In Moore County, Kim Disney worked as a court advocate at the nonprofit Friend to Friend agency, which helps victims of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. And until recently, she also was a board member of Sandhills Pride, an LGBT support network in the area.
In the past year, Disney said, she had four or five requests at Friend to Friend from parents seeking “no-contact” court orders against people their kids wanted to date. Their reason: The kids wanted to date someone who was the same sex and their parents were afraid their kids would be influenced to become gay.
The parents were informed such reasons did not fall under state statutes.
“It’s upsetting. I do feel there’s an attempt to misuse the court system,” said Disney, who is a lesbian and said she was speaking on behalf of herself, and not Friend to Friend. “That’s a pretty extreme way to block a relationship.”
But she wasn’t surprised by the requests. In Moore County, Disney said, “the LGBT community is not as accepted in rural parts of the county, especially with local churches.”
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