Restoration Path, known as Love in Action (LIA) until March 2012, was an ex-gay Christian ministry founded in 1973.
The organization was founded in 1973 by Frank Worthen, John Evans, and Kent Philpott in Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco.
[8] In June 2005, a 16-year-old Tennessee boy, Zach Stark, posted a blog entry on his MySpace site, part of which includes: Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay.... Well today, my mother, father, and I had a very long "talk" in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist christian program for gays.
So I'm sitting here in tears, joing [sic] the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs - and I can't help it.
He said his parents no longer let him hang out with girls as friends because it was unhealthy and that his father had asked him to stop blogging.
As of June 28, 2005, the investigation was dropped, with Tennessee officials citing a lack of evidence of child abuse at the facilities.
[12] LIA stopped accepting the mentally ill and dispensing medications and, in February 2006, the state of Tennessee ceased legal action.
The 2012 book The Miseducation of Cameron Post, the debut novel of American author Emily M. Danforth, was inspired by the Stark controversy.
[5] The book was adapted in 2018 as Boy Erased, a film directed by Joel Edgerton starring Lucas Hedges.