MISSISSIPPI
The Advocate
BY MICHELLE GARCIA AUGUST 27 2014
A gay man filed a complaint Tuesday against Bethel Baptist School in Walls, Miss., saying he endured three years of sexual assault by a teacher attempting to change his sexual orientation.
Jeff White, now 32, came out to his parents in 1996, and the family turned to Bethel Baptist Church for guidance. The church’s affiliated school claimed it could change White’s sexuality through weekly counseling sessions, and during three years of such sessions, teacher Steven Barnes raped and sexually assaulted White, his complaint alleges.
White is now the executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Rainbow Center, the first LGBT center in Mississippi. Barnes is now the assistant pastor of Bethel Baptist Church.
The complaint was filed with the DeSoto County, Miss., Sheriff’s Department on White’s behalf by the National Center for Lesbian Rights with Hawkins & Gibson, a law firm that has taken on other sexual abuse cases involving clergy.
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