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
Orthodox Priests Lead Violent Attack On LGBT Rights Rally in Tbilisi, Georgia
France's Marriage Equality Bill Clears Final Hurdle
The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 17
Marriage Equality Made This Maryland Legislator Drive Drunk
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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quo III
January 13th, 2008 | LINK
Timothy,
You wrote ‘regardless of the amount of time a father spends doting on his son, it isn’t going to affect his blood type or his Ph factor.’
This is undoubtedly true, but I don’t see how it shows that there isn’t something to what Dobson is saying.
Erica B.
January 13th, 2008 | LINK
Minor scientific nitpick: pH indicates how acidic or basic something is. Rh factor has to do with blood type. When I read your first sentence I was wondering how much the acidity of people’s blood really varied ;)
Pretty interesting, especially since they know which genes this works with. It also shows that any biological basis for homosexuality is extremely complex and works with multiple genetic factors — which is really no surprise at all.
Timothy Kincaid
January 13th, 2008 | LINK
Thanks Erica,
It’s been corrected.
Suricou Raven
January 14th, 2008 | LINK
How long because a degayification church starts offering blood transfusion as a ‘cure’?
CPT_Doom
January 14th, 2008 | LINK
Well, Suricou, I don’t think that would work either. I am gay as a goose and happen to have blood type A+, so it is clear that blood type is not a definitive indicator of sexual orientation, though the finding is still cool (and right in line with other biological findings).
Ben in Oakland
January 14th, 2008 | LINK
Though I would very much like for gay to be found to be genetic– and absolutely believe that it is inherent in some sense that, if not genetic, is certainly very much like that– I am nonetheless very suspicious of studies that “prove” that it is genetic by means of correlations with other kinds of genetic traits.
for me, the problem is one of definition. Who is gay? Who is straight? I too am a really big fag. Though I have had sex with a woman, and enjoyed it at the time, I have no real desire in that direction. If i did, I would be “straight” in the same way that numbers of men are “gay”– able to function, maybe really itnerested in functioning, but not where i live my life or how I see myself. I would always be a gay man who “slips” once in a while. That doesn’t make me straight.
ultimately, I don’t think the labels mean anything.
Having said that, it is clear to me that it doesn’t matter whether it is genetic or not, because for the people like J&Y, Throckmorton, et al, and the more out there and obvious bigots, that isn’t the issue. They think it should be made to go away, period.
It all starts with the ideological position that GAY IS BAD. Everything else flows from that to confirm that basic position…
…just like it does for me in the opposite position, GAY IS GOOD.
Jason D
January 14th, 2008 | LINK
Ben I agree, the research is “interesting” at best, but I just don’t see anything good coming of finding a the cause or causes.
I’m left-handed, so is my brother. Nobody else in the family on either side is left-handed and quite frankly, nobody cares anymore. It was neat when we were 6 and 8, it’s boring as hell now.
I’m not interested in finding out how or why I am left-handed. And we no longer live in a world where people care. Science hasn’t found out why or how, so clearly it was something else that made people get over it.
In much the same way, I think we should really stop relying on the genetic/scientific argument because it is just going to shoot us in the foot.
Think about it, what do the ex-gay ministries and anti-gay folks do already? They have a supposed cause or causes and they treat accordingly. Finding scientific evidence will merely make them change tactics.
They will give up on “reparative therapy” and start focusing their efforts on “gene therapy” if that is determined to be the cause. If they find out it’s womb factors, there will be pre-natal “treatment” options for women concerned their child might be gay. If it’s a gene, they’ll want to replace or destroy it. It will be added to the list of reasons why a woman might wish to terminate her pregnancy. It won’t end with a medical discovery, it WILL turn even uglier than it already is.
homer
January 14th, 2008 | LINK
I’m another A+ homo.
Suricou Raven
January 15th, 2008 | LINK
A+ here too… not that it means anything :>
I didn’t say that transfusion would work. I just said that someone might give it a try, out of ignorance.
If someone did find a gene that correlated highly with homosexuality… it wouldn’t really change anything. Try finding a lab that would offer a prenatal test. The anti-gays wouldn’t be put off by a biological basis, any more then the racists were – they would probably argue that some people are biologically inclined towards rape and murder, and gays should control their immoral nature just like those examples. Biological cause is just a big red herring. All it would do is make LwO change their rhetoric a bit, from ‘bad parenting makes people gay’ to ‘Only good parenting and Christ can save people from the gay gene within them.’
simon
January 17th, 2008 | LINK
yeah, i don’t think finding the gay gene would actually benefit me or most of my friends and lovers that much either. most of our lives are more complicated than gay or straight. i’d rather start with the complexity and work from there rather than work to attain full rights for a specific group that fits into some genetically defined box.
John
February 12th, 2008 | LINK
my blood is Rh-
and I’m not gay.
John
February 12th, 2008 | LINK
O Rh-
Isaac
October 1st, 2009 | LINK
Blood Type: O
RH Factor: Negative
Orientation: Gay
Gender: Male
I’ve always thought about this(blood types, etc.) being a possiblity in being gay. I know green eyes is a possibilty(like mine, depending on the blood type and rh-factor)
Burr
October 1st, 2009 | LINK
Hmm didn’t see this before.
It should be noted that Rh negative is more often found in Europeans (35% of Basques in particular are Rh-), and almost never found in Asians and Africans.
So unless there’s dramatically fewer gays in those populations (and a LOT of gay Basques!), I don’t think this has any merit.
William
October 2nd, 2009 | LINK
Quo III is right. There may be something to what Dobson is saying. And then again, as seems to me more probable, there may be absolutely nothing.
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