to his parents, many of his friends had known he was gay for more than a year, one classmate said. Zach openly identified himself as gay on his blog, which links to 213 friends' blogs listed in a Friend Space box on the site. Zach is due to leave the program next week. His June 4 message expressed thanks for the more than 1,700 messages on his page, many voicing support. "Don't worry," he wrote. "I'll get through this. They've promised me things will get better, whether this program does anything or not. Let's hope they're not lying."
While Zach, as his blog recounted, only recently came out to his parents, many of his friends had known he was gay for more than a year, one classmate said. Zach openly identified himself as gay on his blog, which links to 213 friends' blogs listed in a Friend Space box on the site. Zach is due to leave the program next week. His June 4 message expressed thanks for the more than 1,700 messages on his page, many voicing support. "Don't worry," he wrote. "I'll get through this. They've promised me things will get better, whether this program does anything or not. Let's hope they're not lying."
I don’t think people should be judged on what their orientation is whether it’s gay, lesbian or straight. I don’t think it was right for Zach’s parents to make him sign up for the Love in Action program because they should love him for what’s on the inside not for what’s on the outside and what he decides his sexual orientation should be. No program or group can change what you feel. It can’t just make you gay one day and then the next you automatically turn straight.
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A substantial post. A good summary of the material. Try to break up your content into shorter paragraphs. Also, add some analysis in addition to summary.
I agree with your conclusion, but that is not the point here. This is not a class on sexual orientation, it is about the digital revolution. What would have happened to Zach twenty years ago? Before blogs and social networking software? How has the digital revolution changed the way we grow up? Changed the process of sexual development? Exploded previously private family matters?
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I agree with your conclusion, but that is not the point here. This is not a class on sexual orientation, it is about the digital revolution. What would have happened to Zach twenty years ago? Before blogs and social networking software? How has the digital revolution changed the way we grow up? Changed the process of sexual development? Exploded previously private family matters?
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