The "Biblical" Worldwide Anglican Communion
Namibia Political Parties Hesitantly Supportive
Purdue Professor Spews "An Economic Case Against Homosexuality"
Australian Senate Refuses to Oppose Uganda's "Kill Gays" Bill
My Prayer
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Uganda Women's Group: "Kill the Gays"
Referendum 71 Update - 11/5
Featured Reports
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.
Jonathan
August 16th, 2007 | LINK
I cannot begin to fathom reading that book to my 8 year old. Cohen has some issues!
Erica
August 16th, 2007 | LINK
Oh my God, that is truly disturbing. It was bad by page 3, it was worse by 5, it was horrifying by 7.
I did appreciate a librarian’s review found at Amazon, though…
Even ignoring the terrible bigotry that inspired that warped storyline, Cohen is just incompetent at writing a book.
Marcus
August 16th, 2007 | LINK
The book promotes one of the theories of reparative therapists: That lack of father love, homoemotionally wound boys so they become targets of male pedophiles, that prey on these boys vulnerabilities. It pushes the idea that same sex attractions can be overcome by healing the homoemotional wounds.
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) I do recognize this pattern from myself and other male survivors of CSA. (that lack of father love make boys vulnerable to being targeted by pedophiles).
The main message of the book is that boys who think they are gay … only misses their fathers love! And will not turn gay if they get loved by their fathers.
They are so nice these simple theories!
I know many gay guys who had very loving fathers. I also know many guys who had absent fathers who did not suffer CSA or
became gay because of that.
I remember Melissa Fryrears comment on the LWO conference that she had never met a lesbian or a gay man who did not experience sexual abuse! Well the majority of gays and lesbians I know have not been sexually abused.
The problem is that CSA often causes sexual identity problems. But to conclude that those who have sexual identity problems because of CSA are not gay, but just needs their fathers love is far fetched. Some survivors of CSA are gay and lesbians. The majority are not.
It is important to have books for children that address the problem of CSA. This book is worthless and do not address the real hurt Alfie suffered; being sexually abused. The author pathologies Alfie thinking he is gay, more than the consequences of CSA. Children who suffered CSA does not need reparative therapy, but therapy to overcome the emotional wounds CSA causes. This book would be a huge insult to a gay boy who had been sexually abused.
Timothy Kincaid
August 16th, 2007 | LINK
Snark Attack Warning
Richard Cohen, on his website, quotes the testimonials of two “Amazon readers” who say lovely things about this book.
Amusingly, both “readers” wrote their reviews on November 2, 1998. What a lucky coincidence. And even more unusual was that one “reader” knew that it was writen by someone who has “been there” and the other was “someone who has experience that healing myself”.
I’ll say one thing for Cohen, he certainly knows the art of self promotion.
homer
August 16th, 2007 | LINK
I attended a talk given by Cohen back in the early 1990s. He gave a long list of reasons people turned gay. By the time he was done, every single person in that auditorium could identify with one or more (your father was distant, your father was too close, etc, etc). I burst out laughing and everyone else joined in, poor Cohen was humiliated.
allan
August 16th, 2007 | LINK
homer… i think i love you.
LOL
Lynn David
August 16th, 2007 | LINK
Such a children’s book is the perfect place to espouse the Nicolosian ideas of father-love hunger!
Hannah
August 17th, 2007 | LINK
I can’t fathom how anyone thought this was an appropriate book to make. Nor do I have any kind words for the creators.
Since I can’t tell them what an utter piece of crap their book is, I did the next best thing: I rewrote it to be about accepting yourself and becoming a hero.
Denise
August 17th, 2007 | LINK
I was put off by the preachy tone and oversimplification of complex issues. I was creeped out by the picture of the boy being molested (page 7). I was disappointed in the not-so-subtle implication that the child not “manning up” and telling his parents about abuse is what made him (effeminate, cowardly) and gay. The same goes for portraying his peers’ nastiness as acceptable and implying they were right to target the boy.
Hannah, I love your rewrite!
Emily K
August 17th, 2007 | LINK
Hannah… I think I love you. :-D
EVERYBODY should make their own version!!
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