Iowans couldn't care less about gay marriage
A Personal Note
Military Times poll shows sharp decline in support for DADT
Today's Question
Our condolences to the Burke family
"Family" Leader Reportedly Confirms Opposition to Uganda's Anti-Gay BIll
Ollie North: Repeal DADT and What's Next? NAMBLA and Same-Sex Marriage
Michigan Christians sue because the Matthew Shepherd Act restricts their rights. They must want to violently attack gay people
Featured Reports
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 two hundred 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.
John
April 27th, 2008 | LINK
What most struck me in reading her account was that she participated in the Day of Silence as a participant in the Day of Silence. She did not put herself out there as doing something alternate to the Day of Silence. She put tape accross her mouth and was harrassed by someone who probably thought she was gay.
To me, her actions were very different (and in my opinion much better and more honorable) than what Throckmorton had been proposing.
Jason D
April 28th, 2008 | LINK
Oh look, someone taking a walk in my shoes, that’s refreshing.
Brady
April 28th, 2008 | LINK
That was a very moving letter for me. I’m very impressed by the way she handled herself. Truly amazing.
AJ
April 28th, 2008 | LINK
“Yesterday, the LGBT community saw something revolutionary – they saw Christians loving them.”
There is nothing revolutionary about this. There are many Christians who love the LGBT community. In fact, there are many Christians who are members of the LGBT community. There is, you see, a non-homophobic, inclusive form of Christianity available to Christian believers: it’s called liberal Protestantism. See, evangelicals are not the only Christians out there, fundamentalist spin to the contrary notwithstanding.
So she should have written:
“Yesterday, the LGBT community saw something revolutionary – they saw EVANGELICAL Christians loving them.”
Truth in advertising is always best for the customer.
Regan DuCasse
April 28th, 2008 | LINK
John and Jason, you make the most important point of what she learned from her participation.
Very few of us, however well intentioned truly have an opportunity to feel what ‘the other’ might be feeling. Even anecdotal incidents of harassment or intimidation (say a single white person being treated that way by a mob of blacks), still would be hard pressed to understand what a LIFETIME of threat from it can to do a person.
Let alone institution and legal discrimination.
This young person GOT IT, and very often the adults in her life are not leading by example of walking in someone shoes, and REALLY experiencing, even for two minutes, what another experience could teach.
And as we all witness often too, experiencing what the other might or does…ISN’T tolerated for any length of time.
But instead of seeking remedies, our detractors simply dig in their heels and want to continue the injustice.
BTW…Exodus is crowing about their participation in the Day of Truth.
And therein folks, is exactly the point.
Joel
April 29th, 2008 | LINK
“To me, her actions were very different (and in my opinion much better and more honorable) than what Throckmorton had been proposing.”
I see no point in the GOlden Rule. It is implicit in the day of silence. This girl is an example, how much closer can you get in empathy?
Of course… i believe its more subtle yet equally relgiously, anti-gay orientedly charged as its Day of Truth brethren.
L. Junius Brutus
April 30th, 2008 | LINK
Joel, I personally do believe in the sincerity of Dr. Throckmorton. Maybe he is trying to channel the anti-gay impulses that young evangelicals have with or without his help into a less destructive course. Otherwise, I don’t see why he would put this e-mail on his website and be happy that what he said inspired a young Christian lady to act like… well, Christ would.
Dr. Throckmorton is an excellent example of how Focus on the Family, AFA and others would be acting if they truly cared about combating the harassment of gay teenagers. Of course, they don’t. They know that if gays can live without fear of violence, discrimination and rejection, they wouldn’t be buying into their quacky and wacky ‘cures’ for being gay. And the more gay people are living out and proud, happy and normal lives, the more people come into contact with those, the harder it becomes for them to demonize gays.
If I remember correctly, those who opposed lynching laws didn’t defend lynching. Instead, they claimed that it wasn’t a problem. Same thing the religious right does with hate crimes and anti-gay bullying. Ignore it. I truly think that they couldn’t be more happy with it. It’s more than about keeping ’sexual orientation’ protections out of the law.
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