Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I do hope you are all still reading EJ’s blog. He’s doing a stellar and responsible job covering the story of Zach, the 16 year-old boy whose parents have sent him to Love in Action, a place where they are trying to take the gay out of him. Seriously, EJ has every other media source beat on this story. Blogs so often do a better job than the local or national media, because bloggers are on the ground. They are involved. We don’t go looking for stories (at least most of us don’t). The stories come to us, and we’re only writing about them when we’re passionate about them.

Anyway, EJ’s blog, Cherry Blossom Special. Go now. 

In the beginning, there was Monkey:

and it was good.

This past Sunday, I dropped my laundry off at Do-Duds. When I went to bed on Sunday night, I realized that Monkey was not in my bed. Hmmm.

On Monday morning, I called Do-Duds and found that Monkey had in fact, stowed away in a sheet and had taken a trip to Do-Duds.

Later that day, it was clear that not only had he gone along for the ride to the laundromat, he’d also taken a spin in the washer, and then in the dryer. He’s very clean, but a little misshapen. I hope he had a nice time.

The reunion:

Welcome home, Monkey!

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.

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.

Getting your Ph.D. is hard work, which is why I don’t have my own social life. Rachel, EJ, and several other fine Memphians pictured here (at Bhan Thai, pre-Andrew Bird) let me borrow theirs for the night. Thanks, kids. I really needed it. 😀