short notes:
will brady's ruminations
will brady's ruminations
2005-06-23
WATERCOLOR
Leaving Belize
The IFoBsite is still new | So you can bookmark it now and come back to check on its progress |
Leaving BelizeOne day soon you may see this image gracing one of the pages of the International Friends of Belize, an association of former Peace Corp Volunteers now joined together to continue their support of the Central American nation |
As a British colony Belize was made of up pirates, lumbermen and slaves | There was assimilation with neighboring Mexican, Indian and Spanish populations | The original inhabitants of Belize were Pre-ceramic hunters and gatherers | The Maya Indians had populated the area from around 2000 BC, through the Spanish Conquest in the 1500s and beyond | With more than 600 Maya cities, Belize is the center of the ancient Maya world |
In the nation's interior can be found an unspoiled world of lush tropical rain forests | There are a colorful range of animal and plant populations, as well as limestone caves, scenic rivers and Maya temples | Belize is home to the world's only jaguar preserve, and the prehistoric tapir, the howler monkey and gentle manatee co-exist in protected wilderness environments | for more info see Belize.net |
As a British colony Belize was made of up pirates, lumbermen and slaves | There was assimilation with neighboring Mexican, Indian and Spanish populations | The original inhabitants of Belize were Pre-ceramic hunters and gatherers | The Maya Indians had populated the area from around 2000 BC, through the Spanish Conquest in the 1500s and beyond | With more than 600 Maya cities, Belize is the center of the ancient Maya world |
In the nation's interior can be found an unspoiled world of lush tropical rain forests | There are a colorful range of animal and plant populations, as well as limestone caves, scenic rivers and Maya temples | Belize is home to the world's only jaguar preserve, and the prehistoric tapir, the howler monkey and gentle manatee co-exist in protected wilderness environments | for more info see Belize.net |
The IFoBsite is still new | So you can bookmark it now and come back to check on its progress |
ABOUT THE IMAGE: The image was born on a trip to Belize during hurricane season 2002 | You are looking at the night lights of Belize City as the ship I was on carried me away | Would that I could return one day with lots of time, and the proper resources, to do nothing but paint that beautiful place |
¶ 02:40 0 comments
2005-06-22
LEGISLATION | HUNTING/FISHING
Robert Crook, of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, summarizes changes in Connecticut Laws that affect hunters, fishing enthusiasts, boaters and sportsmen in general | Here's a short list:
Robert Crook, of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, summarizes changes in Connecticut Laws that affect hunters, fishing enthusiasts, boaters and sportsmen in general | Here's a short list:
While efforts failed to extend Sunday hunting private lands with the written permission of the landowner or allowing for bow hunting on municipally owned land on Sundays, the Connecticut State DEP endorsed Sunday hunting as a needed management tool for the first time in 2005, and reports that it will be priority legislation next year | ¶ 09:48 0 comments• extends the fall turkey hunting season
• allows for trapping of coyotes
• establishes a “Bonus Buck” program that allows sportsmen who check three antlerless deer to obtain an either-sex tag for use in the same season
• clarifies the non-toxic shot regulations according to federal standards
• The purchase of .50 caliber firearms remains legal; target shooters and hunters sporting may still purchase longguns [rifles/shotguns] without going through a registration process
• Noisy boaters will have to face stiffer penalties if they refuse to submit to a motorboat sound test
• People with suspended or revoked safe boating certificates are prohibited from operating motor boats
• New penalties are established for evading law enforcement officers while driving a boat.
