Comments on: US student 'forced' into ex-gay therapy

By: Iris

Iris — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:00:21 +0000

Just to add my thank you, AdrianT. I'll be checking back here to see what's going. Horrible story.

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By: raul

raul — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:07:12 +0000

Help Save Bryce!!! ((i'm from brazil))

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By: John K

John K — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:53:54 +0000

Leon K fox . . . you better believe it . . . the Fanatical Fundemantalists are fanning their flames once again.

Fortunately for the rest of us they will be the ones getting their toes burnt, especially as they step up thier hell fire into the half baked frying pan of foolishness.

Sit back and watch then sizzle

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By: Leon K Fox

Leon K Fox — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:04:04 +0000

I'm so sick of religion at this point.

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By: Eddy

Eddy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:47:27 +0000

Thanks, AdrianT, will keep an eye on this thread for further news.

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By: Bentham

Bentham — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:21:11 +0000

86 listings under Physicians and Surgeons in El Dorado, AK.
no luck…

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By: Bentham

Bentham — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:41:22 +0000

Hm-m-m. There are 14 Debra Faulkners in El Dorado, AK, USA.

Searching…surgery

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By: Bentham

Bentham — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:27:24 +0000

Debra Faulkner, El Dorado, AK, USA.

Now, where did I put my phone book…

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By: AdrianT

AdrianT — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:36:40 +0000

Hi Eddy – I think the campaign is just getting off the ground, it may be a bit premature to follow up the story after just a few days. I am verifying some sources before I make lots of statements.

What is really important – and maybe some are even reading this: if you know Bryce, please come forward, tell us if you've heard anything.

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By: Brian Burton

Brian Burton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:44:08 +0000

John M.J.
Well poppa-ma-cork and you just renderd the tame version of your epistle to the Children of Pink! Seriousley, in our day and age, we can actually still have this situation? Normally, the good citizens of 'Bible Belt' country, will suppress and be suppressed because it's past custom and practice to keep under wraps anything not conforming to 'Bible Belt' Spiritual well-being. Seems that his crime was being 'found out,' those loose cannon e-mails. I for one am glad his homosexuality has been outed even by accident. Now there will be the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, along with some debate. Disgraced Children were always sent abroad for a cooling off period, especially where s-e-x has raised It's ugly head….Homosexual? Why! your nothing of the Kind my Boy. Your parents are pillars of the Chuch and the community. Any claims of this nature are out of the question!……And so It will go one and on untill that final hour when he jumps onto some form of transport and runs into the arms of his Boy-friend in another State. Loves-sweet-song should be sung in this case.

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By: Eddy

Eddy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:18:42 +0000

AdrianT, can you tell us more. I see that PinkNews is not following up on this story and you obviously have managed to get through. Good for you. Can Travis not reach Bryce at all?

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By: AdrianT

AdrianT — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:10:13 +0000

Yes, I have spoken with travis – and have to say the final calls and texts up to 2pm on 14 June were heartbreaking.

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By: Eddy

Eddy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:36:50 +0000

Thanks for the above, Adrian T. I hope Pink News makes another thread for this story now, so that all those who have disbelieved the lad could be in these dire straits will think again.

John M. J., thanks for your sound words. I can well believe the extraordinary situation of your sister-in-law refusing to speak to you on her wedding day in spite of you being her husband's best man. This is the sort of nonsense that goes on still and that people lucky enough to have had no such experience cannot identify with.

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By: AdrianT

AdrianT — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:48:19 +0000

THE STORY HAS JUST BEEN REPORTED ON SKY NEWS!!!!

I am very satisfied this case is authentic, John MJ. No-one has seen the guy for 36 days now. Go and see the Facebook page 'Friends of Bryce Faulkner' for more updates. You can also read about the parents / family of Bryce, who have now found out about the protest, and are threatening to sue for 'defaming their family'.

His mother Debra Faulkner runs a surgery in El Dorado, AK. It's a small town and his family is well known. That makes it doubly difficult for him to come out

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By: John M.J.

John M.J. — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:02:26 +0000

Grief, this story shows me how lucky I have been. I came out to my parents just about forty years ago and apart from one tiny spat with my father, which he apologised for just a few minutes later (and I apologised to him, also, for my stupidity in that silly argument), I have never been at odds with my parents about my being gay. They are just wonderful human beings who have accepted me for what I am. They are just two beautiful people who love me.

I can't say the same for my siblings, however. One hates me so much that he hasn't talked to me in over fifteen years and he other one ignored me right up until the day he died and his wife has never spoken to me at all – she has, the fat German Hausfrau that she is, never spoken to me at all, not even on the day that she married my brother and I stood up at his wedding as his 'best man'.

Fortunately, the children of both of my brothers are much more liberated and they all visit me and speak to me quite freely.

