‘Enraged’ Parents Say Catholic School Made Gay Teen Undergo Conversion Therapy

The mother and father of a homosexual teenager say her former Catholic highschool within the Los Angeles space subjected her to over two years of deeply detrimental conversion remedy ― with out ever asking for parental approval.

Magali Rodriguez’s mother and father say they’d have by no means allowed the 17-year-old  highschool senior to proceed attending Bishop Amat Memorial Excessive Faculty in La Puente in the event that they’d recognized she was being pulled out of sophistication to attend the counseling classes.

Based mostly on what their daughter has informed them in regards to the classes, each mother and father independently informed HuffPost they consider the teenager was uncovered to conversion remedy at Bishop Amat ― one thing they wouldn’t have wished in the event that they’d had the selection.

“They wished to speak her out of being homosexual, out of feeling this manner,” her mom, Martha A. Tapia-Rodriguez, stated of the classes. “They wished to persuade her that this was one thing dangerous.”

“I’m simply so enraged at the truth that it went on for such a very long time and we didn’t know something about it,” Tapia-Rodriguez added. 

The mother and father discovered in regards to the supply of their daughter’s deepening misery solely after she wrote them a letter in late September. They pulled Magali out of the Catholic faculty a number of days later.

Tapia-Rodriguez stated her coronary heart races and her arms begin shaking when she thinks about what her baby secretly endured. She stated she is talking up now to warn different mother and father of queer children at Catholic faculties to stay alert.

“I don’t need this to occur to another baby or another mum or dad,” she stated. “[Heartbroken] doesn’t even start to the touch the floor of how I really feel.” 

Bishop Amat is the biggest private school in Los Angeles County. It’s a part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, whose chief, Archbishop José Gómez, is the newly elected president of the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops. The college has a great tutorial fame, Tapia-Rodriguez stated, which is especially why Magali determined to enroll as a freshman. A few of the teen’s members of the family, together with her father, had additionally attended the college.

Requested to reply to the mother and father’ allegation that their daughter was uncovered to conversion remedy at Bishop Amat, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles informed HuffPost that it was not in a position to talk about specifics of this matter out of respect for the coed’s privateness.

“We don’t consider that statements made by the coed and her mum or dad are completely correct, however we aren’t at liberty to debate the coed’s standing or share her private data,” spokeswoman Adrian Alarcon informed HuffPost.

Bishop Amat issued a statement on Friday as about 200 students staged a walkout in assist of Magali. The college stated that it was dedicated to offering a “supportive and inclusive” studying setting for college kids regardless of their sexual orientation. 

“Any scholar who’s concerned in a relationship could socialize appropriately on campus,” the assertion learn. “Nevertheless, as said within the Parent/Student handbook, participating in extreme shows of affection on campus shouldn’t be permitted.” 

Tapia-Rodriguez insists that her daughter didn’t have interaction in extreme public shows of affection at college, particularly in contrast together with her straight friends. The mom additionally faulted the college for failing to publicly handle what she thinks is a a lot greater situation: that they uncovered Magali to counseling to change her sexual orientation with out parental consent.

Conversion remedy, additionally known as reparative remedy or sexual orientation change efforts, encompasses a spread of widely discredited tactics used to attempt to change somebody’s sexual orientation or gender id. Researchers say the  practice is ineffective and probably dangerous for kids. Even non-aversive types of the follow, corresponding to speak remedy, might be harmful, experts say, since sufferers have reported suicidal ideas, hopelessness and a rise in despair and nervousness.

Catholic doctrine teaches that same-sex relationships are “intrinsically disordered.” The church has tried to differentiate between being homosexual and being in a same-sex relationship ― claiming that it’s solely the latter that’s sinful. The one church-sanctioned choices for lesbian or homosexual Catholics are lifelong celibacy or ultimately marrying somebody of the alternative intercourse.

On the similar time, American Catholics have step by step turn into extra accepting of queer love. Most Catholics (61%) now say that they assist same-sex marriage, based on the Pew Research Center. 

Tapia-Rodriguez stated staff at Bishop Amat Excessive Faculty seen her daughter’s shut friendship with an older feminine scholar and singled her out for counseling earlier than the 2 college students formally started courting ― and earlier than Magali had correctly come out to herself. The staff allegedly coaxed Magali into acknowledging that she was homosexual after which promised that they wouldn’t inform her mother and father if she attended counseling classes and adopted a set of strict guidelines, corresponding to not sitting near her girlfriend at lunch. 

Members of Bishop Amat’s employees had been on excessive alert to name out and shut down any indicators of affection between Magali and her girlfriend, Tapia-Rodriguez stated. The mom believes Magali was often referred to as in to be berated by a dean of self-discipline for hanging out together with her girlfriend.