TRADING CARDS
Antarctica | When searching recently for info on Cigarette Trading Cards I came across a wealth of documented and archived material on all sorts of trading cards | One area in particular, Antarctica commemoratives volume 1 and volume 2, struck my interest | Here's a few of the finds:
L G E Oates | Astrolabe
Ernest Shackleton | La Grande Nuit Polaire | The Discovery
Anarctic Weather Station | Vivian Fuchs
These finds were all posted [along with more than 100 additional images, at fairly good resolution and ~ regrettably ~ larger file sizes] at Antarctic Circle, a non-commercial forum and resource on historical, literary, bibliographical, artistic and cultural aspects of Antarctica and the South Polar regions | The "Antarctic Circle" is, itself, an informal international group of scholars and knowledgeable amateurs interested or involved in non-scientific Antarctic studies | I'll be certain to return |
Antarctica | When searching recently for info on Cigarette Trading Cards I came across a wealth of documented and archived material on all sorts of trading cards | One area in particular, Antarctica commemoratives volume 1 and volume 2, struck my interest | Here's a few of the finds:
L G E Oates | Astrolabe
Ernest Shackleton | La Grande Nuit Polaire | The Discovery
Anarctic Weather Station | Vivian Fuchs
FOR MORE ON TRADING CARDS SEE: Steve Talbot's Trading Cards, The London Cigarette Card Company or Collector Cafe |
¶ 06:00 0 comments
NEURAL NETWORKS
The Neurology of metaphor was something that Kathryn Cramer took interest in researching recently, and she came up with a number of interesting abstracts |
One, on mental illness, struck my interest in particular | Mental Illness as the Unicorn, noted on PubMed questions "...that unwanted, hard-to-understand behavior constitutes true medical illness..." | The full abstract reads:
Don't misunderstand this, please | I don't fully subscribe to the "...no such thing as mental illness..." point of view [though I've got more respect for Thomas Szasz, more so than I do for the forced treatment proponents Sally Satel or E Fuller Torrey] But I do believe that psychiatry works harder at mystifying what they do not themselves understand, than they do to find out answers, so as to appear to be more learned than they actually are |
Tomorrow I'll have to ask the hospital's librarians to get the whole article for me to read | ¶ 02:26 0 comments
The Neurology of metaphor was something that Kathryn Cramer took interest in researching recently, and she came up with a number of interesting abstracts |One, on mental illness, struck my interest in particular | Mental Illness as the Unicorn, noted on PubMed questions "...that unwanted, hard-to-understand behavior constitutes true medical illness..." | The full abstract reads:
Basic research, particularly into the psychological and neurological underpinnings of schizophrenia and other "mental illnesses," is flawed because of its adherence to the ideology that unwanted, hard-to-understand behavior constitutes true medical illness. It is argued here that psychiatric diagnostic terms represent moral judgments rather than medical entities. By reducing experimental subjects to a moral label, and assuming that neurological differences associated with unwanted behavior are brain diseases, researchers fail to take into account the conscious experience, organization of self and self-image, patterns of motivation, history and social contexts of their patients. The failure to consider the psychology of their subjects renders the results of these studies ambiguous and irrelevant for any uses except bolstering the biomedical model of psychiatry.I'm doubly intrigued that the abstract's author identifies him only as "Simon L" | In the supposedly protective environment of mental health facilities, great lengths are sometimes take to shield the patient/victim, including the practice of omitting full details on a person's identity | Looked at from another perspective, if the client wants full recognition of their own personhood, this kind of limitation on identity plays into the public's negative perceptions about folks experiencing profound psychic/perceptual/cognitive/spiritual discontinities so jarring as to be characterized as "mental illnesses" |
