Mississippi man claims Baptist church teacher sexually abused him as anti-gay therapy

The Times-Picayune
August 31, 2014

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/08/mississippi_man_claims_baptist_church_teacher_sexually_abused_him_as_anti-gay_therapy.html

HERNANDO, Miss. -- A Mississippi man has filed a complaint alleging that a male teacher at a church-run school sexually abused him in an attempt to change his sexual orientation from homosexuality.

Jeff White, 32, said he realized he had a duty to stand up against people who harmed him in the 1990s because such efforts still hurt others.

The Washington Blade reported that White told it in an interview that a teacher at Bethel Baptist School in Walls when he was a student there repeatedly forced him to have oral and anal sex for three years. White said the teacher scheduled an appointment each Wednesday for the sexual abuse to occur.

His parents enrolled him in the school when he was 14 and in the seventh grade.

"He would rape me because I was gay and because it would make me hate men and make me change," White said.

White is now executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Rainbow Center, which is the first LGBT center in Mississippi, The Advocate reports.

The San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights helped White file the complaint with the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department, The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported. The center released his statement.

Sheriff's department spokesman Dick Hackett confirmed that a complaint was filed last week against Bethel Baptist Church in Walls. He said he can only say it's being investigated.

Church spokesman Josh Carlisle said Friday the church knows there's an investigation and intends to cooperate.