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Featured Reports
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"
Part 6: The Science Of "Love Won Out"
Part 7: The Politics Of "Love Won Out"
Part 8: Hope For Parents Who Struggle
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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This past weekend I went to Disneyland. It was a little rainy so the lines were short and we had a wonderful time. The next day we went to The Magic Castle for a great meal and to be amazed by prestidigitation. Throw in dinner at Saddleranch (so my friends could ride the mechanical bull), a walk on Venice Beach, and a showing of Indiana Jones and it was quite the gay weekend.
Jim Burroway
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
Gosh, after all the things that LaBarbera talks about in his post, maybe next year I’ll go and see it for myself.
It would never have occured to me to go otherwise, but gee — LaBarbera seems to have so much fun there…
Scott
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
Pete gets to go on all the fun trips. Folsom, IML, Steamworks…..
None of them are really for me personally but hey, if Peter wants to let his freak flag fly who am I to stand in his way.
Jason D
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
I’ve been to IML a couple times over the past few years. The first few times it was just to check out the leather market — which runs the gammut from simple hats, boots, vests, to all kinds of things I don’t think you want me to describe on a work-friendly site :) I noticed that there are just as many people there to gawk and go “ohmygod” as their are people who are serious enthusiasts.
There’s also all sorts of events, most of them way overpriced. Last year I attended the Black & Blue Ball, with my partner, which wasn’t any different than what you’d expect - dancing, Madonna Remixes, and people in leather outfits.
Margaret Cho said it best, “there’s some weird connection between the leather community, star trek conventions, and the renaissance fair.” It’s a lot of dress-up and playing make-believe, some of it healthy, some of it creepy. Most of it not all that shocking when you stop to think that if wearing a costume makes you feel happy and doesn’t hurt anyone, what’s the big deal?
Emily K
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
“Most of it not all that shocking when you stop to think that if wearing a costume makes you feel happy and doesn’t hurt anyone, what’s the big deal?”
Sometimes it DOES “hurt” someone.. (S&M, anyone?) but I agree with that statement. As well as I agree with the right for consenting adults to practice S&M in a safe, legal environment.
Jason D, please go again and this time try to find Pete and photograph him!! The gay blogosphere would be abuzz to no end!!
Seriously though, I think LaBabs is the only guy outside the serious gay leather enthusiast crowd that never misses an IML convention.
Jason D
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
“Sometimes it DOES “hurt” someone.. (S&M, anyone?)”
True.
Guess I should’ve said:
“Most of it not all that shocking when you stop to think that if wearing a costume makes you feel happy and doesn’t hurt anyone who DID NOT specifically ASK you to hurt them, what’s the big deal?”
JJ in Chicago
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I was at the Hyatt on Friday and went to the Leather Market, as I do each year.
What Pete is not being upfront about is the Hyatt was closed to the public that weekend. There was a sign at the door, right when you enter, stating that the Hyatt was closed to the public and was sold out.
He also doesn’t mention that you MUST show a government ID (3 times!) as you wind your way through the checkpoints and finally sign in, in order to enter the Leather Market (which is where he heads each year).
(Keep in mind IML is a series of events, culminating with the contest on Sunday night.)
He also never mentions that there is never reports of trouble with the leathermen. You know, like the spring break crowd of heterosexuals in Florida.
The Hyatt and the Palmer House want their business, because IML is a good crowd. That’s a known fact here in Chicago that he just can’t get over.
I pose this question to Pete: Why don’t you ever report on the AVN awards (straight porn awards). It was broadcast on Showtime cable and held in a Las Vegas hotel.
Don’t you care what Ron Jeremy or Jenna Jameson did in a hotel room there?
PSUdain
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
Oh, good lord. That audio is almost hysterical. I don’t think you could write a better farce than the one they’ve created! But then, in comes the almost: it’s not a farce, but an actual serious discussion in their eyes. Which is pretty sad.
Those are two odd, odd men. Especially LaBarbara.
banshiii
May 30th, 2008 | LINK
I think we should go to a straight leather freak gathering and do a report on those evil hetero types.
Johno
May 31st, 2008 | LINK
Scaring poor Christians out of money with exaggerated tales of soiled hotel rooms doesn’t seem very Christian to me. Just think: he feeds his kids with the money he makes off these porno-laced fear-tactics. And NARTH is yet another 501(c)3 tax-exempt bigotry factory on the dole.
