Diversity Rules Magazine

3 Diversity Rules Magazine June 2015 David-Elijah Nah- mod is a film crit- ic and reporter in San Francisco. His articles ap- pear regularly in The Bay Area Reporter and SF Weekly. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter. David developed Post Traumatic Syndrome Disor- der (PTSD) after surviving gay conversion therapy as a child and has found that many in the LGBT community suffer from severe, often untreated emotional disorders due to the extreme anti-gay traumas they endured. This column chronicles his journey. On April 1, 2015 I stood before Judge Charles Cromp- ton in San Francisco Superior Court and requested a restraining order against a psychotic fan of the clas- sic TV series Dark Shadows. Said fan, who claims to have been a "close friend" of series star Jonathan Frid, had been waging a slander and harassment campaign against me that went on for nearly five years. ough I blocked her on Facebook in 2010, she admitted to at least one person that she continues to "monitor" my page under a false identity. She contacted personal friends of mine in order to "warn" them about me. She urged people not to work with me in a professional capacity, gleefully telling anyone who would listen all about how "sick" I am. I guess there's a grain of truth to the "sickness" claims- -I do, after all, live with PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As I wrote in the first edition of this column, I developed PTSD after my parents subjected my to gay conversion therapy and years of religious mental abuse during my childhood. What my parents did to me, and what happened to me as a result, was the weapon my tormenter chose to use against me. You have to wonder what kind of a person would do such a thing. What kind of an upbringing did she have? Did her parents not teach her the difference between right from wrong? Since last summer Jonathan Frid's "dear friend" had escalated her campaign of bullying and hate. Her pri- mary issue became Dark Shadows' LGBT Connection, a column I had written for Fangoria Magazine about the show's massive gay fan base, and what Jonathan Frid's status as a gay actor meant to them. My tor- menter was enraged--she claimed that I "outed" Mr. Frid, never mind that publications such as Huffington Post, Village Voice and many others had written about Mhis homosexuality long before I had. She escalated her rampage in order to protect her idol's legacy from the "evil scourge" of homosexuality. In her world it's offensive and dis- turbing to say that a gay man was gay, but bullying, threatening and slandering people in his name is con- sidered acceptable. When I went before Judge Crompton I held in my hand a letter from the doctor who treats my PTSD. e letter urged that the restraining order be granted-- the doctor stated that the conduct of Mr. Frid's friend posed a danger to my health. I also had emails sent to me from my tormenter's personal email account: she was threatening to contact my employers. Because of a minor clerical error in my court fil- ings, Judge Crompton dismissed by request "with prejudice"--meaning that I cannot refile the request. e judge was offered my documents but he ignored them. Less than twenty four hours later my tormenter contacted me (and others) several times to gloat about her "victory", to ridicule my PTSD and to say that I'm a con artist for claiming to be disabled. I am in fact considered disabled by federal law be- cause of my PTSD diagnosis. I am entitled to access PTSD Memoir - Con't on page 7 If You Could Read My Mind A PTSD Memoir: The Darkest Shadow, Part 2 By David-Elijah Nahmod

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