Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbySeptember 29th, 2008
Students at Brigham Young University are being encouraged to campaign for California’s anti-gay marriage amendment, Proposition 8. (BYU News)
The International Voice for Youth club sponsored an assembly Thursday night to educate students about the possible effects of not passing Proposition 8 in November. After a speech by Lynn Wardle, a BYU law professor, the students got on their cell phones and started calling fellow students from California.
The Mormon youth group will continue to seek to influence the election in California.
The International Voice for Youth will host phone banks each week leading up to the election on Nov. 4. They will also be giving out information on voter registration, absentee voting and Proposition 8 at a booth in the Wilkinson Student Center each Monday and Thursday just outside the BYU Bookstore.
If the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continues their public activism, they run the risk of Proposition 8 becoming known as the Mormon Marriage Amendment. I think that is likely not to be advantageous to their marketing strategy.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Mark C
September 29th, 2008
When I was a student at BYU years ago, often I felt shamed when all-things-gay were discussed in my sociology courses. While some students and instructors may have been sympathetic with gay folks, it was not the norm. I felt like I was at a Hitler Youth Rally but instead of hating Jews, they were gay haters.
At the advice of a kind, non-Mormon counselor there, I left BYU early and graduated from another, non-church-owned school. It’s been 20 years and I still am traumatized by my experience there.
Needless to say, it was religious ferver such as what’s driving their participation in Prop 8 that drove students to be so anti-gay and intolerant. Guess some things never change at BYU.
Legolas
September 29th, 2008
Is this site really going to go down the Mormon-baiting road? You’d think we as gays, having been subject to gay-baiting for so long, would know better. The end of this post appears to creep up to the very edge of the line, if not over it.
Timothy Kincaid
September 29th, 2008
Legolas,
We are not anti-Mormon.
But I don’t think that it is particularly wise of them to tie their identity so closely with that of Proposition 8.
A Catholic Marriage Amendment or a Lutheran Marriage Amendment or a Southern Baptist Marriage Amendment would also be unwise. Tying any amendment to one’s own denomination is tricky at best.
But considering the attitudes of some evangelical Christians about Mormonism (“it’s a cult”) and considering that evangelicals are the amendment’s natural target, it seems particularly unwise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be visibly seen as the motivating force behind this effort.
Yet the Mormon Church has taken it upon themselves to adopt, fund, organize, and nearly control this amendment. And if they’re going to do it, I’m going to report on it.
cowboy
September 29th, 2008
I would suggest you read the Deseret News article about Lynn Wardle.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700253111,00.html
His assessment about gay marriage is not in a legal sense but in a moral sense. That is: gay marriage is harmful to society much like smoking.
And then he unashamedly uses “we are the victims†because they will have to endure hate-filled labels like: homophobe or bigot.
Typical. I would swear they use political tactics from Karl Rove. Hmmm…maybe it’s the other way around. Karl learned his skills in high school in Salt Lake City. (Read about his antics on the Olympus High School debate team.)
cd
September 30th, 2008
“Is this site really going to go down the Mormon-baiting road? You’d think we as gays, having been subject to gay-baiting for so long, would know better. The end of this post appears to creep up to the very edge of the line, if not over it.”
There just isn’t a compromise possible between the objectives of hardline Mormons and gays who wish to live free and worthy lives married to each other in California. At bottom there is an objective and complete incompatibility of desires between the two groups.
It’s regrettable but it’s real. I feel that attitude has been taken on this website and not been exceeded.
Legolas
September 30th, 2008
I don’t think there’s a problem, per se, with reporting on what the Mormon Church is doing in relation to the amendment, so long as the coverage of the Mormon Church’s involvement is proportionate and fair-minded. In my original comment I took no issue with the reporting, but with the commentary at the end, which was unclear in its motive.
If the purpose of these comments are to offer genuine, helpful advice to those you disagree with, this seems like a curious thing in this context. Is this site really in the business of offering Yes on Prop 8 supporters advice on improving strategy so that they might have an improved chance to win in November? I hope not.
If the purpose is to critique the overarching involvement of one “special interest” group in pushing a law’s adoption, it would be wise to maintain that clear message in relevant posts. Comments left open to interpretation as concern trolling or Mormon-baiting do not help the “no on marriage amendments” cause to build coalitions across faith groups or sway undecided voters, IMO.
Legolas
September 30th, 2008
cd,
Certainly few if any hardline Mormons are going to be convinced in the space of the month we have remaining to change their minds about the marriage amendments being posed. But I’m not sure most Mormons are hardline Mormons.
The Mormon Church’s involvement in attempts to pass these amendments should not be ignored. But, there are ways to show that the efforts by the Mormon Church are problematic while being sensitive to the fact that this group has been and continues to be the subject of fear, disdain, and outright hatred.
Leave A Comment