In the News
August 31, 2023 | People Magazine
"It's really given me the courage to tell my own story, which has been an incredibly healing process for me," Simon Kent Fung — host of the 'Dear Alana,' podcast — tells PEOPLE
January 13, 2022 | National Catholic Reporter
In September 2016, a police officer came to our home and took our daughter Alana to the hospital. As he later explained, a friend had reported that Alana was planning to die by suicide in the sanctuary of our Catholic Church.
May 19, 2020 | Vice
Conversion Therapy Is Dangerous and Deadly. How Is It Still Legal?
Last December, 24-year-old Alana Chen died by suicide in Boulder, Colorado. According to Alana's family, Alana wanted to be a nun as a teenager, and she volunteered to receive conversion therapy counseling from both a reverend and a therapist from Catholic Charities’ Sacred Heart Counseling after coming out as a lesbian in 2013…
January 6, 2020 | The Denver Post
Joyce Calvo-Chen’s fingertips traced the outline of her daughter’s face in framed pictures arranged on the family’s kitchen table days after Christmas — photographic evidence that 24-year-old Alana Chen once danced, smiled and lived among us…
January 4, 2020 | Daily Camera
Opinion: Jean Hodges: Alana Chen was a victim of a false belief system
My heart has been heavy during this holiday season since I learned of the death by suicide of Alana Chen. From my 25-plus years of commitment to PFLAG, the oldest national organization that supports our LGBTQ children and their families, I have been committed to changing minds and hearts…
December 28, 2019 | Daily Camera
Louisville family blames religious trauma in Alana Chen’s death
There may have been snow on the ground and a crisp to the air, but that didn’t stop the Chen family from playing tennis at the Louisville Recreation Center on Thanksgiving, just a few minutes away from their home. “This was the first Thanksgiving in years all of us were together…”
August 18, 2019 | The Denver Post
Colorado’s new ban on conversion therapy wouldn’t have protected these LGBTQ women. Here’s why.
To avoid having to drop out of Colorado Christian University, 18-year-old Journey Mueller reluctantly agreed to enter the private Lakewood school’s counseling program after administrators learned she was questioning her sexuality. Mueller didn’t meet the goal she said her counselor set out for her…