Teen blog fuels social debate

It seems to be teen-blog theme week again. This story led the New York Times's "Fashion & Styles" section yesterday. It's about 16-year-old Zach in Memphis, who wrote a few entries in his MySpace.com blog about being sent by his parents to "Refuge," the youth version of "Love in Action" - according to the Times, "one of 120 programs nationwide listed by Exodus International, which bills itself as the largest information and referral network for what is known among fundamentalist Christians as the 'ex-gay' movement." Zach's parents, he said in his blog, believed there was "something psychologically wrong with me" and they'd "raised him wrong." But what's pertinent to Net Family News is the impact of these few entries in a teenager's blog. Moving beyond his peers (his blog links to 213 friends' blogs), they "grabbed the attention of both gay activists and fundamentalist Christians around the world," the Times reports. They've been "forwarded on the Internet over and over, inspiring online debates, news articles, sidewalk protests and an investigation into Love in Action by the Tennessee Department of Children's Services in response to a child abuse allegation [later dropped because the allegation proved unfounded]." Not to mention 1,700 responses in Zach's blog to his last post before entering the program, the Times adds. Then there was this piece in the same Styles section (very) basically suggesting that nannies better be very careful about what they blog!