And posting to his blog, apparently. I received notice from MySpace this morning that Zach’s blog had been updated, and visited to find that he’d not only written a new post, but also deleted all of his previous posts. I held off posting about it, and just left a supportive comment of my own, because I wanted to see how things went. Sure enough, he expanded the post, which had previously consisted of just the first two paragraphs. You can read it for yourself.
As for me, I’m not quite sure what to make of it. He sounds basically like a 16 year old kid who’s been through a lot of overwhelming stuff, and it handling it remarkably well, but still needs time to sort it out. There’s is one thing that kind of gave me pause, and it was when he referred to LIA/R as being "misrepresented." I thought for a minute that maybe Zach had absorbed some of LIA/R’s program, but now I think it’s too soon for anyone — including him — to tell.
Zach’s responded to a few of the many comments he’s received since he posted, and seems to be adding to his post as a way of answering other comments more generally. I tend to agree with E.J. Zach probably needs time and space to sort through everything, and probably the best thing the rest of us can do is give it to him.
Terence
I agree with you that Zach needs the time and space to sort things out in his head… after all, he is only 16, and how many of us get it right so young?
Especially with enough chutzpah to say “Fuck you, I’m happay as is!”
However, I do have some reservations [not about your response, or anything you write] but about Zach’s own response to what has happened.. the red herring is in in his new entry… sorry, there is something deeply suss it….especially when you compare it to his initial posts about being co-opted AGAINST HIS WILL into love in action, and then to come out saying they have been misrepresented?
Zach’s post reads like serious doubt has been sown regarding his identity. When someone starts saying things like, “Homosexuality is still a factor in my life— it’s not who I am..” taken at face value, it’s true.. but the problem with face value, is that it’s not the full story… in Zach’s post, it underscores ambivalence about himself.. this is the same ambivalence I come across in the Deaf and Hearing Impaired Community.. who crave normalcy and are wary of using the labels Deaf or Hearing Impaired [understandably due to the negative connotations]…..and are quite creative in how they use those terms or invent new ones
Some of the posters on Zach’s blog are quite right in their bluntness when they point out that very ambivalence [and by extension the bullshit inherent] in Zach’s entry… after all, it does take an experience doutsider to see it.
But yeh, he is young and he needs that space to work it all out.. and that is his right [that is everybody's right] After all, I too, am well known for screaming if I don’t get my Space!
There’s nothing “suss” at all about Zach’s entry. He’s a 16-year old kid who was mad at this parents and this program for being forced to go, and thus raised a hissy fit. Now, he’s realizing that the media totally polarized him, his family, and Love in Action, to where he’s just tired of the media circus. He’s not interested in being anyone’s poster child and at 16, I can’t blame him.