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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Earlier this week, we awarded Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern the LaBarbara Award for her ludicrously malevolent statements recorded at a meeting when she thought nobody was listening. Since then, she’s been trying to explain how what she said wasn’t hateful, but were edited and taken out of context. While her remarks may well have been edited, it’s hard to imagine any “context” which could render them innocuous.
Erica B.
March 11th, 2008 | LINK
It is critical for her to make an apology, especially to her constituents. The fact that her first reaction is to claim that she’s being misunderstood means she fully believes everything she said and is continuing to stand behind it. Narrowing your target down to “wealthy, politically active homosexuals” instead of all gays and lesbians does not make any of your statements acceptable.
But, there’s not likely to be an apology, since she’s “standing up for God’s word” and
Oh, exactly the same thing? What happened to the claim that you were edited?
Nasty fearmongering harpy. I hope I am never represented by you or anyone of your ilk.
Emproph
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
According to her we’re worse than terrorists, so what does that say?
John
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
Gays having rights under the Constitution just like everybody else. Imagine that. How it must gall folks like this ‘gentelady’.
John
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
Btw, I saw on a message board that Kerns’ son is gay and her husband is pastor at Olivet Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Is this true? Is she really trying to say that her own flesh and blood is worse than al Qaeda?!? Well if so, let’s go with the so-called exgay mythos and lay the blame at her feet. They claim homosexuality is due to having an absent father and a dominate mother, so obviously she isn’t fit to be a legislator and neither is her husband fit to be a pastor. After all, they are both to blame for turning somebody loose onto society that is worse than a terrorist. Morons…
Regan DuCasse
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
I wouldn’t want an extorted apology from this woman. Well, just WHAT context DID she mean?
She’s busted. She hates being caught, and even moreso hates being challenged by gay people.
How DARE they! You just know, probably in another conversation where she thinks no one could hear, she’s blaming militant gay activists for making her say it!
Jason D
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
this is some messed up logic.
Let me see if I understand this, is it like….
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about Joe and Patty Homo. I was talking about Joseph and Patrica RichActivistHomo. I’m not threatened by everyday gay folks who keep their mouth shut and their lives in the closet. I just think that gays shouldn’t be in politics, and shouldn’t be trying to make it where they’re considered normal and everyone leaves them alone.”
That’s what it sounds like to me.
Or it sounds like when someone doesn’t like black folks. You point out that they have a black friend, and they go “Oh, but she’s different”.
“Oh, and I love everyone.”
How nice, put your money where your mouth is and apologize.
I love how she then tried to turn it around, all shocked that she’s getting threats and angry emails. She called us terrorists, don’t you think that someone would get angry about that?
Timothy Kincaid
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
I love this article.
On one side you have Sally Kern “standing up for God’s word”.
On the other you have Reverend Loyce Newton-Edwards, Rabbi Russell Fox, and Reverend Scott Jones.
Any thinking person will see the irony.
Jason D
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
“A vigorous debate on an issue is not ‘hate speech’ – it’s free speech. I have made clear my opposition to the agenda of homosexual activists, but I have never endorsed or supported any hateful action targeting individuals on the other side of this debate and never will. The fact that many gay rights activists claim anyone opposing their agenda is engaging in ‘hate speech’ says more about them than me.”
She’s compared us to cancer and called us terrorists. How is that NOT promoting hateful action? How is that NOT hate speech? Did terrorists and cancer suddenly become cuddly nuisances?
Stefano
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
Erica B:
“It is critical for her to make an apology, especially to her constituents.”
It’s doubtful that any such apology will be coming any time soon. According to an article in todays “Oklahoman” newspaper, despite mounting pressure to censure Kern for her remarks House Speaker Chris Benge (R-Tulsa) said he has no plans to censure Kern. “We’re not putting a committee together, no,” he told the Oklahoman.
Asked by the paper if Kern’s remarks represent the House GOP caucus, Benge said: “Each member has their own opinion, there’s no way that I can say whether that reflects the rest of the Republican caucus or not.”
“Each individual member has thoughts about that, and I’m not sure what those would be,” he said.
And aside from the offensiveness of Kern’s remarks themselves, there is another thing that bugs me about this — the over all lack of national main stream media coverage outside the gay press or the Oklahoma media.
Not to denigrate antisemtic or racist remarks, but if such things had been said about these groups there would be a major outcry for her head from all the major press.
Stefano
March 12th, 2008 | LINK
Errr.
This “Not to denigrate antisemtic or racist remarks” should have read…
Not to denigrate the [effects] of …]
M. Bergeron
March 13th, 2008 | LINK
Love the photo. That vacant stare, the faux smile. It just screams cult! Come to Jeez-us, cooome… Yikes runawayrunaway!
Martin Lanigan
March 14th, 2008 | LINK
The unfortunate reality is that Ms. Kern’s remarks are not an islolated example of Christian bigotry. Anti-gay bigotry is nourished in the very boosom of Christianity itself.
Benedict XVI himself rarely misses an opportunity to demonize the LGBT community:
“…abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage are threats to world peace, on the same level as nuclear arms proliferation, environmental pollution and economic inequality.”
http://www.bgay.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=23
The parallels are striking, no?
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