Anglican Church of Uganda Endorses Criminalization With Death Penalty
Iowans couldn't care less about gay marriage
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Military Times poll shows sharp decline in support for DADT
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"Family" Leader Reportedly Confirms Opposition to Uganda's Anti-Gay BIll
Ollie North: Repeal DADT and What's Next? NAMBLA and Same-Sex Marriage
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.
Todd
August 4th, 2008 | LINK
I agree with theh California Supreme Court since it is my understanding that their ruling basically stated that there was value in the word marriage and it should be extended to same-sex couples as well. The truth is everyone knows what marriage is and the seperate Civil Union or Domestic Partnership terms do not hold the same value, if any, with most people.
cowboy
August 4th, 2008 | LINK
There was a comment from someone that said: Same-sex marriage may not be legal in Utah but it is NOT illegal. Therefore, the publication of the announcement is fine.
Some people need to carefully mull that distinction around in their brain before making a bigoted comment.
In the same vein: I’m wondering if Macy’s or Pottery Barn has same-sex registries at their stores in Utah? They may have to make up a different title; other than BRIDAL registry? No? […checking their website now…] Oh…I see they say: Wedding Registry. Bless their hearts…you’ve got to love Pottery Barn.
I hope to have invites to a lot of wedding receptions in the coming months.
Bruce Garrett
August 4th, 2008 | LINK
Great catch!
Lynn David
August 4th, 2008 | LINK
There are two types of marriage, conscience marriage, which is a combined declaration of fidelity which need not have a religious aspect, and legalistic marriage, which is a contractual agreement which need not have the auspices of a government. Both derive out of the desires of two parties but have been always had a greater social meaning and recognition. Thus religion commandeered the conscience marriage and governments have commandeered the legalistic marriage.
So I figure it all comes down to what is in the minds of those to be wed, a conscience marriage and what form – legalistic marriage – in which they should like to constitute their marriage. Thus I have always thought governments should get out of the marriage game except to register them and the contracts which people institute. So if a fundaChristian wants to write in a no-Divorce clause into their marriage contract, by all means DO IT! Want an open marriage, write it up. Want to constitute a marriage between 3 or more people do it. The only ‘law’ might be that a person could only be party to one marriage contract at a time (so none of the wild polygamy of some LDS sects would be legal). Oh well….
Timothy Kincaid
August 4th, 2008 | LINK
cowboy,
When the Supreme Court made its decision, Macy’s ran a full page add with the following text: “First comes love. Then comes marriage. And now it’s a milestone every couple in California can celebrate”
Macy’s registry is nationwide and each person can be bride, groom, partner, or registrant.
cowboy
August 5th, 2008 | LINK
I’m worried the same people who reacted so negatively to the printing of the same-sex wedding announcement in their local newspaper will next focus their ire at Macy’s and Pottery Barn and other gay-friendly businesses in Utah. These are the same small-minded folk that brought you the “natural family” resolution in Kanab, Utah…completely on the other end of the state but similar type of people.
It’s hard for rural gays sometimes.
AJ
August 5th, 2008 | LINK
In the words of Stephanie Coontz (author of “Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage”), “Heterosexuals were the upstarts who turned marriage into a voluntary love relationship rather than a mandatory economic and political institution … Marriage has been in a constant state of evolution since the dawn of the Stone Age … It is simply magical thinking to believe that by banning gay and lesbian marriage, we will turn back the clock.” She calls it “the heterosexual revolution.”
Here in Canada, we have same-sex civil marriage, opposite-sex civil marriage, same-sex religious marriage, opposite-sex civil marriage. We have Catholic marriage (religious and sacramental, not just legal), Protestant marriage (religious and legal, but not sacramental), and so on. There are at least half-a-dozen different kinds of marriage in this country. Within the near future, we may have polygamous marriage (religious and legal).
New definitions of marriage don’t eradicate marriage, they expand and extend it. If the fundamentalists want to cast blame, they should blame the Enlightenment: it was, after all, Enlightenment thinkers like Jeremy Bentham and the Marquis de Condorcet who argued that same-sex love should not be a crime.
Gary
August 5th, 2008 | LINK
My hometown newspaper changed the “weddings” page to “celebrations”. . .all are welcome, so now it’s become: weddings, engagements, anniversaries, births, adoptions ..etc.
We registered at Macy’s and they were more than helpful. . .for a small town/suburb we truly expected the opposite or at least indifference.
Jen
August 5th, 2008 | LINK
You are absolutely right the neighbors recognition of the marriage is what is going to make these changes snowball.
Ephilei
August 6th, 2008 | LINK
@Lynn David
Nicely done. I was going to write exactly that.
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