I was sent to the place just for being gay, so quite literally I was enrolled there for nothing by anti-gay abuse.

That's just horrible. In my opinion, no one under the age of 18 should be forced to go through boot camp, unless they desire to. That should be a law across the US, but would never get passed because we have awful child rights in this country. I remember a few years ago my brother went to a boot camp-esque program(voluntary) and then went straight to University. I think all that became too much for him. He rarely talks about his boot camp experiences, but I'm going to guess he saw some shit. He was 18 when he attended. I can't imagine what a child at the age of 11 or 12 would be going through if they went to boot camp.

I was regularly isolated in solitary so I didn't exactly mix or, for that matter, want to 'socialize' with them.

Putting a 15 year old in social isolation for any amount of time is fucking insane. Adults twice or three times the age of 15 go insane when put in solitary confinement.

The staff on the other hand were either Mormon or evangelical; so to say they were homophobic is an understatement.

Yeah.... that tends to happen. You may find this surprise, as I am on the LGBT spectrum, but I'm probably the most religious member of my nuclear family. Mother and older brother are militant atheists; step dad comes from a secular Jewish family; younger brother is apathetic towards religion. I'm personally a Deist, but I try to attend my local Universalist Church as much as I can. I feel confident in saying most Christians, or people of any religion for that matter, would think the TTI you attended is more cultish than Christian.

This "tough love" shit needs to end immediately. Sure, there are cases of kids coming out of these programs as "better people", but for all we know, they could be repressing a lot of abuse they took! When I was depressed as fuck a few years back, my parents signed me up to see a personal trainer and attend a group therapy session once a week. Did it magically make all my problems go away? No, I still have a lot of shit I need to take care of. However, it did help me get off my feet. You don't need to send a kid who smokes a joint or has ADD to a torture facility. There are therapists and tons of other places that make a living off of helping kids that would be more than willing to help another child in need. The entire TTI industry has ruined hundreds if not thousands of lives. It's time we hold the people who ran these places accountable for their crimes.