‘Supergirl’ Actor Says Cousin Sent to Ex-Gay Therapy: ‘Not Allowed Visitors and Cannot Leave’

Jeremy Jordan, who plays Winn Schott on TV’s Supergirl, is trying to save his cousin who was forced into an ex-gay conversion therapy center against her will.

Jeremy Jordan, who plays Winn Schott on CBS’ Supergirl, has turned to social media in an effort to rescue his cousin from being trapped in an ex-gay conversion therapy center.

A GoFundMe page he and his family created explains that after his cousin, Sarah, 17, took her girlfriend to prom, her parents sent her to an East Texas Christian boarding facility for troubled teens to “pray away the gay.”

“She is not allowed phone calls or email or any form of computer communication,” Jordan explains. “She is also not allowed visitors and cannot leave the property. She is completely cut off from the outside world. She tried to run away, but was caught by the staff and returned to the facility.”

Sarah’s aunt hired Christine Andresen, a local lawyer who specializes in LGBT issues, and the GoFundMe page was established to offset the legal fees which are expected to be somewhere around $100,000. So far, they managed to raise just under $30,000 in two days.

Fellow actor, Colton Haynes, contributed $5,000 to the campaign. Haynes plays Arsenal in The CW’s hit television show, Arrow, and recently came out as gay. He took to Twitter to ask his fans to help support the cause. “This absolutely breaks my heart,” he said. “Pls help Jeremy Jordan’s cousin be her true self.”

According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), conversion therapy can be extremely dangerous and, in some cases, fatal.

“Research shows that lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were more than eight times more likely to report having attempted suicide, more than five times more likely to report high levels of depression, more than three times more likely to use illegal drugs, and more than three times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection.”

There are only a handful of states that ban conversion therapy on minors. Among those states are California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, New York, and Vermont. Washington D.C., and Cincinnati also have similar protections.

The legal hearing to save Jordan’s cousin is set for July, but in the meantime, Jordan is asking people to help spread the word on social media using #SaveSarah. To help get Sarah out of the conversion therapy center, and to read the full post by Jordan, visit the GoFundMe page here.

 

Image by FanAboutTown via Flickr and a CC license