NOM Commits Sodomy
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, February 11
The Daily Agenda for Friday, February 10
Again anti-gays blindly and gleefully shoot themselves in the foot
Rep. Walsh leads with her heart
Advocate, WaPo, AP Get it Wrong On Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Uganda Executive, Parliament Tussle Over Anti-Homosexuality BIll
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, February 9
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 450 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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Ben in Oakland
February 19th, 2008 | LINK
Very sad to listen to this, and very angrifying.
Shame is certainly going to be a part of this. Shame is at the very bottom of the integrity scale–it means you have abandoned your love of yourself.
But you also have to consider this: this recitation of sexual adventures– do you think anyone was, oh, GETTING OFF on it? Very much like that convicted therapist and his “touch therapy” turning into sexual assault?
quo III
February 20th, 2008 | LINK
It wasn’t quite clear to me whether Toscano was saying that causing one’s children to become gay is not a bad thing, or whether it isn’t true that parents cause their children to become gay. If the former is true, then presumably there would be no need to argue the latter.
Regan DuCasse
February 20th, 2008 | LINK
Quo3, the point is that NO parent causes their children to be gay. That they ARE gay isn’t a bad thing, and it’s not true that a parent can have ANY effect on their child’s orientation by way of their style of nurturing, or not.
However, as Peterson says, the ex gay industry PLACES blame on parents where there should be none, and parents suffer tremendous guilt and recrimination because of it.
It’s incredible how the ex gay movement gets away with such thin theories and no evidence that their endeavor has ANY healthy results all around.
And if people looked at any given society, they could see that parental styles don’t have anything to do with homosexuality.
For example: there is a huge percentage of black children born out of wedlock to single MOTHERS. Often with ineffectual fathers or no male role model in the home. And yet, there is no disproportionate amoung of homosexuality in black mother headed homes.
Another example: even among third generation Asian families, there are still strongly patriarchal family trends. And yet, homosexuality occurs with the same regularity as among any other ethnic group. Same goes for Native Americans, Armenians and Arabs.
So in short, the archaic ex gay theory on what ’causes’ homosexuality is easily busted. Period.
There is no cause, however there is cause regarding incidence of depression, hopelessness and isolation. The calculation is higher against gay children, but the ex gay industry doesn’t repect THAT cause, which is the one that matters.
So they approach a human condition that requires no intervention or cure or change, with the wrong theory, application and no end of broken templates on which their exercises stem.
Makes me wanna holler!
quo III
February 20th, 2008 | LINK
The point I was trying to make was that if being gay isn’t a bad thing, then parents who feel guilty because they think they caused their children to become gay should not be told that they aren’t responsible, but that it doesn’t matter because being gay isn’t bad.
BTW, do you have actual statistics about the rate of homosexuality in black mother headed homes? I’ve heard this argument often, but never seen anyone present hard evidence to back it up. Again, where’s the evidence regarding third generation Asian families, and the other groups you mention?
William
February 24th, 2008 | LINK
Quo III,
You write as though one has to choose EITHER one OR other of the following propositions:
1. Parents are not responsible for their children being gay.
2. Being gay is not a bad thing.
Not only are the above two propositions perfectly consistent with each other; both may be true, and I believe that both are.
quo III
February 24th, 2008 | LINK
William, we all have beliefs.
William
February 24th, 2008 | LINK
Yes, quo III, indeed we do, but the point that I am making is that the two propositions that you have mentioned – (1) that parents are not responsible for their children being gay, and (2) that being gay is not a bad thing – can both be believed without any breach of logic, since neither is inconsistent with the other. You don’t have to choose between them.
Whether one DOES in fact believe both of them is another matter entirely. I do: others may not.
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