Brainwashing Lives

Majikthise posts a disturbing entry on her blog about Zack. He is a 16 year old living in Tennessee who recently came out to his parents as gay. Their reaction has not been one of support, but to send him to a place called Refuge, a Christian programme centre that promises to turn gay children straight.

Zack’s own blog entries are pretty heart-rending, the one lifeline that he has had is his blog and the messages of support that he has been getting via the blogsphere. But against that is the physical fact of his parents and his current incarceration (I can think of no other term for it) in a brainwashing centre. The rules of Refuge make sad, sick reading.

I’ve said before that I feel fortunate to be living where and when I do. It is still disturbing to realise that the "where" is just as important as the "when". This may be the 21st Century, but some people in the USA are still living in the mindset of the 1690s – the days of the Salem witchtrials.