http://www.houstonvoice.com/2005/1-28/news/localnews/crisis.cfm
By ELLA TYLER
Friday, January 28, 2005
When teenager Jeffrey Faircloth wanted a safe place to talk about his growing awareness that he might be gay, he called the National Youth Crisis Hotline ? popularized as 1-800-HIT-HOME.
What he heard didn?t surprise him. ?I?d grown up in a very fundamentalist Christian family, so I wasn?t surprised that the woman I talked to said she didn?t know any gay people, but she knew they were sinners. She said she would give me the number of a group called Exodus that would help me change. I already knew the religious view, so I wasn?t interested.?
Luckily, a friend told him about HATCH, an organization in Houston that provides positive reinforcement for gay and lesbian youth.
Faircloth forgot about 1-800-HIT-HOME until recently.
?I called the number last month because friends of mine heard rumors that Exodus was coming to Houston, and it seemed like the easiest way to get a phone number for Exodus so we could ask, ? he explained.
Faircloth referred to the ?Love Won Out? conference to be staged in Houston Feb. 19 by Focus on the Family. Graduates of Exodus, a program that claims it can turn people away from homosexuality, or ex-gays are among the speakers at the conference.
This time, Faircloth, now 20, was shocked and angry after the call. ?I told the man who answered what I wanted and that I was gay, but it wasn?t a problem. He insisted on quoting Bible verses to me, so I quoted some right back, ? He said.
At the end of the conversation, after an hour of dueling with Bible verses, Faircloth asked the hotline volunteer, ?How would you feel if some lonely kid in the middle of Nebraska, who had never heard anything except that he is a sinner killed himself after talking to you??
He was shocked at the man?s answer: ?Sometimes the devil makes things happen.?
Faircloth said, ?I didn?t know if my experience was unique, so different friends of mine from HATCH called the hotline at different times. We found that they always said the same sort of things. They quoted Bible verses about homosexuality and suggested Exodus.?
Faircloth said he is concerned about the hotline because it masquerades as a legitimate service, ?One of the reasons I was so shocked about this is that they are listed in the phone book under alternate emergency numbers. Because of that and because of the name, I thought they were a government service.?
Research by the Houston Voice shows that many Southwestern Bell phone books, including the ones for Houston, list the National Youth Crisis Hotline on the second page of the book, under the Alternate Emergency Number listings.
?I wouldn?t mind if they were up front about being a Christian group, but they lure people in so they can preach at them,? Faircloth said.
When the Voice called the hotline and asked for the name of a media representative, the person who answered the phone did not seem to know whether the hotline had a media relations department.
The representative indicated that calls are answered out of a church in San Diego. Asked what sort of training volunteers get, he said those who answer phones are trained at the church and given a reference book regarding homosexuality, he said, volunteers are told to inform callers what the Bible says on the subject and to refer callers to Exodus.
Further research revealed that the National Youth Crisis Line is a project of Youth Development Institute in San Diego. Representatives of the organization could not be reached for comment.
Chris Kerr, program coordinator for Montrose Counseling Center?s Life and Anti-Violence Program, noted, ?This Youth Crisis Hotline could be deadly for teens with questions about their sexuality. We run HATCH and the Gay & Lesbian Switchboard and have intimate knowledge of what goes on when someone calls.?
Kerr said he fears that, ?When a youth calls a hotline like this it?s because he or she is already full of shame and has no one he or she feels safe with. The message these people give reinforces those feelings.?
He compared the 800-Hit-Home group to the anti-choice groups that seem to be like Planned Parenthood.
?From a therapist?s point of view, these people are really unethical,? he said. ?They are taking advantage of people at vulnerable moments. People have a right to quality care and referrals that respect who they are,?
Kerr pointed out that, ?The American Psychological Association says that being gay is not a pathology. The group also says that reparative therapy is unethical, wrong, not needed and usually doesn?t work.?
Kerr, who also has a Masters degree in theology, said he believes that the National Youth Crisis Hotline engages in religious abuse. ?I define religious abuse as anytime someone uses spirituality or religion to destroy a person?s self esteem or coerces you to go against who you are for membership or salvation.?
Faircloth just wants to let people know the group?s true colors. He and friends talked about 1-800-HIT-HOME on KPFT?s ?After Hours? show last month, and he vowed they would keep talking.
The National Youth Crisis Hotline or 1-800-HIT-HOME appears on a wide variety of teen help referral lists, including about.com?s popular Web site for teens and the social services listings in the Manhattan phone book. It even appears on the resource list for the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, a group that says it is focused on improving the lives of gay and lesbian youth.
Faircloth will have a lot of talking to do
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