The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 24
Boy Scouts of America Votes To Allow Gay Members, Retains Ban On Gay Leaders
Nevada House votes to reverse marriage ban
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, May 23
It's Not the Principle, It's the Prejudice
Congratulations Mitch!
Gay Couples Excluded from Immigration Bill Markup
How To Spot A Swivel-Eyed Loon
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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Emily K
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
that is just CREEPY
Timothy Kincaid
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
I guess we can just forget “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore” because Emma Lazarus was a Jew.
Besides in this statue Liberty doesn’t lift her lamp beside the golden door.
TJ McFisty
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
Embarrassing. My hometown, and I’m embarrassed to say I’m from there. Totally red faced.
Did you get some Rendezvous and/or Corky’s BBQ? About the only (current) good thing to come out of that town.
Daniel Gonzales
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
No, Jim and I were staying downtown and had very little free time so we went to Neely’s cos it was nearby. Their shredded pork and ribs were phenomenal. The beef brisket and chicken not so much.
quo III
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
That’s a very striking image. It’s also probably inadvertently blasphemous.
Emily K
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
Timothy, they LOVE us Jews! Don’t you know they see us as CHOSEN?? They would rather convert a SINGLE JEW to Christianity than 1,000 non-Jews. THat’s how valuable we are to them. Can’t you just feel the love!
Peterson Toscano
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
Give me your poor, your tired, you huddled masses, and I will beat them bloody with the Gospel!
Daniel, great sharing the lesser known Memphis sites with you!
And as for BBQ, as a vegan, I went to RP Tracks for the Tofu BBQ sandwich. Yummmmmmm.
Peterson
Robguy
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
When I first saw the picture, I thought it was a photoshop spoof. Frightening.
Jim Burroway
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
I did a full-on gay gasp as we were driving down the street and I saw the statue emerge from behind the gas station! I live for sights like this.
As for embarrassemnt for being from Memphis, I can say this: it has to be the friendliest city in the U.S. Everyone from the hotel people to the security guards at the airport went out of their way to show a friendly face. And the city is genuinely beautiful, Graceland and tacky Liberty’s and all.
The airport, on the other hand… well, I’ve seen Mexican bus stations run better than this one. Oh well.
Tom
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
The first thing that came to mind when I saw that photo was this Sinclair Lewis quote:
“When fascism come to America, it will be wrapped in the flag carrying a cross.”
Barry
February 25th, 2008 | LINK
The church building in the background is where I attended my ex-gay group, but that statue (pictured) was not there at that time. That congregation grew and moved east several miles and a different congregation now occupies the building. It is the new congregation that put up the statue.
TJ McFisty
February 26th, 2008 | LINK
Well, we did used to call that church (when it was simply “Central Church” which I think moved) Space Mountain Church, but you guys did miss the behemoth out in Collierville/Germantown–dunno if it’s still Bellevue Baptist (Adrian Rogers’ before he died), but it was definitely Church of Big Fat God ‘n’ Spa. Can’t miss it from the interstate for the skyscraper-sized crosses.
I do agree about the friendly part, and honestly, after living in DC for the past 15 years, I do miss the driving there. Way way way more courteous than here and understand what four-way stops and yield signs mean. Little bad on the left turns nowadays, I hear, but that was always a local game for Memphians–how many can get through that left arrow? Everyone! Yay!
Bruce Garrett
February 26th, 2008 | LINK
I did a full-on gay gasp as we were driving down the street and I saw the statue emerge from behind the gas station! I live for sights like this.
I saw a similar sight, and I deeply regret not getting a photo of it. When Christine and I were out getting frames and such for the art show, I saw on the tall billboard by I-40 and Bellevue a sign that read:
The words were inscribed above a photo of about a half dozen or so happy looking people, all smiling down on the highway traffic passing by. It was amazingly ironic, Bellevue being one of the sponsors of Love In Action. I really wanted to climb up there and spray paint …But Change Is Possible on it.
I didn’t have time to grab a shot of it, and when I left Memphis on Monday morning that billboard had been replaced. Drat.
werdna
February 28th, 2008 | LINK
Re: Sinclair Lewis on fascism… There’s an interesting page here: http://shii.org/knows/Fascism_comes_wrapped_in_the_flag discussing the cloudy origins of the quote that Tom referenced. It appears that Lewis never actually said or wrote it. The Sinclair Lewis Society agrees that it’s most likely apocryphal. Doesn’t stop it from being mis-attributed all the time, though (heck, sometimes it attributed to Upton Sinclair!). Is the idea less powerful if it’s not in the form of a quote from someone that most people these day have never heard of anyway?
Anon
February 28th, 2008 | LINK
Having lived in Memphis, I can confirm that the church referred to as “Fort God” and “Six Flags Over Jesus is not the one pictured. No, these two sobriquets concern none other than Bellevue Baptist Church — http://www.bellevue.org.
Regan DuCasse
February 28th, 2008 | LINK
TOFU BBQ sandwich?!???!
Peterson, my brother…eating tofu in Memphis is some kind of sacrilege!
I shoulda warned you. Folk might beat ya with a the jawbone of a steer for that.
I love you so much, it’s a testament to your vegan discipline that you even FOUND tofu in Memphis!
But for sharing wonderful veggie meals with you, I won’t be too hard on you. I respect every bit of you and your life.
This statue is soooo tacky! Thanks for the picture. If I didn’t love that beautiful statue so much, I’d point and laugh at the way these people have used it.
Still, that’s the Bible Road for ya. I know I told you all the “Church of Jesus Christ and Body Shop” story.
I guess the folks at this church have forgotten certain creeds that founded this country and inspired that statue. Like religious persecution. No surprise there.
Peterson, I hope we talk soon. I miss your voice.
Beyond Ex-Gay Memphis Wrap-Up | Ex-Gay Watch
March 6th, 2008 | LINK
[...] Additional reflections on the weekend have been posted by Peterson Toscano, Bruce Garrett, Christine Bakke and Daniel Gonzales. [...]
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