Don't misunderstand this, please | I don't fully subscribe to the "...no such thing as mental illness..." point of view [though I've got more respect for Thomas Szasz, more so than I do for the forced treatment proponents Sally Satel or E Fuller Torrey] But I do believe that psychiatry works harder at mystifying what they do not themselves understand, than they do to find out answers, so as to appear to be more learned than they actually are |
Tomorrow I'll have to ask the hospital's librarians to get the whole article for me to read | ¶ 02:26 0 comments
PHOTOGRAPHY | INSECTS
pix: © 2005 Rick Lieder
Bug Dreams is awash in hard edged luminescent pastel colors as the site's author/photographer works, seemingly without effort, to bring to the viewer the world of insects upclose and personal |
This kind of macrophotography project would have me stymied | I'd be wavering the camera too much, missing the detail and shooting the inconsequential |
Yet this man's effort to bring us into intimate contact with a race of beings that "...are everywhere: around us, beside us, beneath us, busy in their small, secret world..." succeeds admirably | I can only look in wonder | His larger than life-sized images pull you into their oft unseen realm | See for yourself | ¶ 01:05 1 comments
pix: © 2005 Rick LiederBug Dreams is awash in hard edged luminescent pastel colors as the site's author/photographer works, seemingly without effort, to bring to the viewer the world of insects upclose and personal |
This kind of macrophotography project would have me stymied | I'd be wavering the camera too much, missing the detail and shooting the inconsequential |
Yet this man's effort to bring us into intimate contact with a race of beings that "...are everywhere: around us, beside us, beneath us, busy in their small, secret world..." succeeds admirably | I can only look in wonder | His larger than life-sized images pull you into their oft unseen realm | See for yourself | ¶ 01:05 1 comments
2005-06-21
ANNUAL SHAD BAKE
Moodus Sportsman's Club's yearly summer feast is this weekend | Sunday 26 June 2005 | The event starts at noon |
Fresh boned shad baked on maple planks over an open pit fire |
If you think shad is not to your liking, there's fresh shucked clams, roasted chicken, game stew, chowder, ...hot dogs for the kids ...beer for the grownups | Oh! ...and enjoy a game of horseshoes, too!
native Connecticut tribes and became an important commercial resource for European colonials | Shad meat and roe were eaten fresh locally or sold in the United States and Europe | Exported shad were generally salted and packed in barrels | At the club's Shad Bake they are carefully baked and served fresh and hot |
Incidentally, this year is a lean year for shad | Shad migrating up the Connecticut River to spawn this spring is likely to be the smallest run in three decades | You are getting a bargain at the price |
Finally, here's a set of maps on how to get there | ¶ 08:27 0 comments
Moodus Sportsman's Club's yearly summer feast is this weekend | Sunday 26 June 2005 | The event starts at noon | Fresh boned shad baked on maple planks over an open pit fire |
If you think shad is not to your liking, there's fresh shucked clams, roasted chicken, game stew, chowder, ...hot dogs for the kids ...beer for the grownups | Oh! ...and enjoy a game of horseshoes, too!Shad fishing has a long history in Connecticut | They were an important food source forI've still got tickets |
Adults $15
Kids under 12 $ 5
e-mail me will.brady@gmail.com
native Connecticut tribes and became an important commercial resource for European colonials | Shad meat and roe were eaten fresh locally or sold in the United States and Europe | Exported shad were generally salted and packed in barrels | At the club's Shad Bake they are carefully baked and served fresh and hot |Incidentally, this year is a lean year for shad | Shad migrating up the Connecticut River to spawn this spring is likely to be the smallest run in three decades | You are getting a bargain at the price |
Finally, here's a set of maps on how to get there | ¶ 08:27 0 comments
BIKE TRIP
Matt and Dave have split up, temporarily | Dave began feeling sick on Saturday ending up at a hospital on iv tubes due to dehydration |
The two intrepid riders did manage to come close to visiting The Natural Bridge in Virginia | Dave commented, "What a strange strip of tourist attractions...a wax museum, a zoo, a haunted mansion, and the bridge. We arrived at the bridge and decided to take a look, however, it was a tourist trap and required money so we bagged it"
But for now, it's Matt camping solo in the Troutville town park, riding through rolling hills and rough roads to Blacksburg cutting the book's route short in order to converge with Dave and his cousin Steve at Virginia Tech |
