Will Illinois Be #13?
The Daily Agenda for Monday, May 20
Gay Man Shot To Death In NYC Hate Crime
The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 19
French President Hollande Signs Marriage Bill
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 18
Fox News Ignores Marriage Equality Wins
The Era of Civil Unions Is Coming To An End
Featured Reports
What Are Little Boys Made Of?
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
Slouching Towards Kampala: Uganda’s Deadly Embrace of Hate
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
David Benkof: Behind the Mask
At first glance, David Benkof appears to be a young gay man who believes that same-sex marriage will damage the institution of marriage, that there are better options for gay couples than marriage, that the community should join him in prioritizing other more pressing issues, and that the marriage discussion is harming the efforts of gay couples in red states to get recognition for their unions. He also claims that he’s a gay columnist, that he speaks for an influential collection of gay thinkers, and that he is part of the gay and lesbian community and that he shares our goals and dreams. But none of that is true.
“Repeat After Me”: The Reparative Therapy Echo Chamber
The April 2008 edition of the pay-to-publish vanity journal Psychological Reports featured a new report from NARTH. Written by NARTH president A. Dean Byrd, past president Joseph Nicolosi, and Richard W. Potts, the report carries the unwieldy but self-descriptive title, “Clients perceptions of how reorientation therapy and self-help can promote changes in sexual orientation.” While the title describes what the authors meant to show — how clients describe the benefits of reparative therapy — the report itself actually illustrates something very different: the ex-gay movement’s remarkable ability to instill an almost robot-like parroting of ex-gay rhetoric among their clients.
Testing the Premise: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague?
The Toronto Star said that a new study “discover[ed] a new strain” of a super-bug “hitting gay men.” Headlines in Britain screamed, “Flesh-eating bug strikes San Francisco’s gay community,” and anti-gay extremists across America spread the alarm that gays were introducing another plague into “the general population.” But there was a small problem with all of this: None of it is true!
Paul Cameron’s World
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing The Myths
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don't miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Testing The Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Straight From The Source: What the “Dutch Study” Really Says About Gay Couples
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
The FRC’s Briefs Are Showing
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
Review: The Gay Report
When Karla Jay and Allan Young published The Gay Report in 1979, it quickly a favorite source of statistics for many anti-gay extremists. But before you accepts these statistic at face value, you should examine the inner workings of this survey very carefully. What you learn might surprise you.
Daniel Fetty Doesn’t Count
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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John
June 19th, 2007 | LINK
It’s not changing their minds that is a concern. They know perfectly well that if a “gay gene” were found that public sentiment would shift in support of gays.
Bruce Garrett
June 19th, 2007 | LINK
It has always been naive to think that discovering a “gay gene” or other biological explanations would suddenly bring all the debates to an end.
I’ve been saying this for years: nobody doubts that race is genetic and hereditary and that hasn’t made the slightest impact on racism, nor softened a single racist’s heart.
Emproph
June 19th, 2007 | LINK
“In Alan Chambers’s 2006 book, God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door”:
“Would that mean that genetic predispositions to behavior are the sole determinant of behavior?”
My desire to love and be loved, INCLUDING physically and sexually is reduced to “behavior” alone. A strawman setup for the following:
For instance, there is reportedly a genetic link to alcoholism. Yet people overcome that battle every day. I know many men and women who once were in bondage to alcohol and now live in freedom from that addiction. The same with drugs, lying, stealing, you name it.”
Now it’s easy to see how my human desire to love and be loved is equal to abusing my body and intentionally harming others.
-Spoken like a true moral relativist. I wonder if there’s a “genetic predisposition” for that?
quo
June 19th, 2007 | LINK
I note that no one seems to be anticipating the possibility that the day may come when the evidence that homosexuality isn’t determined purely by biological factors will become too hard to ignore. If that happens, will gay activists change their minds and decide that religious conservatives were right all along?
John
June 19th, 2007 | LINK
We don’t have to wait for a hypothetical future about this because this is what the best research is saying right now. My personal answer would depend upon whether you were asking about moral or civil concerns. The former is the purview of religious belief while the latter is not. It is the latter that I am interested in regardless for homosexuality has not been shown to be pathological or detrimental to society.
Jim Burroway
June 19th, 2007 | LINK
Actually, quo, I do believe that the best evidence suggests that homosexuality isn’t necessarily determined purely by biological factors. That is, in fact, what the best research suggests. And no, I don’t believe that it means that religious conservatives were right all along.
Many of you probably missed it, but I wrote about that possibility last January back when this site’s readership was much smaller. Maybe I should reprise that post again sometime.
Emproph
June 20th, 2007 | LINK
Absolutely.
At the precise moment absence of evidence is officially determined I will formally announce to the world that I DO NOT EXIST.
quo
June 20th, 2007 | LINK
Jim, if you don’t think that sexual orientation is purely biological, then specifically which other factors do you think are involved?
Jim Burroway
June 21st, 2007 | LINK
Quo,
I already covered that ground in this article. More specifically, all of the factors, whether they be biological, environmental, childhood experiences, genetics, etc., are as individual as the particular individual. It’s impossible to generalize.
But more importantly, and this was the whole point of the article that I refer you to, I believe it is a false debate. Our rights and our standing in society are not dependent on whether we are born gay or made gay. Please read in All We, Like Sheep? for a more complete explanation.
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