Yesterday a gay seventeen year old boy whose parents took him in handcuffs back to Memphis, and John Smid’s tender mercies, spoke out about his experience to reporters in Memphis. You can read some of what the teen, D.J. Butler, said to them here, here, and here. These are TV news stories, so they’re a tad thin. I’ll post more links to news accounts and interviews with this teen as I find them. Hopefully I can find something soon with a little more detail to it.

Butler says he was given prozac during his stay. "They said they don’t do that but they did it."

If this is true it’s damning evidence that they’re simply thumbing their noses at the law. They were ordered flat out to stop doing this some months ago and a stay of that order was denied back then, and again yesterday. A spokesdroid for LIA denies they gave the kid drugs, but you would hardly expect them to admit to it on a day when a judge refused to grant them relief from Tennessee’s laws regarding the treatment of mental illness. And my strong hunch is that unless there is someone from the state of Tennessee stationed on site 24/7 keeping a watch on them, they’re going to keep right on doing it.

Butler eventually escaped LIA, fled back to Georgia, and got an emancipation order. John Smid claims that Love In Action helps improve communication between teens and their parents. Well it certainly seems to motivate the kids into seeking emancipation. Butler is not the only teen who has been through LIA, or has been threatened with LIA, that has looked into it. I know that for a fact. Years from now, after these teens have grown into adults, years from now when they’re still dealing with heart wounds that are Still holding them back from everything their lives could be, years from now when their parents look back on it all, there are going to be a lot of people staring blankly at the path of destruction John Smid tore through the lives of families, like a mindless wandering tornado, and wonder why nobody could stop him.