Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyOctober 8th, 2007
The Los Angeles Times had an article on Friday about the concerns some residents of a Sante Fe gay retirement center had regarding more people moving in that are not gay. New Mexico has a housing non-discrimination policy which forbids the center from denying residency based on sexual orientation.
The controversy may be a bit exagerated as the only ones quoted as concerned later admitted that they did not object to the straight residents that had moved in. Few homophobes seek residency in a center designed for gay folks.
Because my roommate’s grandmother was one of the first heterosexual residents, I can bring you her perspective: the buildings are just the type of home she always dreamed of living in but the food is too fancy and the lecture about lesbian activism wasn’t very useful.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
allan
October 8th, 2007
the lecture on lesbian… now THAT is funny.
a. mcewen
October 8th, 2007
i have to say though that i love the idea that there is a focus on the lgbt elderly. the more we talk about different facets of our community, the less we can be boxed in by lies.
cowboy
October 9th, 2007
A related article in the New York Times:
Aging and Gay, and Facing Prejudice in Twilight
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/us/09aged.html
David B.
October 9th, 2007
Affordable, quality, safe senior housing is incredibly difficult to find in Los Angeles. The Gay and Lesbian Center just opened a gay senior housing project in Hollywood. Sadly, two women that I know who were looking for housing for more than a year, both got into the new complex, even though they’re straight and always have been, by lying and claiming they were lesbians – separately claiming, they’re not a couple and barely know each other.
Neither are my friends now and I have struggled, weekly, on whether or not I should notify the Center. In the end, I’ve said nothing, but I’m angry about the whole thing every time I think of it.
We also have this problem in our city and county jails. The special gay and lesbian lock-ups exist to protect the gay inmates from violence in the general population. Last year an informal, anonymous survey revealed that at any one time more than half of the inmates in the segregated facilities lied about be gay because the special unit was the safest place to be while in the hands of law enforcement in greater Los Angeles.
The challenges in keeping gays and lesbians safe in jail or as seniors go beyond making the facilities available. Unfortunately, places like the Center are failing in making sure that the limited number of slots available are being given to actual gays and lesbians.
It’s very frustrating. I guess, when it comes right down to it, I’m not totally sure I wouldn’t claim I was straight if I was totally desperate.
David
Timothy Kincaid
October 10th, 2007
David,
I would stop worrying about whether to report them. California law does not allow discrimination in housing based on sexual orientation and I doubt that the Center could or would try and evict them.
Perhaps one way to look at this (and also at the jail situation) is that people at risk are being helped. And that some of those being helped are not gay is no reason to deny them protection or housing. If identifying as gay and going into a pink cell saves the life of an inmate – without endangering gay people – I can hardly see the harm.
The reason that gay people are identified as at risk is to protect them, not to advantage them over other at risk heterosexuals.
Tom Blackburn
May 30th, 2008
I have been looking for affordable housing for gay retirees in North Carolina. Currently I am living in Perquimans County and keeping my sexual orientation to myself. The one place in NC that I found is way out of my league. I have a doublewide on an acre of land and it meets my needs but I am 15 miles from the nearest small town. Wonder what gay retirees like myself do when they don’t have huge incomes?
Leave A Comment