MAN FORCED INTO EX-GAY TREATMENT

A 23 year old pre-med student from Arkansas in the US has gone missing after his family discovered that he was gay. It is now alleged that Bryce Faulkner’s conservative Christian family threatened to cut Bryce off from his family and finances if he did not go into “ex-gay therapy”.

Faulkner’s boyfriend, Travis, last received a tearful phone call from Bryce on June 15. Before his disappearance, Faulkner told his friends that he planned to be open about his relationship and move closer to Travis who lives in Wisconsin.

However, after finding Bryce’s password, his mother discovered emails which Bryce had written to Travis. According to a website set up by gay rights activist Reverend Brett Harris for Bryce, “in order to manipulate Bryce into accepting ‘treatment’ for his homosexuality, they [his family] took away everything and left him the choice of becoming homeless and destitute or going into therapy. As anyone can imagine, this wasn’t much of a choice.”

The website, savebryce.ergonomicalministries.org, is part of a campaign by Bryce’s friend to try to locate him. They suspect he may be at an Exodus International centre in Florida undergoing “treatement”. The Christian-based Exodus is one of the most active organisations in the world to claim that it can “cure” homosexuality.

Peterson Toscano, who spent 17 years in an ex-gay therapy and has been campaigning against them ever since, told PinkNews.co.uk: “Through the over 1,000 ex-gay survivors in the US and UK I have met through www.beyondexgay.com and in my travels, I have seen firsthand the devastating emotional, psychological and spiritual damage these ‘treatments’ and theories inflict on people, often derailing their personal and professional development for years.

The fruits of these so-called treatments are depression, confusion, isolation, and a damaged sense of self. When parents insist that their child receive these unsound and unregulated procedures, they not only harm their relationship with their own child, but also open up their son or daughter to the potential of personal harm.”