June 23rd, 2011
Maris Ehlers appeared on Dan Barreiro’s radio program yesterday on KFAN Sports Radio in Minneapolis to talk about the tragic experimentation done on her brother at UCLA under George Rekers. In this interview, she explains in detail the treatment that five-year-old Kirk experienced at UCLA and the impact it had, not just on him but on his entire family. It’s a story I reported on extensively in “What Are Little Boys Made Of?“, but I think it is much more powerful to hear her describe it herself.
I’m glad she did this particular interview for two reasons. First, this is an AM sports radio network, whose audience is generally not likely to be aware of this story. My hat goes off to Dan Barreiro for bringing this story to his audience. And second, Maris has become a powerful advocate for Kirk and her family, explaining how it came to be that her parents got involved with the program. It’s easy to see her parents as villains in this tragedy, but Maris explains how their parents were manipulated into proceeding with the federally-funded experiment. And in the process, she is also emerging as a strong advocate for other families who have been affected by ex-gay therapy.
When advertising her photographic services, Maris uses the tag line, “Everyone has a story. Let me tell yours.” Except now she is telling her own and that of her family.
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Regan DuCasse
June 23rd, 2011
For this alone, Joseph Nicolosi should be shut down. NARTH is dangerous. Nicolosi’s book, “How To Prevent Homosexuality In Your Child.”
Is a harbinger of these horrible treatments. Kraig…five years old. Only FIVE years old!
That’s SO little. A time when it’s easy to frighten a child.
My heart truly breaks for how easily people want to commit people suspected of being gay to medieval experiments. When will gay people have the freedom to NOT be lab rats?
BlackDog
June 24th, 2011
What I don’t get is this:
George Rekers seems very gay based on how he acts in the interviews of him that I’ve seen. Not only gay, but bad stereotype creepy-gay almost like something out of a bad movie. (The Molester Mustache REALLY doesn’t help, either.)
How is it that he has not been called out on this by the anti-gay religious nut community?
Likewise I’ve heard little if anything about it…or about his luggage lifting troubles…from any Fundie-media sources. Come to think of it I haven’t heard much about him at all since that happened.
Priya Lynn
June 24th, 2011
Blackdog, from the time I spent in religious circles one thing I noticed is that it seemed like a lot of the men were effeminate, like Reckers and Nicolosi. It could be that they just blend in with all the other effeminate men in religious social groups and their effeminacy doesn’t stand out.
Reverend Naughty
June 24th, 2011
I’m not above taking a cheap shot and circular logic.
Jesus was a man, therefore if you are a man that loves Jesus, guess what? You’re gay.
Houston
June 24th, 2011
I just listened to the entire interview with Kirk Murphy’s sister, Maris Ehlers. I had no idea that 59 other little boys were subjected to the same horrors as Kirk, much less that they cannot be found. How many other subjects of Reker’s work have committed suicide? Tragic, tragic, tragic.
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