Last summer, 19 year old Daniel Ashley Pierce faced a kind of 'gay intervention' from his family in Georgia. He had previously come out to his family, including his father and stepmother, to little response. However, Daniel soon found himself facing what he calls a "delayed intervention." He secretly recorded the experience. His motivation to record it, according to an interview with the Huffington Post, was to have evidence in case "something happened." These fears, unfortunately, became all too true.
Daniel faced both verbal and physical abuse from his family. Afterwards, Daniel's friend posted the video to her YouTube account. While you can't see much, the audio is emotionally difficult to listen to and more than disturbing.
"You can deny it all you want to," says a woman (possibly Daniel's stepmother) in the video, "but I believe in the word of God, and God creates nobody that way... It's a path that you have chosen to choose."
Daniel, who seems to have come prepared to the encounter with some sound arguments, cannot prevent tempers from flaring. There is a physical altercation and Daniel is called derisive terms. After being disowned and abused, Daniel left.
The good news is that Daniel has supportive friends and a boyfriend. According to the latest reports, he is living with a trusted relative.
Moreover, Daniel's video and story quickly went viral. The global LGBT and ally community pitched in to support him and
donated close to $100,000 via Daniel's GoFundMe campaign. Daniel was overwhelmed by the support, and even closed the campaign, telling donors that they can send money in support of Atlanta-based
Lost-n-Found.org instead.
The following is the video that Daniel candidly filmed. Again, WARNING: this is hard to watch and contains graphic language.
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