Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

U.S. Supreme Court rules Ten Commandments displays are not allowed at courthouses.

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Update: Following ruling barring Ten Commandments displays in courthouses, Supreme Court rules such displays are allowed at state capitols.

Ever feel like life is moving too fast for you to even stop and ponder it? That’s now for me. I’ve been working like a dog recently. Long hours, lots of reports. No rest for the busy. Then Friday night was amazing: the QAC meeting, followed by an amazing performance and a little socializing. Then yesterday, I met Aaron’s son for the first time, and we spent the day at the zoo and teaching the boy’s boy about Memphis barbecue. They ended up spending the night because it all took a long time (plus, Zach was really enjoying the Wallace and Gromit I was sharing with him). They got the bed. I got the couch. Man, my couch is pretty, but it’s just a terrible place to sleep. This morning was the downtown Blue Plate then the Peabody Ducks and a brief tour around downtown Memphis. Millions of pictures were taken. Many thoughts were had. I’m not sure I’ll ever finish writing about it all, and no way I’m leading them to the "Future Posts" graveyard over there on the right. The short version is that I have had a few great and exhausting days. I haven’t been to the grocery store or the gym in a week, and I am more behind on paperwork than any human should be! The take-away points I would have liked you to take away from reading the numerous entries I was planning to write but probably won’t are thus:

• Your good deed for tomorrow is to go to the Queer Action Coalition’s protest at 4:30

What: Queer Action Coalition Rally at Love in Action Head Quarters
When: 4:30-5:30pm Monday June 27th,2005
What you can do: Attend the rally and/or publicize this event to your friends and family and get in touch with your local politician here.

Queer Action Coalition invites all interested members of the public to show their support for the youth going through the Love In Action program Refuge. Refuge is a program that aims to change the sexual orientation of youth and adults through "Bible based reparative therapy". Come and show your support on Monday for open and honest dialog and for all people affected by this issue. This rally will be fun!! We also encourage all those that couldn’t make it to the previous rallies to come to this one. The more people the stronger the message.
4780 Yale Road, Memphis, Tennessee, 1.5 miles north of I-40 on Austin Peay Hwy. Click here for directions.

• Peterson Toscano’s Doin’ Time in the Homonomo Halfway House was amazing. I just went because it was relevant. I didn’t know it would be such a high-quality production. Peterson is a great communicator, a great storyteller, and he seems to have a great understand of the culture from which people come. He sees the intention behind people completely unlike him. He’s struggled, and so he has compassion. It’s a rare thing to see, and I thank him for sharing that with me and the rest of the audience. EJ wrote a proper review. I am hoping I will find some time to do the same later this week.

• The Memphis Zoo is MUCH more excellent than I was expecting (except the aquarium, which is lame). I had no idea there was so much there, and I can’t believe I live so close and hadn’t been.

• Nine year-olds tell a lot of long stories, and I’m not used to listening to them! Aaron’s a great dad.
• There is a limit to the number of times I can watch those ducks do their THANG!

EJ posted about this and asked we spread the word. EJ, consider it spread. I will be there. Just ambling over myself, so if I know you and I see you, I may join you. You know, unless you’re on a hot date. The sekrit signal will be to point at the person you’re with and say, "I’m on a date!"

The following information came from the Memphis Digital Arts Co-op:

Friday June 24th 7:00pm

The MGLCC will host the QAC, and the community to speak about the recent protests, and talk about further events, as well as an adgenda for the future of educating the public, and taking action when action is called upon.

Friday June 24th 8pm, and Saturday June 25th 8pm

Peterson Toscano, a former Love in Action client, will be coming to Memphis to perform his one-person play, Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House. See for yourself what happens behind the doors of America’s zaniest ex-gay residential program! Through five characters Toscano takes you on a tour of the Homo No Mo Halfway House, a 12-Step Christian program that attempts to save men from the snares of homosexuality through bizarre rules, a masculine resuscitation regime and brain numbing reconditioning. Based on Toscano’s real life experience floundering in various Ex-gay ministries, he weaves together humor, program jargon and outrageous eyewitness accounts to form a piece that is hilarious, poignant and inspirational.

"The play is intelligently written, hysterical at times, poignant, and most of all, deeply spiritual because of its underlying themes of self-examination and self acceptance…Toscano’s acting skills as well as the format of the piece recall the one-woman shows of Lily Tomlin and Whoopi Goldberg whose character studies unearth the neurotic complications in all of us." –John W. Sykes, in newsweekly

Saturday June 25TH @ 4pm

Peterson also will be doing "Talking Trash in the Homo No Mo’ Halfway House –Language, Life and Lies in the Ex-Gay Movement", a more Lecture-stylized piece.