More as the trek continues | ¶ 08:13 0 comments
Matt and Dave have split up, temporarily | Dave began feeling sick on Saturday ending up at a hospital on iv tubes due to dehydration | The two intrepid riders did manage to come close to visiting The Natural Bridge in Virginia | Dave commented, "What a strange strip of tourist attractions...a wax museum, a zoo, a haunted mansion, and the bridge. We arrived at the bridge and decided to take a look, however, it was a tourist trap and required money so we bagged it"
But for now, it's Matt camping solo in the Troutville town park, riding through rolling hills and rough roads to Blacksburg cutting the book's route short in order to converge with Dave and his cousin Steve at Virginia Tech |
More as the trek continues | ¶ 08:13 0 comments
2005-06-20
DEFINING INDIGENCE
Correctional facilities have some odd ways of defining who is poor | Massachusetts: "The institutional Treasurer shall denote indigent inmates which is defined pursuant to 103 C.M.R. 405.18 as one who has had less that [sic] ten dollars in his/her account for the preceding sixty days prior to the date of collection"
There's more to this story... as time goes along ¶ 23:35 0 comments
Correctional facilities have some odd ways of defining who is poor | Massachusetts: "The institutional Treasurer shall denote indigent inmates which is defined pursuant to 103 C.M.R. 405.18 as one who has had less that [sic] ten dollars in his/her account for the preceding sixty days prior to the date of collection"
Here's what an indigent Massachusetts inmate can have [not that he'll get it]In Connecticut, so I'm told, an inmate seeking DOC documents through Freedom of Information [FOI] request is automatically taken off the "indigents" list |
If a request for clothing is approved, the inmate may receive scrubs, and two pairs of the canvas footwear in a six month period. Thermal underwear is issued only to outside workers. If a request for personal hygiene supplies is approved, the inmate may receive two bars of soap per month, two disposable razors per month, two tubes of toothpaste per month and one toothbrush per quarter. Indigent inmates may mail three personal letter per week free of charge. No inmate receives deodorant, shampoo, shaving cream, tissues, aspirin, nonprescription cold remedies or writing materials. All of these items are, of course, available for purchase in the canteen. The record this establishes that inmates who do not qualify as indigent under the DOC standard receive some, but not all, necessary clothing free of charge and do not receive any of the supplies which are necessary to maintain a basic standard of personal hygiene. |
There's more to this story... as time goes along ¶ 23:35 0 comments
G-8 SUMMIT
The rooms are probably already booked [not that most could afford them] and the G-8 Summit will be held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland from 6-8 July | It's left to be seen how many global peasants can make it to the locale to protest the dealings at one very public, on the other hand quite secret doings of the Noble Caste of the Industrialized nations | The news media already have told us that Tony Blair wants debt relief for Africa and that Bushco has been successful in dumbing down standards combatting global climate change |
Protesters have been organized, Dissent.org perhaps one of the better known | Lets hope the Nottingham Sherriff's bunch aren't amped up ahead of time |
The rooms are probably already booked [not that most could afford them] and the G-8 Summit will be held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland from 6-8 July | It's left to be seen how many global peasants can make it to the locale to protest the dealings at one very public, on the other hand quite secret doings of the Noble Caste of the Industrialized nations | The news media already have told us that Tony Blair wants debt relief for Africa and that Bushco has been successful in dumbing down standards combatting global climate change | Protesters have been organized, Dissent.org perhaps one of the better known | Lets hope the Nottingham Sherriff's bunch aren't amped up ahead of time |
Thanks to: Commonman's Blog |
¶ 21:59 0 comments
THE FUTURE OF NEWS
Want to know how information will be offered in the future? | epic is one possible option | Grim in my estimation | Gives one something to think about.