However, I can completely understand that a 23 year old in our society may not be free of his parents and may still be dependent upon them. Most of us who post here are free and emancipated but that does not mean that there are not many out there who are not as we are. The need for a second, or even a third, degree from our University can keep us in thrall to our parents, to the people who are paying our bills, and can lead us into hellish situations such as this one.

Oh, and by the way, twenty-three is no great age nor is it a maturity of years. Looking back on myself at twenty-three from over thirty years later I wouldn't like to say that I could have resisted pressure from my parents had I had his sort of intolerant parents. I was one of the lucky ones, I have wonderful and understanding parents who simply wanted me to find love and to be loved in the same way as they managed to find each other, but had they wished otherwise I'm not sure that I could have, even at twenty-three, stood up against them and asserted my rights as an adult. As I said – I was lucky. My parents were thoroughly modern people with a thoroughly modern take on the, and their, world.

However, I don't think, even at twenty-three years of age, I could have stood up against their wishes had they been as deeply homophobic as this young man's parents obviously are.

Maybe twenty-three seems a great age to all of you. It isn't! One can still be, as I was, deeply beholden to ones parents and deeply under their influence, as I was. I'll say it again, I was lucky, am lucky to this day! My parents are superbly reasonable and reasoning people.

His parents, obviously, are not reasonable. If his story is true then we must financially help him. If this story is not true then we must seek to expose a lie.

In a sense, however, the truth, or otherwise, of this particular story doesn't matter. There is a greater truth given as example here: and that truth is how much we allow, or will allow, our sexuality to be sold for money – just to what extent we will go to hide our sexuality in order to gain what we want. A degree, a career, a successful life! How far are you prepared to lie in order to get what you want from life?

There are probably many here who will reckon that he just had to lie for a year or two longer then he would have been free.

Why should he have had to lie at all? Why should his parents (deeply abusive if this story is true) be allowed to get away with this without being challenged? Why aren't we encamped outside their home and protesting against their abuse of an adult?

Come on PinkNews, who are they? Who are these idiot parents seeking to control the sexual proclivities of a twenty-three year old male and why haven't you named and shamed these obvious perverts?

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By: Brian Burton

Brian Burton — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:25:47 +0000

Eddy,
a good analysis there. Nobody can walk into a family unit and say, you must stop telling your son that he is not Gay, going through a phase he'll grow out of….I've seen it all before…as you say Eddy…Tragic!

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By: Eddy

Eddy — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:09:32 +0000

I have a friend in his mid 60s who tells me often that his partner, who knows him much better than me, thinks that he was "emasculated" by his parents during his upbringing – robbed of his will-power as a result of continually being psychologically abused.

So for those who can't put themselves into the shoes of people different from themselves, go ponder on the word "empathy"! In this day and age of utter selfishness, me me me, so many people simply cannot imagine that other people's reality may be quite different from their's! Tragic.

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By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:13:28 +0000

While I agree that anti-gay brainwashing camps are an absolute travesty, I really can't pity this kid as much as I could a teenager or an actual child. It's kind of insulting that they're saying he was "forced" into anything. I mean, I'm 21 myself, living on my own for the last four years since a falling out with my own parents, we're not friggin' children. If he's willing to give up his freedom and his love and go into a brainwashing camp to avoid having to get a job and actually take care of himself financially, that's his cowardly decision, and that's totally not the same as being forced into anything.

These programs are definitely a thing worth fighting, but I think there are many more actual helpless victims than this guy.

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By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:37:00 +0000

@Lucius to answer your question yes there are organisations namely the Roman Catholic 'church' and others in Europe that still try the 'ex-gay therapy' route. There is one in Poland and there is a website in Polish sponsored by the Roman Catholic 'church' to this effect.
I feel that Amnesty International and other Human Rights group must fully investigate these 'churches' and the parents of any gay young people who force any gay to undergo these mental physiological and in some case physical tortures. The torture by these crackpot organisations are a direct violation of all human rights.

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By: Jen Marcus

Jen Marcus — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:18:27 +0000

I think Bryce's situation is indeed difficult and much akin too a battered spouse. Please forgive my over simplification, perhaps he should try contacting the ACLU, Lambda Legal, Local Legal Aide Society or a private attorney to represent him Pro Bono and then the local government and police authorities in Arkansas or wherever he is being" imprisoned". and file a complaint against the ex- gay therapy group and his parents for False Imprisonment, Assault and Battery, the Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress. etc. He then should file a companion civil suit against these parties for the same and other pertinent causes of action that an attorney may deem appropriate Should he prevail in civil and/or criminal court he may be awarded the financial resources he needs to finish school and be free from the oppressive tyranny of both groups of people. He also may fortuitously "break the bank"' of that irreligious Fascist concentration camp where he is imprisoned and get it permanently shut down! As for his filial relationship with his parents, I am not sure anyone would want to be connected with such "loving" parents?

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