Well, MySpace has removed Zach’s blog, which isn’t surprising. It was probably costing them a mint in bandwidth. I have the 4 crucial LIA entries both cached and saved. Anyone have a large amount of bandwidth available? I’d be happy to mirror these with a bandwidth donation, unless anyone can think of a good idea for why I shouldn’t do that. I know there was some concern about his anonymity, but I think we’re kind of past that now.

False alarm! Nevermind! :S 

E.J. contacted me recently about a journalist from the New York Blade who was writing a piece on Zach’s predicament. He wanted to know if I was willing to have this journalist contact me. It’s interesting, because I don’t really see myself as highly involved in this situation. I post about it as much as I can because I know people read my blog, but I haven’t been able to go to the protests. I see myself more as a publicist. I post about Zach here, and I put up a lot of links on Tribe. That’s about it.

I was contacted, and I answered the questions, but I told the journalist that my Dad was the one who had really been looking into the mental health laws and writing to "a gajillion Tennessee Health Agencies." He was the guy to talk to. Dad was contacted, and his response to the journalist (similar to the one to a gajillion) was as follows:

It is quite confusing. The Tennessee Mental Health Code is here. In general, it follows the Codes that are common throughout the United States. Involuntary Commitment requires that a person be both mentally ill and dangerous to self or others [meaning suicidal or homicidal]. Voluntary admission to a mental heath facility is something parents of minors can sign, independent of the child’s wishes. The issues here are multiple:

1. Is Love in Action a Mental Health Facility? I found no evidence that it is, but I had access to only the internet and they haven’t responded to my requests for information. Nothing on their site suggests any certification of any kind.
2. Are the people working at Love in Action mental health professionals? That one seems to be clear. No they aren’t.
3. Does Zach have a mental illness? As best one can determine, he’s a kid who told his parents he is gay. Homosexuality is not classified as a mental illness by any scientific discipline. As you will see on their site, Love in Action defines it as not mental illness.
4. Is Zach dangerous? He says no. Certainly homosexuality isn’t dangerous.
5. Zach is 16 years old. Here’s what the Tennessee law says: 33-8-202 [NEW; derived from former §§ 33-6-101 and 33-6-102] (a) If a child with serious emotional disturbance or mental illness is sixteen (16) years of age or older, the child has the same rights as an adult with respect to outpatient and inpatient mental health treatment, medication decisions, confidentia linformation, and participation in conflict resolution procedures under this title except as provided inpart 3 of this chapter or as otherwise expressly provided in this title. If the child’s parent,legal guardian, legal custodian, or treating professional believes that the child’s decision to terminatetreatment, other than a
   request for discharge under chapter 6, part 2 of this title, will havesevere adverse effects on the child, the conflict resolution procedures under chapter 2, part 6 of this title shall be used.

So, I can see nothing that suggests that Love in Action would have any reason to hold a kid against his will. It’s not a hospital; It’s not staffed by trained professionals; Zach’s not mentally ill; and Zach’s not dangerous.

The only possibilities are that:

1. Zach’s parents signed him in. That wouldn’t hold up in any court anywhere for the reasons enumerated above.
2. Zach was coerced into signing himself in. There’s no way to verify that, as Love in Action won’t respond. The only way to deal with that would be through legal channels.

Even if he was induced to sign himself into the program, they would be hard pressed to defend his being voluntary. See his blog entries: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4

In their press conference, they skirted any statements about Zach, or legality. They had a series of testimonials. To me, this is something of an unimaginable situation, reminiscent of the mid-19th Century when people were committed to Hospitals by families for all sorts of things. Certainly, in my 30+ years as a Psychiatrist in public mental health facilities, academic medicine, and private practice, I never saw any such thing. It seems to me that rather than marching around the Love in Action facility, marching to the office of the Mental Health Commissioner ofthe State of Tennessee or the American Civil Liberties Union would be abetter strategy. Although it’s possible that there are some otherfactors involved, Zach appears to be a person who has been deprived of his Constitutional rights without due process of law – because he’s gay.

I’m not directly involved in any of this. I was just incredulous when my daughter called it to my attention and got interested. I’m sorry I don’t have any direct information to give you. But I agree that this story needs to be told.

Abby’s Dad, M.D.

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As a mental health professional (to be, as I’m not yet licensed, just like Love in Action!), I know this unfortunate statement to be true: "Emotional abuse is difficult to prove in the state of Tennessee," said Pamela Dickey, director of the advocacy center for Childhelp USA in Knoxville. "You have to document that the child is undergoing depression or suicidal ideation, that he can’t sleep, or can’t eat." 

Still, there is happy news via today’s New York Blade. And if you’re keeping up, here are the latest "Zach Love in Action" posts tracked on Blogpulse. For the record, EJ and Dad are impressing the shit out of me. We might just get Zach busted out of that hellhole, or even better still, we might shut the evil place down!