Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I was asked to remove all identifying information about Zach. Now see, I just used his real name, but no last name. See, people cache web pages, so anyone who wants to find out his information can find that out if they really want, but I don’t think that anything that he had on his blog is likely to put him in any danger. I really don’t. And anyway, he hasn’t even been able to be online because he’s off where people are trying to get the gay out of him. It isn’t going to work, and we all know that, but his parents are a bit confused. They think they are helping. I’m sure their motivation is that they want to help him, but what they are doing isn’t helping.

Once again, I ask you to write him a supportive message. I logged on to the GMail account I created for him just now, and there are 43 messages there. I didn’t open the messages to read them, because they belong to Zach, but I can see the first line, and the messages look supportive. I want him to find hundreds of these messages from people who care: people who know that gay isn’t a choice, and people who know that being gay doesn’t mean your life is a waste. People who are gay themselves, or who have wonderful gay people in their lives. Just anyone who cares.

The address is zach.inbartlett@gmail.com. I hope you’ll use it.

For more info, keep checking here and here and here.

abbyladybug

aaronhurley

What the?!

Aaron has made some nifty changes in my sidebar, and I’d like to see what you think about them. Now, under the header "Archives," you see the words "Select Archive." If you hover over that, you will see all of my blog archives, month by month. It seems a little redundant to have the header almost exactly the same as what goes under the header. I was thinking that either the header itself should be what you hover over to see the archived months, but I worry that people won’t get that you are supposed to hover to see the archives. The other option is to have it say "Hover here to see all archived months" or some other directive, but Aaron is here saying he thinks it’s kind of lame when things say stuff like "Click here." Damn, I’ve been writing that for ages. The Category section has the same set of issues. What do you think would be the slickest? I’m aiming for the slickest blog EVER, and so I need your help, Dear Readers.

Thanks to our grassroots effort, Aaron Hurley has been freed! YAY! Although his captivity was so exhausting that he can’t drive here tonight because he’s too afraid he’ll fall asleep at the wheel. Poor boy. 🙁

He’ll be 3 1/2 days late, but he’s still coming to visit. I’m really happy about that because after this weekend, I won’t see him much at all until August. Yay for Aaron! 😀

I like him. DUH! 

Chris and E.J. (fellow Memphis bloggers) have posted about Zach, a 16 year-old local boy whose parents have sent him to a place called the Refuge. It’s one of those places where they try to cure you of your homosexuality. I read much of his blog, and it sounds like he’s going through absolute hell.

If you want to send Zach a message (and I hope you will… something supportive and hopeful and normalizing), send it to zach.inbartlett@gmail.com. (I promise this e-mail address is legit, because I created it for him myself. I did it so people not on MySpace can write to him.)

Please take a minute to write to Zach. He needs a little hope. Seriously. These places are so messed up. He’s got about 2 weeks when he won’t have any access to Internet, but once he’s out, I’d like him to come home to a nice full inbox of well wishes.

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Update: There’s a protest going on, if you want to take a stand in person. From EJ: People who are planning to visit from outside Memphis, please send an email to fighting.homophobia@gmail.com to contact the organizers.