Ostensibly an entry from the Museum of Media History | Found or pointed to by Corrente and Kottke |
Want to know how information will be offered in the future? | epic is one possible option | Grim in my estimation | Gives one something to think about.Ostensibly an entry from the Museum of Media History | Found or pointed to by Corrente and Kottke |
Not to be mistaken for the Media History Project |
¶ 20:47 0 comments
NEWS BLIP
Jesse Helms regrets where he stood on AIDS funding | "I was wrong," he said in an upcoming book about his outspoken opposition to laws that provided AIDS funding during his tenure in the United States Senate |
In the new memoir, “Here’s Where I Stand,” due out Aug. 30, the 83-year-old Republican who retired in 2003 after five terms, explains that his thoughts on the AIDS epidemic began to evolve during his final years in office |
“It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong,” he writes in the new book | Says Helms now, “I know of no more heartbreaking tragedy in the world today than the loss of so many young people to a virus that could be stopped if we simply provide more resources” | In an editorial he wrote for the Washington Post three years ago, Helms asked for an additional $500 million in aid money to help initiate preventative care in Africa |
Helms' statements against AIDS, people who have contracted it, and of gay people in general are nothing new | Indeed, his bigoted opinions on many subjects, including race, integration, public funding for the arts, social justice and other topics, are well documented | Why change his opinion now, just before the release of a new book? Some sort of marketing ploy? Oh, maybe I'm just too cynical |
Jesse Helms regrets where he stood on AIDS funding | "I was wrong," he said in an upcoming book about his outspoken opposition to laws that provided AIDS funding during his tenure in the United States Senate |In the new memoir, “Here’s Where I Stand,” due out Aug. 30, the 83-year-old Republican who retired in 2003 after five terms, explains that his thoughts on the AIDS epidemic began to evolve during his final years in office |
“It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong,” he writes in the new book | Says Helms now, “I know of no more heartbreaking tragedy in the world today than the loss of so many young people to a virus that could be stopped if we simply provide more resources” | In an editorial he wrote for the Washington Post three years ago, Helms asked for an additional $500 million in aid money to help initiate preventative care in Africa |
Helms' statements against AIDS, people who have contracted it, and of gay people in general are nothing new | Indeed, his bigoted opinions on many subjects, including race, integration, public funding for the arts, social justice and other topics, are well documented | Why change his opinion now, just before the release of a new book? Some sort of marketing ploy? Oh, maybe I'm just too cynical |
SOURCE: Washington Blade |
¶ 10:49 0 comments
SPORT | HURLING
According to Lonely Planet Hurling is "...a mad kind of aerial hockey invented to make the English feel embarrassed about tiggy-touchwood soccer. If you haven't had the twisted pleasure of seeing this example of man's inhumanity to man, head to the Emerald Isle - but keep your head down." | The game moves too fast for the novice to understand anything but the most basic rules, but you can start by imagining an egg-and-spoon race with a pack of enormous angry stick-wielding roosters charging the leader | The Gaelic Athletic Association says of hurling that it is the oldest of Irish sports and dates from pre-Christian times | Standardised rules never existed until the GAA was formed in 1884 | It is the third most popular sport in Ireland (soccer is 2nd) and is played by approximately 100,000 Irish people.|
Soccer/Football and Rugby aredifferent from Hurling | Hurling is similar to lacrosse or hockey. It's played on a large pitch with a curved wooden stick (or "hurley") and a small ball (or "sliothar") | It's one of the fastest games afield, and it's not for the faint of heart | Bodies bang, the ball is as hard as a baseball, and the sticks are made of solid ash |
Aggressive, physical and potentially violent, hurling
raised passions so high that, at times and in some locations, hurling was banned |
It has some popularity in the USA in Wisconsin, where the Milwaukee Hurling Club has successfully assembled a league of 10 teams |
What got me started on all this was that Bruce found a complete set of Wills Cigarette trading cards from the 1920s devoted exclusively to hurling stars of the day | And, in case you are wondering, yes, I know that the pix to the right is not of huring but of football ["soccer' for you Yanks] It's there to give an idea of the trading cards that Bruce found | A complete set, incidentally |
