The Baptist Standard calls out Texas Baptists on their hypocrisy
Canada's Anglicans oppose Uganda's 'Kill Gays' bill
Gillibrand, a willing ally
A review of the Manhattan Declaration
NJ Democrats Wiggle and Waffle
NOM's biblical Illiteracy
Texas kid beaten with metal pole, entirely preventable
Austria gets civil partnerships
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.
Bruce Garrett
November 28th, 2007 | LINK
What is “extreme right-handedness”…? I’m trying to google it and all I’m coming up with are studies that reference it, but nothing that explains what it is. How do I know if I’m extremely right-handed?
Randi Schimnosky
November 28th, 2007 | LINK
Bruce, I have always considered myself extremely right handed. What I mean by that is that I have a great deal of difficulty doing anything that requires coordination with my left hand, much more so than any typical right-hander I know. As well the right side of my body is a great deal stronger than the left, once again to a much greater degree than any typical right handers I know.
Bruce Garrett
November 28th, 2007 | LINK
Well…I’m my mom’s only child, and so the passages I’m reading in these news stories that “…the extreme right-handedness finding is only seen in men with no or few older brothers”, is interesting to me. But I guess I’m looking for something like a objective, clinical description of it.
How do I tell if I fall into that category from the point of view of the researchers? I can tell what it is to prefer my right hand over my left in tasks like writing and drawing. I’ve tried occasionally using my left for stuff like that now and then as a matter of fact and it’s nearly impossible. But I can’t gage whether my difficulty in that regard is extreme or not since I can’t know from first…er…hand experience how difficult it is for anyone else.
Can anyone point me to something like a clinical description of extreme right-handedness? Obviously there’s some kind of standard being applied here…right? I’m really finding this fascinating. I’ve never heard this term before.
Timothy Kincaid
November 28th, 2007 | LINK
Bruce,
I don’t know that this will answer your question, but the questionnaire at this site may give you some idea of what they look for.
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/rltab75.html
Based on their scoring I’m right-handed, but with only +13 on a scale of -24 to +24, I would have to guess that I’m probably not extremely right-handed.
Bruce Garrett
November 28th, 2007 | LINK
Wow…thanks Timothy…this is really interesting. I scored +23 Sometimes I switch hands while brooming…that’s only when I need to handle odd corners, but I do it and still broom pretty well. So the answer to that one was “usually right”. It’s the only thing on that list I could say honestly that I switch hands doing At All. What really struck me was how odd it felt answering all but one of those questions “always right”. I thought I was just like everyone else in regard to how I use my hands to do things but I have to assume that most right-handed folks will at least answer some of those questions differently.
If you got a +13 and you’re right handed then I guess my brain’s a tad more insistent about it for some reason. I mean…it’s not like I never use my left hand for anything…like right now on the keyboard for instance I’m fine using both hands. And when working at my drafting table or around the house, both hands are always busy. But given that specific set of questions to answer…dang…I was answering with “always right” over and over and it wasn’t like I had to even think hard about it on any of them. Using a hammmer…check. Holding a match to strike it…check. Using my toothbrush…check. And so on. No, I just don’t do any of that with the left hand. It would feel very awkward even trying, so I don’t. But it never ever occurred to me that’s an extreme behavior. I always thought it was normal right handedness.
Be nice to see what the spread on that questionnaire is, from -24 to +24. They only post data on that page from a study that breaks it out three ways (Left, Mixed, and Right).
Jim Burroway
November 29th, 2007 | LINK
Let’s see, I’m left handed, Bruce Garret’s extreme righ-handed. Timothy, are you sure you’re gay? ;-)
Timothy Kincaid
November 29th, 2007 | LINK
I have two older brothers. I still qualify.
Barry
December 1st, 2007 | LINK
According to that link, I’m +24 and I also have 3 older brothers.
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