The parents of Bryce Faulkner have spoken to Fox News to deny allegations that their 23-year-old son is being coerced into attending an ex-gay program.

Friends of Bryce, a 23-year-old medical student who graduated this year, say he was happily gay and ready to move from Arkansas to Wisconsin to be with his boyfriend, Travis Swanson, 24. They believe he was browbeaten into therapy by his Baptist parents after they found out about his homosexuality.

But mother Debra Faulkner told Fox today that the stories were untrue. She confirmed that Bryce was undergoing “Christian counselling,” but said that he just wanted to “take some time and figure out what he wants to do with his life,” after he got “caught up with friends who were pulling him that way.”

A statement allegedly from Bryce was released through a representative of the family, saying:

Every decision that I’ve made has been based solely upon my beliefs and I have not been manipulated or coerced by anyone to do anything.

Swanson maintains that his boyfriend was manipulated under threat of being disowned by his family, both emotionally and financially. A campaign by Reverend Brett A Harris to help Bryce has been the subject of a website and two Facebook pages, both of which have now been removed, presumably due to legal threats.

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