The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 25
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
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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Phil J
May 17th, 2008 | LINK
It’s a lovely story and a fantastic sentiment but as a GLBT Kentucky native I can tell you for every one story of acceptance there are a dozen blood drenched police reports and broken homes. Coming out in the south is taking your life in your own hands. I applaud those that make that commitment to live out loud, but I realize that the closet has yet to outlive it’s usefulness.
Great article and keep up the good work.
Steve - Geneva, IL
May 17th, 2008 | LINK
I am a single father. I moved to a townhouse complex in 1998 and there was a single mother 2 doors down from me. She attends a huge megachurch which is probably the most gay hating church in the area.
Shortly after I moved here it became clear that she had a “thing” for me. I’m guessing it is attractive to a single mother to see a loving ,committed, single father raising children by himself. Although I was always very friendly to her, I obviously never did anything to respond to her in any way but platonic. Eventually she went from hitting on me to not talking to me. I guess she was hurt or offended that I didn’t take the bait.
About a year later I decided to come out to some of my neighbors and since they talk, I essentially came out to all of them which was fine. All of a sudden she was very nice to me again because she no longer took it personally that I wasn’t interested in her. In a later discussion she told me that she had never really known any gay people and just assumed we were all like the people her church and James Dobson described. That I changed her views on gay people and gay parenting. That before she knew I was gay, she had believed what her church said about how gays were automatically unfit to be parents. She said that I was always her “model” father and by coming out, it made her realize that what her church was saying was not true.
The bottom line is that millions of people are told that we are depraved, God hating, sex fiends who’s main goal in life is to destroy the American family. They trust the people who tell them this and have no way of learning anything different. The progress on the legal front is certainly encouraging, especially what just happened in California. But even that is tenuous when it can be overturned by a simple majority of the people. Our families will always be at higher risk until we change the hearts of people. That is happening one person at a time and the way that is going to continue to happen is by coming out.
Jason D
May 18th, 2008 | LINK
While I don’t have a specific story in which Coming Out saved the day in any respect, I do know that my Coming Out has changed a lot of people’s perceptions of gays.
My brother and my father come to mind, as they were originally quite resistant, but have since come around. My brother gave me the whole “that’s okay, just don’t talk to me about it.” thing (which I ignored) and my father smiled to my face and said evil things about gays when I wasn’t around. But now, they are both 100% accepting. My father always asks things like “is your new gym gay-friendly?” My partner is fully accepted into the family, welcome in my parent’s home, and treated as if we are already married.
Aside from that I have often been told I am “the coolest gay dude” by straight men who originally wouldn’t want anything to do with gays. The type of straight men who are actually kind of scared of gay people have said that they do not feel threatened or uncomfortable around me.
Jake
May 18th, 2008 | LINK
This is also true in the military (contrary to popular belief the majority of servicemembers are not low-IQ knuckleheads), and this is what is eroding “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”.
I was in the Navy, and because I had developed deep-seeded friendships with men and women for whom I would have given my life, I was able to quietly open a few minds one by one.
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