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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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AJD
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
What a sick bastard, for so many reasons.
Kevin
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
I’m going to write to the State Attorney in Kankakkee County, John Boyd, and ask that this bus driver be charged under Illinois’s hate crime law.
http://www.co.kankakee.il.us/statesattorney.htm
John Boyd
Criminal Division
Kankakee County Courthouse
450 E. Court St.
Rooms 301-306
Kankakee, IL 60901
Phone: 815-937-2930
Fax: 815-937-3932
Eddie89
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
What an outrage! A 46 year old man, an elementary school bus driver, engaging and encouraging anti-gay bullying!
Kevin - Thanks for the info. on the State Attorney in IL. I too will be writing off a letter!
California - Vote “NO” on Prop. 8!
Arizona - Vote “NO” on Prop. 102! AGAIN!
Florida - Vote “NO” on Amendment 2!
Connecticut - Vote “NO” on Question 1!
Eddie89
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
Illinois hate crime law. Here is the link:
California - Vote “NO” on Prop. 8!
Arizona - Vote “NO” on Prop. 102! AGAIN!
Florida - Vote “NO” on Amendment 2!
Connecticut - Vote “NO” on Question 1!
paul
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
Holy crap. That’s where I grew up. There are a lot of good people in that town…but a lot of assholes, too.
FYI, the article you link to currently states “Bourbonnais School District officials would only say the driver has been terminated.”
Eddie89
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
There is also coverage of this article on the following blogs:
Suburban Lesbian Housewife and Pam’s House Blend
California - Vote “NO” on Prop. 8!
Arizona - Vote “NO” on Prop. 102! AGAIN!
Florida - Vote “NO” on Amendment 2!
Connecticut - Vote “NO” on Question 1!
Kevin
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
October 16, 2008
State’s Attorney John Boyd
Criminal Division
Kankakee County Courthouse
450 E. Court St.
Rooms 301-306
Kankakee, IL 60901
Dear Mr. Boyd,
Just this week, a Bourbonnais Elementary School District No. 53 bus driver was arrested “for mob action” after he allegedly taunted a 10-year-old student and encouraged others on the bus to chase after the boy.
Mr. Russell A. Schmalz was arrested by the Kankakee Sheriff’s Police Department and is charged with endangering the life of a child and battery. According to Chief Deputy Ken McCabe, Schmalz had taunted the boy by calling him “gay.”
“When the boy got off the bus, the driver encouraged several other students to go after him and tackle him. Our investigation shows that occurred,” McCabe said. Mr. Schmalz also allegedly got off the bus and grabbed the boy he had been harassing.
As I’m sure you realize, Mr. Boyd, this is a heinous act against a child. This child will be scarred for life because of this incident and his pain is sure to cause him a host of emotional and psychological problems. The treatment he was subjected to by an employee of the school district and at the hands of his schoolmates will no doubt affect him and his family’s image in the community as well.
Let’s be clear about what we’re dealing with. This is a textbook example of a hate crime.
This child was targeted because of anti-gay prejudice. Whether this child is gay or not is irrelevant. This child was made a victim because of the virulent anti-gay prejudice Mr. Schmalz demonstrated and encouraged to impressionable school children. Apparently, school administrators at the Bourbonnais Elementary School District do not screen their bus drivers carefully nor subject them to any type of sensitivity training. Part of the responsibility for this heinous crime falls on them as well, and it is my hope that you hold them accountable also.
This child is 10 years old and already he has been subjected to one of the worst kinds of violence we see in our society. Anti-gay violence, if ignored and swept under the rug, will only escalate until the powers-that-be step in and take proactive measures to prevent them. If this isn’t addressed and prosecuted, we will continue to see horrific violence, such as that which took the young life of Matthew Sheppard 10 years ago.
I am calling on you to prosecute Mr. Schmalz to the fullest extent of the law and use your position as State’s Attorney for Kankakee County to engage the Illinois Hate Crimes law (§ 720 ILCS 5/12-7.1) in his prosecution.
Don’t let this heinous crime go unpunished. Justice requires that a victim of a hate crime be treated as such and that his victimizers be sentenced accordingly.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
CC: Regional Superintendent, Kay M. Pangle, I-KAN Regional Office of Education
Kevin
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
Kay M. Pangle, PhD
Regional Superintendent
I-Kan Regional Office of Education
189 East Court Street
Kankakee, IL 60901
815-937-2950
gordo
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
Hey! I grew up there too. I might add that Bourbonais is the home of Olivet Nazarene College and is a self-contained Bible Belt. The Kankakee area (Kankakee, Bradley & Bourbanais) has not one gay bar that I know of.
Eddie89
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
WOW! Kevin, your letter was awesome!
Let’s hope that this generates some chatter with the powers that be and that this Schmalz person, I won’t even call him Mr. because he doesn’t deserve it, gets additional prosecution vs. just losing his job.
California - Vote “NO” on Prop. 8!
Arizona - Vote “NO” on Prop. 102! AGAIN!
Florida - Vote “NO” on Amendment 2!
Connecticut - Vote “NO” on Question 1!
G-Puss
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
Another former K3 county resident, here. The now-defunct “Heroes”in Kankakee was a lovely gay bar until it closed recently. A very nice, small-town community feel and they said they never had any problems with homophobia. That said, growing up queer there was often hellish, especially for a lot of my young male friends.
Eddie89
October 16th, 2008 | LINK
The full text of the Illinois hate crime law can be found here.
California - Vote “NO” on Prop. 8!
Arizona - Vote “NO” on Prop. 102! AGAIN!
Florida - Vote “NO” on Amendment 2!
Connecticut - Vote “NO” on Question 1!
Tina-cious.com
October 17th, 2008 | LINK
I am soooooooo glad they are charging him… what a bastard.
I better never run into his ass.
Real Life Monsters | The Tuning Fork
October 17th, 2008 | LINK
[...] (h/t to Box Turtle Bulletin) [...]
Jim
January 9th, 2009 | LINK
I live in bradley right next door to Bourbonnais. We did have a gay bar a long time ago called the Wildhair it was on Schuyler in Kankakee.. But it closed. I hear there’s a gay bar further up on Schuyler now but it’s in a bad area.
Ya this area is kinda Homophobic and I think its because most churches don’t have an open mind when it comes to the GLBT community. But I found out that one church here actually lets the local GLBT community have a monthly PFLAG meeting there.
I was shocked and thought that it was about time this lil backwards county got their head outa the sand and starts to realizing that ALL people are Gods children. As a matter of fact the Bible says “let the children come to me” it doesn’t say let only the straight children come to me. And we ARE all children of God. Sop I feel some churches are practicing Hypocrisy not religion.
This area does really need to open their eyes and realize that all people, gay or not, have the God given right to feel safe and accepted. And because of the Declaration of Independence, ALL people are entitled to of life liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
And hate crimes DO NOT allow that pursuit.
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