According to Lonely Planet Hurling is "...a mad kind of aerial hockey invented to make the English feel embarrassed about tiggy-touchwood soccer. If you haven't had the twisted pleasure of seeing this example of man's inhumanity to man, head to the Emerald Isle - but keep your head down." | The game moves too fast for the novice to understand anything but the most basic rules, but you can start by imagining an egg-and-spoon race with a pack of enormous angry stick-wielding roosters charging the leader | The Gaelic Athletic Association says of hurling that it is the oldest of Irish sports and dates from pre-Christian times | Standardised rules never existed until the GAA was formed in 1884 | It is the third most popular sport in Ireland (soccer is 2nd) and is played by approximately 100,000 Irish people.|Soccer/Football and Rugby aredifferent from Hurling | Hurling is similar to lacrosse or hockey. It's played on a large pitch with a curved wooden stick (or "hurley") and a small ball (or "sliothar") | It's one of the fastest games afield, and it's not for the faint of heart | Bodies bang, the ball is as hard as a baseball, and the sticks are made of solid ash |
Aggressive, physical and potentially violent, hurling
raised passions so high that, at times and in some locations, hurling was banned |It has some popularity in the USA in Wisconsin, where the Milwaukee Hurling Club has successfully assembled a league of 10 teams |
What got me started on all this was that Bruce found a complete set of Wills Cigarette trading cards from the 1920s devoted exclusively to hurling stars of the day | And, in case you are wondering, yes, I know that the pix to the right is not of huring but of football ["soccer' for you Yanks] It's there to give an idea of the trading cards that Bruce found | A complete set, incidentally |
OTHER HURLING SITES: Lonely Planet's Hurling Details, University of Dublin Department of Sport [look for "Clubs" and "Hurling"], and Gaelic Games|
¶ 10:11 0 comments
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE | CHILD ABUSE
Angrily calling a kid a "faggot" is verbal abuse | Essentially, this is what Zach's Blog describes in his distress about what his biological family has done to him | Oh, they might not have used the exact word, but you can be sure the sentiment was there | For it is intent of his family to humiliate, embarass, shame Zach into "changing" into whatever it is they feel comfortable with [presumed heterosexual], not to help him cope with what, or how, he finds himself to be [self-identified as gay]
To people who are unfamiliar with Zach's story, Zach is 16. Zach's blog is where he chronicled what life is like in the closet at 16 | Zach came out to his parents after much debate on his blog |
Zach's parents' response to coming out [at age 16] was to have him placed in an "reparative therapy" institution [ironically named Love in Action and run by an "ex-gay" man, John Smid who [according to LIA's website "...left his homosexual lifestyle in 1984"] LIA purports to be a ministry dedicated to combating "Satanist practices" but seems focus primarily on working with people who identify as gay | His parents whisked him away to this "ex-gay" camp, against his will | As of 6 June 2005 Zach was scheduled to be entered into LIA's "Refuge" Program | Zach remained ambivalent about this at best | He is not 'choosing' an ex-gay life, it is being forced upon him | The "Refuge Center" has already asked him this:
Attendance in the program does not comes free | People in the "Refuge" program pay for the Refuge 2-Week Program $2,000 and $4,500 for the six week extension program | Applicants, [or, in Zach's case, his parents consent] must fill out a detailed entry form before being accepted into the program that asks a wide range of information about you [typical of an inpatient program, I'll give it that] and applicants are required to sign off on a liability disclaimer that seems particularly curious, holding harmless the program in the event of "any risks attendant thereto" by taking part in the Refuge experience ...I'm wondering if this applies to suicide attempts while enrolled | The disclaimer reads as follows:I've got to wonder about any program that exempts its staff from legal action as a result of being in some form of therapy | This would not be allowed in a certified mental health program, why would this be the case in one claiming to be based on spiritual principles | Again, I wonder, has anyone who has "graduated" from the LIA program committed suicide afterwards? | Frankly I wouldn't be surprised though I wonder who keeps the statistics on organizations such as this one |
I suppose I was fortunate that coercive treatment centers such as these were not as easy to locate when I was a kid | Sure, I was in a "home for emotionally disturbed children" [the parlance of the day], run by a large, Christain evangelical religious organization where, ironically, at the age of 9, I first learned about sex acts and male-male sex contact in particular | I spent time attending some sort of counseling when I was an adolescent at "bad boys school" [street parlance] again, sex was ~if not prevalent~ certainly readily available | Seems to me that only the focus has changed for Zach | Instead of the "counselors" casually joking about "fudge packers" [the bad boys school, is that a technical term?] we have a place run by a man, John Smid, avowed ex-gay, obsessed with his own sexual demons and claiming to "cure" gay kids of their sexual orientation | That, too, is child abuse | It is none other than Psychological warfare on impressionable children ...and what, exactly are the anti-gay faux-religicos accusing gay people of doing? Recruiting is it?
