The latest installment of “Big Queer Convo,” the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s community forum series will delve into the world of residential treatment programs that claim to help LGBT and “troubled” young people and discuss the newly launched campaign to regulate these programs.
Hundreds of young people are reported to have died from the abuses of these programs and thousands more suffer life-long trauma. Abuses include food and water deprivation, beatings, hard labor, electric shock treatment, long-term solitary confinement, denial of medical care and more. The problem is so pervasive that the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that in just one year 1,619 employees of these programs—in 22 states—were involved in incidents of abuse.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center and SIA (Survivors of Institutional Abuse) recently launched a campaign to regulate the troubled-teen industry in California and nationally.
This forum will reveal what really happens to many LGBT and other young people who are sent to residential programs that claim to treat them, the long-term consequences for those who survive these programs and how to support the new campaign to pass statewide and federal legislation to regulate the troubled-teen industry. The forum will be followed by a reception with refreshments.
Participants will include Jodi Hobbs, president of SIA; Kate Logan, director of the “Kidnapped for Christ” documentary; Rebecca Lopez, a survivor of an abusive program; Dr. Meghan Moody, a psychologist who specializes in childhood trauma, and David Wernsman, a survivor of an abusive program whose story is depicted in “Kidnapped for Christ.” The panel will be moderated by Alan Acosta, Los Angeles LGBT Center’s director of strategic initiatives
The forum will take place next Thursday, May 7, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, 1125 N. McCadden Place in Los Angeles. Admission is free and free parking is available. Reservations are recommended and can be made online or by calling (323) 860-7300.
