Turning a Blind Eye - By Andrew Stopps
Posted Sunday, June 19, 2005


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In this world today we find parents hitting or spanking their children offensive and a form of abusive behavior, why then do we turn a blind eye to what is happening in Memphis, Tennessee? How is it any different that instead of spanking their child, the parents of 16 year old Zach have instead paid strangers to shame him, make him feel alone and frightened and in the name of what? God? Having a straight son? Stopping the neighbors from talking......


For 2 weeks now members of the Queer Action Coalition have protested peacefully outside LIA waiting for Zach to be released on Friday, but it turns out that Smid and his cronies, who are under pressure now are going to make an example of Zach and he has been held for 6 more weeks (and another $4500)! A close friend of Zach's has told us "I am the only one who is allowed to talk to him. I am able to do so only once a week for 30 min. He's doing fine now but upset about the extension. There has been protests and a lot of people are writing articles about it and its been on the news and everything. It's all pretty overwhelming especially when he doesn’t know the whole story cause he’s not able to view the media while in the program. He's still gay but he's just dealing better with his emotions i think."

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Read the whole article:
Turning a Blind Eye