There have been protesters concerned for Zach's well-being outside the Refuge Center and they won't go away until Zach gets to speak |
My prayers are going for Zach to get through this in one piece and not too damaged either psychologically or spiritually | Most likely, when it's over, Zach [and others like him] will have to learn what it takes to survive the ex-gay movement |
Pix Rev. John Smid from a televised news conference 6/19/05
Angrily calling a kid a "faggot" is verbal abuse | Essentially, this is what Zach's Blog describes in his distress about what his biological family has done to him | Oh, they might not have used the exact word, but you can be sure the sentiment was there | For it is intent of his family to humiliate, embarass, shame Zach into "changing" into whatever it is they feel comfortable with [presumed heterosexual], not to help him cope with what, or how, he finds himself to be [self-identified as gay]To people who are unfamiliar with Zach's story, Zach is 16. Zach's blog is where he chronicled what life is like in the closet at 16 | Zach came out to his parents after much debate on his blog |
Zach's parents' response to coming out [at age 16] was to have him placed in an "reparative therapy" institution [ironically named Love in Action and run by an "ex-gay" man, John Smid who [according to LIA's website "...left his homosexual lifestyle in 1984"] LIA purports to be a ministry dedicated to combating "Satanist practices" but seems focus primarily on working with people who identify as gay | His parents whisked him away to this "ex-gay" camp, against his will | As of 6 June 2005 Zach was scheduled to be entered into LIA's "Refuge" Program | Zach remained ambivalent about this at best | He is not 'choosing' an ex-gay life, it is being forced upon him | The "Refuge Center" has already asked him this:
I am aware that this program is not a substitute for psychiatric treatment, psychotherapy, or professional therapeutic counseling.
I am voluntarily participating in the activities of Refuge with full knowledge of the facts stated herein, and I hereby agree to accept complete responsibility for my own psychological, mental, and emotional well-being, as well as any and all risks attendant thereto.
As consideration for being permitted by Refuge, or one of its affiliated organizations, to participate in their activities, I hereby agree that I, my heirs, assigns, guardians, administrators, executors, legal representatives, and the like will not make any claim against, sue, or seek to attach the property of Refuge, or any of its affiliated organizations, as a result of these activities or the negligence, or other acts, of any nature whatsoever, however caused, by any employee, agent, officer, director, participant, or any other person or entity that might be claimed to be liable to me as a result of my participation in this program.
I suppose I was fortunate that coercive treatment centers such as these were not as easy to locate when I was a kid | Sure, I was in a "home for emotionally disturbed children" [the parlance of the day], run by a large, Christain evangelical religious organization where, ironically, at the age of 9, I first learned about sex acts and male-male sex contact in particular | I spent time attending some sort of counseling when I was an adolescent at "bad boys school" [street parlance] again, sex was ~if not prevalent~ certainly readily available | Seems to me that only the focus has changed for Zach | Instead of the "counselors" casually joking about "fudge packers" [the bad boys school, is that a technical term?] we have a place run by a man, John Smid, avowed ex-gay, obsessed with his own sexual demons and claiming to "cure" gay kids of their sexual orientation | That, too, is child abuse | It is none other than Psychological warfare on impressionable children ...and what, exactly are the anti-gay faux-religicos accusing gay people of doing? Recruiting is it?
There have been protesters concerned for Zach's well-being outside the Refuge Center and they won't go away until Zach gets to speak |
My prayers are going for Zach to get through this in one piece and not too damaged either psychologically or spiritually | Most likely, when it's over, Zach [and others like him] will have to learn what it takes to survive the ex-gay movement |
THANKS TO: Southern Voice, ATypical Joe, Washington Blade and Bruce Garrett who already bright the subject to blogospere attention | Thanks, also, to Steve S for his observations and comments stressing the importance of giving readers some more preliminary detail about Zach and his plight |
¶ 08:03 0 comments
