The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 26
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!
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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AJD
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
That’s pretty consistent with what I read in the Anchorage Daily News.
Swampfox
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
Please follow up this story. My head is spinning with the logic that, “but that she had to veto the bill that would have rescinded such rights because of the Alaska Supreme Court ruling.” What was to stop her from signing the bill and letting someone take it all the way to the Alaskan Supreme Court?
AJD
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
This is kind of off-topic, but it says a lot about Palin that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Looks like she raised her daughter with a fine set of family values, eh?
KipEsquire
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
I’ve read GOP descriptions of this as a “smear” — as in, “it is a smear to suggest that Palin is pro-gay.”
Splendid.
Swampfox
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
I have to agree with KipEsquire until I learn more.
There is far too much speculation about Palin at this time. In defense of Palin ……….. her daughter is in her second trimester. She knew that this was coming …….. and, so did McCain.
Regan DuCasse
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
Hi Swampfox!
How are you, my friend? I’m counting how many anti gay, (oh the MINUTAE of what there is for them to bitch about over at TownHall!) the articles and in how many creative, and not so original ways the gay bashing continues.
We know each other well. I’m ‘du’, as you’ve probably guessed by now.
I have a LOT of respect for your patience, and how much personal information you’ve revealed there.
This stunt that McCain has pulled, is just that to me. A stunt.
And Bristol Palin is just one of many thousands of girls who got KNOCKED UP without being married.
What CHOICE would she have in her mother’s and McCain’s scheme of things?
What choice did Bristol have…really?
Not every teen in her same predicament has parents with steady jobs, health care or even caring loving parents or baby daddy’s.
And Palin and McCain can’t take it for granted that every person has the same motives or needs and assume anything about each individual situation with an unplanned pregnancy.
I’m sick of hearing how this situation won’t change how Palin can go about HER job in public office.
Well, yeah…it does say something about her as a MOTHER…and how she dares to judge other females not as fortunate as SHE is.
And THAT is the point of not trusting those in office who DO know how insulated they are from the real world consequnces and the real people who have to live in what THEY control.
Lynn David
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
Politics makes everyone a hypocrite.
lurker
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
now I wonder . . . if Palin’s daughter marries her “young man” as she is morally obligated to do, she’ll loose her Alaska state health benefits (which I’m assuming she has through her mom’s employment). That’ll be inconvenient, since she’ll want health benefits in order to support the birth.
But then, we really wouldn’t want Alaska taxpayers to support health benefits to support an immoral lifestyle!
Emily K
September 1st, 2008 | LINK
Lurker- : D
Samantha Davis
September 2nd, 2008 | LINK
SwampFox:
You’re right, she could have signed the bill and let it be fought all the way to the supreme court. However, that would have cost the state a great deal of money especially when the outcome of said trial would have been inevitable.
It could have also left the state up for quite a substantial lawsuit.
Swampfox
September 2nd, 2008 | LINK
Du, I haven’t got enough information on Palin to determine where I stand on her. Some people on the left were saying that the down’s syndrome child was the child of the 17 year year old daughter. There is a feeding frenzy going on about Palin. Don’t make the mistake in thinking that Palin is an insulated debutant, who doesn’t know the real world. I cam from a well-to-do family that had its dysfunctional moments.
Du, I hope that you are doing well.
marcus
September 2nd, 2008 | LINK
Actually, this encourages me. Despite her apparent strong personal preferences, she was able to see the issue objectively and follow the rule of law. We need people like this in government. I think her daughter’s situation is another example. It doesn’t make her a hypocrite. Kids do the darndest things, and when her daughter came to her pregnant, she gave her support in the course of action she endorsed. Sure, she doesn’t agree with many of us on a lot of issues, but I get the impression that she’s smart, sincere, and practices what she preaches. These are good things. As long as we have a firmly Democratic legislature, we can balance out any draconian moves by the executive. The only thing that scares the crap out of me is what could happen on the Court.
L. Junius Brutus
September 2nd, 2008 | LINK
marcus: The Senate that was 58-42 Democratic approved Clarence Thomas, and that was after he was hit with the Anita Hill allegations. Before that, it was expected that he would get 60 votes. If you want a gay-friendly, civil liberties-friendly Supreme Court, you need a Democratic president.
Mark F.
September 2nd, 2008 | LINK
Great! We have a choice of a moderately gay friendly pro-war, pro-militaristic, pro-special favors for big business administration or a gay unfriendly one. Choose wisely!
marcus
September 2nd, 2008 | LINK
Yeah, L. I agree. Like I said, the composition of the Supreme Court is the only thing that really freaks me out about a McCain/Palin administration with a strong Democrat legislature.
Perfect Moment Project
September 3rd, 2008 | LINK
Yikes, yikes, yikes … so Palin becomes VP and then in four years America elects her to P cause McCain is too old… What year is it then? 1914? Here’s a take on moving on…
Michigan-Matt
September 9th, 2008 | LINK
Jim, I was kind of surprised that anyone would take the biased, singularly bent reporting of MichaelSignorile as being credible.
Come on! The guy has trouble looking in the mirror in the morning and not lying to the face staring back at him.
I also spent time in St Paul, spent time at the LCR events, spent time on the floor, spent time with the Alaska delegation and our delegation was right next to them for the historic, feminist pro-American “Bit Pull with Lipstick” speech Palin gave.
You want to learn what really happened there and not just what the gayLeft attack dogs are feeding you… go check out some of GayPatriot’s commentary from the convention –it’s far more connected, accurate and helpful.
Palin’s going to tear thing sup in DC and everything –every issue– is up for grabs by her and her more liberal running mate, McCain. It’s a seachange moment for the GOP and America.
As a gay community, we’re quickly approaching a point in time –we may have already passed it– when our issues and progress on gay civil rights will require every single segment of the gay community working in concert for progress.
We aren’t going to get it if we keep cutting off 2/3rds of the likely power equation in DC. And we definitely won’t get it if we keep feeding with the red meat crowd that Signorile appeals and caters to…
We can’t afford to continue to be stupid and politically disconnected gays while the Nation marches off to a different set of drums.
For the love of Mike, Palin is far more approachable than JoeyBiden ever, ever was –even when he had his brains.
We’ve got to get a whole lot smarter about all this and who is fronted as the “gayVoice” in America… or we’ll be back to trusting HarrygReid and NancyP to carry our water and that hasn’t worked out too well, right?
Jim Burroway
September 9th, 2008 | LINK
This isn’t about taking Signorile’s word about anything. This was an interview that he conducted with a member of Palin’s cabinet — who is also a Palin supporter. Those was her words, which have been corroborated elsewhere.
So instead of attacking the messenger, how about addressing any evidence that Palin has anything but an anti-gay bone in her body. So far, I haven’t been able to find anything to give me any reason for hope.
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