Pete never talks about straights (of whom there are many more in this world, getting up to the exact same antics in much higher numbers,) or what their hotel rooms look like. It takes a few “Christian” white lies for him to keep his pockets full, and he knows it. And we pay the human cost.
Regan DuCasse
May 31st, 2008 | LINK
How many times does LaBarbera have to go to make a point?
Why go at all? Wouldn’t sending for promotional material be enough and leave it at that?
There are billboards all over my neighborhood advertising ‘gentlemen’s clubs’. And there is an Erotica Expo coming up in early June.
I don’t have to go to either place to know what’s happeneing there.
Not my scene, not my interest.
But if I kept going to those places all the while saying it’s not my interest, but I’m just here to check out the fire exits….would any of you question my motives and integrity?
‘Course ya would!
So why isn’t Americans for Truth calling on LaB’s motives and intergrity for REALLY going?
JJ in Chicago
June 1st, 2008 | LINK
Regan:
Peter LaBarbera runs Americans for Truth. So nobody will call upon him to explain his real motives. It’s his operation. He is/was a registered lobbyist with the State of Illinois.
News media here in Illinois avoid this guy like the plague. And so do national conservative leaders like Tony Perkins, James Dobson and Pat Robertson. They all know he’s a freak.
He did work for the Family Research Council in Washington DC (”culture facts”), a column that was obsessed with homosexuality, due to him.
From there he came to Illinois to run the Illinois Family Institute, which again had a higher percentage of gay-related articles while he was there.
With AFTAH, it’s all homosexuality, all the time– just the way he likes it. (He says very little about lesbians.)
See, he’s feeding his pathology and miserable existence. If he wanted to get away from all this, he could move to Arkansas. But he won’t, because deep down inside he’s got a fire in his belly that just won’t go away.
In the end, Americans for Truth will go belly up financially and he’ll have no excuse to come into the City (by that I mean Chicago– he lives in the suburbs) and conduct “research” in a Paul Cameron style.
Eventually we’ll all read about this guy getting arrested with his pants down around his ankles at some truck stop. He’ll slink off into oblivion just like Ted Haggard.
And Pete’s wife and 5 kids will have to endure a broken family, simply because their husband and father has a self-loathing obsession with men who love other men.
Ephilei
June 1st, 2008 | LINK
There a tendency of humans noted by psychology (I’ve forgotten the name) that people who have struggled with something cope with their problem by going to the opposite extreme. It’s why so many ex-gay groups are run by “ex-”gays. By outwardly working against homosexuality their inward feelings will lose potency. It’s another suggestion that Porno Pete motivation.
In all fairness, there was an annual bears conference that met once a year in Chicago. They disbanded a couple years partly because every year they needed a different hotel because no previous hotel would put up with their outlandish behavior. The Be All, however, a transgender woman’s conference in Chicago gets glowing reviews from their hosts.
Bw
June 2nd, 2008 | LINK
Two quick things;
1) IML is one of the best times you could have. If you’re ever in Chicago Memorial Day weekend you have to stop by and walk through the Leather Market (truly unbelievable) and the actual IML competition, essentially a the Miss American contest for Leather Men… they even give speeches.
2)Peter LaBarbera is an interesting character. While I think it’s a small possibility, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a raging, repressed closet case. He might also have figured out an easy way to make a living and get out of the house. A few years ago when the Gay Games came to Chicago I attended a press conference set up by Pete for all his 3rd string homophobic friends. During the press conference he was all arch-conservative and quick to anger. But afterwards he was friendly and approachable and seemed to sincerely apologize to a couple gay (journalists or bloggers, it was hard to tell). His actions and interactions after the TV cameras left was much like an actor after the play. I’m not saying he’s not a potentially dangerous nut job (albeit, one who has a hard time getting the choir to pay attention when he preaches), but there’s definitely something interesting and unexplained going on with Pete. Just not sure what it is.
Raybob
June 2nd, 2008 | LINK
You gotta hand it to LaBerbera; he’s got everything on that web site of his! Lists of who’s providing partner benefits, lists and links to the big 20 gay organizations. It’s like a gay wikipedia! He’s doing us such a service, really.
emma
April 25th, 2009 | LINK
Pete and “Bam Bam” remind me so much of J.Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson…
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