New Hampsure results silence NOM's Maggie Gallagher
Mormon/Boy Scout sexual abuse problem
"Not Equal" Flag Debuted in New York DADT Protest
"Not Guilty, Not Ashamed, and Not Finished"
Anti-gay general's comments infuriate the Dutch
ENDA Sit-ins Result in Arrests in DC and San Francisco
Anti-Gay Group Sells Snakeoil
Schumer Argues for LGBT Incusion in Immigration Reform
Featured Reports
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 two hundred 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.
Patrick
October 22nd, 2007 | LINK
I must say I found the response a bit odd:
“Does Dumbledore find true love?”
“Dumbledore is gay”
As if that precludes him from finding true love.
I don’t think the comment is a reflection of Rowling, but perhaps of some deeply embedded beliefs in Western society about gay love and the possibilities thereof. Just like in “Brokeback Mountain”, true love is beyond the characters’ possibilities – the only resolution for the situation is loneliness, repression, death, etc.
Nonetheless, kudos to Rowling for her honesty and imagination.
Joel
October 22nd, 2007 | LINK
I can’t wait for the christian fundies to start with their rhetoric about gay dumbledore! I cant fathom what their rhetoric will be, but rest assured, I’m sure they’ll make it interesting.
Samantha Davis
October 22nd, 2007 | LINK
I think the reason why her comment was worded the way it was was because the rumors were that Dumbledore was in love with McGonigal. So, I think that she might have interpreted the question to refer to that.
Michael
October 23rd, 2007 | LINK
Patrick, I agreed with your analysis until reading the full Trib article. After saying that he was gay, she goes onto explain his true love/not finding true love with the boy in his childhood—which doesn’t seem to be predicated on his being gay, but rather Dumbledore being blind to his love’s failures. It was definitely meant as an “oh wow!” statement, but was also just prefacing the fact that his flirt with true love was with another guy.
But I agree—kudos to Rowling.
PiaSharn
October 23rd, 2007 | LINK
(note: I tried posting this once, and it didn’t seem come up. So if I end up posting this twice, I appologize.)
Patrik, that isn’t exactly how the question, or her response, was phrased. Perhaps if you saw the exact quotes, the statement would make more sense…
(via the transcript at The Leaky Cauldron)
Question: “Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?”
JKR: “My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] … Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair… [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, ‘Dumbledore’s gay!’ [laughter] If I’d known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!”
She also explains a bit more about her statement in this article.
Hope that clarifies things a bit.
Joel
October 24th, 2007 | LINK
TY piasharn for the transcript. Now things make more sense. 1) I heard she just came up with it when they asked her the question, which definately doesn’t seem to be true.
2) THe part where the SCRIPT said dumbledore slid the note saying something about a girl I was under the belief that it was not in a script, but rather, on one of the earlier books.
That scriptwriter probably didn’t see it coming tho, heh.
Patrick
October 24th, 2007 | LINK
Thanks for the additional context. Obviously the apparent “word-play” wasn’t Rowlings but a construct of those reporting her comments.
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