Mother of lesbian teen denies claims by cousin, Supergirl star, she is locked up in ‘gay cure camp’
The mother of a girl who has reportedly been locked up in a gay “cure” camp, and for which her actor cousin has crowdfunded over $40,000 to free her, has denied the allegations.
Sarah, whose second name has not been specified, is the subject of a GoFundMe page created by her cousin, Joey Jordan, an actor of Supergirl fame.
Started on 4 June, the page was picked up by several media outlets, as it was created to free her from the “conversion therapy” camp where she was reportedly placed by her parents.
The page specifies that she was placed there by her parents after attempting to take her girlfriend to prom.
Jordan writes: “Meet my cousin Sarah. At 17, her future looks bright. She is in the top 10% of her class, runs cross-country and belongs to the National Honor Society and the debate team. She is also gay. Like any high school kids in a relationship, Sarah and her girlfriend wanted to go to prom together. But when they did that, Sarah’s parents, who believe that homosexuality is a sin and abnormal, sent Sarah away against her will to an East Texas Christian boarding facility for troubled teens to ‘pray away the gay.’”
He adds that the widely condemned practice of ‘cure’ or ‘conversion’ therapy doesn’t work, noting that “the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have found it to be psychologically damaging, especially for minors. And Sarah has been told that she must stay in this facility for a whole year. So instead of being surrounded by friends and extended family who love and support Sarah for who she is, she’ll be isolated in a place where the fact that she is gay is treated as a sin and an illness. Instead of preparing for college and competing in the state debate tournament, she’ll be doing forced labor every day and enduring Bible-based ‘therapy’ for her ‘disease.’”
Jordan says the teenager is not allowed any communication with the outside world.
But Sarah’s mother has given a new interview denying that she was placed into the camp in order to “cure” her of being gay.
Speaking to the Austin American Statesman, the un-named mother said: “My daughter would be heartbroken that she is being misrepresented this way,”
She went on to say that she went to the camp to “help her with issues of depression, self-harm, drug use, and behavioral issues,” according to the paper.
The cousin notes on the GoFundMe page, which has so far raised over $43,344, that the money will be spent on a legal challenge to the facility to free her.
Saying she is bright and ambitious, Jordan goes on to say that any leftover money would be placed in a college fund.
A television pastor earlier this year claimed God can ‘cure’ gay people because homosexuals can’t feel love.