As well as, Magali’s mother and father say that from the top of the teenager’s freshman 12 months to the top of her junior 12 months, she attended about 20 non-public counseling classes. Most had been with a counselor on the college’s employees, whereas a number of had been with a faith-based psychologist they declare was particularly introduced in to counsel Magali. In the course of the classes, the mom stated, the advisors mentioned Catholic theology about same-sex relationships and tried to use this theology to what the teenager was going by way of. The advisors allegedly requested the teenager why she thought she was homosexual and tried to persuade her that her relationship together with her girlfriend was not what God wished for her. 

Magali’s father, Nicolas Rodriguez, stated that from what his daughter has informed him thus far, the classes sound like conversion remedy. 

“The objective there was just about to disgrace her to cease or to alter her,” the daddy informed HuffPost. 

California was the primary state to ban licensed therapists, together with credentialed faculty psychologists, from training conversion remedy on minors. The state’s legislation defines conversion remedy as practices that search to alter a person’s sexual orientation, together with efforts “to eradicate or cut back sexual or romantic points of interest or emotions towards people of the identical intercourse.” The legislation doesn’t apply to unlicensed people, based on the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality California. 

Bishop Amat’s counseling classes and the allegedly hostile angle of some employees members had a profoundly damaging impact on the lady, the mother and father stated. The previously straight-A scholar’s grades began to slide, and he or she grew to become more and more anxious and depressed, they stated. 

Tapia-Rodriguez stated that Magali referred to Bishop Amat as “hell.” When requested why, the teenager stated, “God doesn’t reside there,” her mom stated.

Her mother and father tried to press her for extra particulars about why she hated the college however stated she wouldn’t elaborate.

Wanting again, Tapia-Rodriguez stated she believes her daughter discovered to equate being in a same-sex relationship with being in bother.

“She’s by no means been the sort of lady who acquired in bother,” Tapia-Rodriguez stated. “She thought that my mother and father work laborious to place her by way of this faculty and he or she didn’t wish to be in bother, didn’t wish to let [us] down.”

Tapia-Rodriguez stated that Magali got here out to her mother and father throughout her sophomore 12 months. The household embraced her, her mom stated, and ensured her that she was liked. After that, the teenager slowly began pushing again in opposition to the counseling she was receiving at college, her mother stated.

Then Magali’s girlfriend graduated, which meant she didn’t have that assist system anymore. Issues got here to a head this September, when Magali wrote her mother and father a letter describing how depressing she was at college. The mother and father had been alarmed on the tone of the letter.

“My coronary heart dropped,” Nicolas Rodriguez stated. “It sadly seemed like a suicide letter, a critical cry for assist.” 

The letter prompted a dialogue with Magali during which she opened up about her experiences at Bishop Amat. Rodriguez stated he was “livid” when he discovered in regards to the counseling classes.

“How the college might do one thing like that, refer some sort of psychiatric care with out our data, I simply couldn’t perceive that,” he stated.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, govt director of the LGBTQ Catholic group DignityUSA, informed HuffPost that what Magali’s mother and father say occurred to their daughter violates their parental rights. She additionally stated it reveals how conversion remedy continues to be imposed on minors in an irresponsible means.

U.S. Catholic faculties have developed a big selection of techniques for dealing with LGBTQ id amongst college students, Duddy-Burke stated. Some have allowed scholar golf equipment that work on making faculty tradition inclusive to the extent that the administration feels comfy. Different Catholic faculties actively discourage college students from expressing LGBTQ id, she stated. Duddy-Burke stated she’s heard of faculty officers recommending conversion therapists to oldsters however hasn’t heard of scholars being subjected to conversion remedy on the faculty itself.

Total, it’s practically not possible for a Catholic faculty to be fully affirming, she stated, and he or she believes college students “sense that conditional acceptance.” 

“Many Catholic establishments do not know find out how to handle LGBTQ points, amongst college students or staff, given the tensions that exist in our church and society on this,” Duddy-Burke stated. “They’ve quite a bit to be taught, and we hope they may see this disaster as a possibility to listen to from college students, mother and father and individuals who have experience in LGBTQ Catholic points.”

Samuel Garrett-Pate, a spokesperson for Equality California, informed HuffPost that Magali’s story reveals that too many Californians are nonetheless subjected to psychological abuse by those that are purported to be caring for his or her emotional and psychological well-being. 

“So-called ‘conversion remedy’ doesn’t work, isn’t wanted and causes lifelong psychological injury,” Garrett-Pate stated. “It’s a dangerous, ineffective answer looking for an issue that doesn’t exist.”

Magali is now ending her senior 12 months at one other highschool. Her mother and father say they’ve positioned the teenager in remedy and are actively making an attempt to counter a few of the damaging messaging she acquired at Bishop Amat about her sexual orientation. 

Tapia-Rodriguez stated she understands that, as a personal faculty, Bishop Amat can set its personal requirements about same-sex relationships amongst college students. However she stated she needs the college had referred to as her and stated, “Your daughter’s views and beliefs are completely different than what we consider right here.”

As a substitute, she stated, “they saved her, they saved taking our cash and took it upon themselves to counsel her and make her really feel like shit.”