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.
News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Tara TASW
October 27th, 2008 | LINK
Great work, Ben. Thank you. I’m oneof many who have been phone banking, demonstrating, handing out fliers and donating – and we won’t stop until we win. We all deserve that simple equality that you so eloquently describe.
-Tara The Antisocial Social Worker
AJD
October 27th, 2008 | LINK
Very good! I’ve been trying to get an op-ed on the matter published as well, but I suspect I don’t have a lot of clout with editors, being a New Yorker.
Louie
October 27th, 2008 | LINK
Awesome letter, Ben! It moved me to tears and after I was done reading, it moved me to TAKE ACTION!
For the sake of my marriage, to the only man I have ever loved for the past 12 years, and for the sake of every single same-gender marriage performed since it became legal in California!
I will make another money sacrifice and contact all of my friends and family in California, again, and remind them to vote “NO” on Prop. 8!
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!
Ben in Oakland
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
Thanks all.
Alex
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
“We aren’t attacking your families, faith or civil rights, nor preventing them from being legally protected. Can you say the same about yourselves?”
Excellent!!
El Rose
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
No, you’re not just like us. YOu are 2 men or 2 women who want to be given the same rights and privledges as heterosexuals but you are not heterosexuals. YOu do not share the same bodies nor do you share the same ideas of monogomy. YOu are free to love whomever you want, but you are not free to marry whomever you want.
TJ McFisty
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
Wow! Offensive, self-aggrandizing, and wrong all the in the same comment! That’s truly worthy of some prize.
I’m really surprised heterosexuals suddenly got this lock on monogamy–when’d that happen, and hets also suddenly established that as the exclusive claim to marriage. Guess that teevee show about Het Swinging is 100% whole cloth fabrication.
And what does “do not share same bodies” mean?
I wouldn’t get hung up on similarities being exclusive locks on marriage…millions of dollars have been made on books written about dissimilarities. By your statements about “having the same ____” men and women shouldn’t be allowed to marry.
I mean, at least I can share my partner’s clothing and not feel ill-fittingly uncomfortable. We’re similar in body type. That much is the same…can we get married, now, and when do we get to vote on yours?
Ben in Oakland
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
el rose: “YOu are 2 men or 2 women who want to be given the same rights and privledges as heterosexuals but you are not heterosexuals. ”
thanks for clairfying. It is truly all aobut prejudice for you, isn’t it? “You just want the same rights and privileges as (white people) (Christians)(English speakers)(Men)… but you’re not blah blahblah.
It’s all about the myth of heterosexual superiority in service to the reality of heterosexual privilege to enforce the myth of heterosexual hegemony.
honey, you’re just heterosexual. you’re not special. You’re not normal, just common.
A common heterosexual, a common bigot.
Maybe someday you’ll look yourslef in the mirror and wonder why you ever thought that hating a whole group of people you don’t know and know nothing about qualifies you as a decent human being.
Louie
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
El Rose wrote:
First off, you misspelled “monogamy”. Sorry, blame my honors English teacher. And English wasn’t even my FIRST language! DOH!
As far as I knew, there is and always has been only 1 definition for “monogamy”. Unless something has changed or us “gays” are supposed to use an alternate dictionary, my definition for “monogamy” is the following:
For this example, I used the definition from WebMD one of the world’s most popular medical websites.
Hmm, their definition for “monogamy” is exactly what I thought “monogamy” meant as well.
So, let’s apply this “definition” to a real world example.
My “husband” and I have been married for the past 12 years in our hearts and “legally” in California for the past 4 months.
In the past 12 years, I have ONLY had sex with ONE person, my beloved.
In the past 12 years, my beloved has ONLY had sex with ONE person, me.
This certainly seems to qualify as “monogamy” to me.
And you get to vote on whether or not I deserve to get “civil” rights under the eyes of the law of the State of California?!
“Beam me up, Scotty!”
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!
zortnac
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
Thanks for the letter and the inspiration Ben. I’ve written to my home town’s paper hoping to follow suit :-)
Ben in Oakland
October 28th, 2008 | LINK
You’re welcome. We must all do what we can. The LA News is going to publish it as well. I sure hope a few others follow suit. It was a lot of work getting this written ando ut to 30 newspapers across the state.
Sapphocrat
October 29th, 2008 | LINK
Beautiful, Ben. If I write ten million more words on marriage, I’ll never say as much as you have in single letter, and certainly never approach your eloquence.
Ben in Oakland
October 29th, 2008 | LINK
thanks, sappho.
Ben in Oakland
October 29th, 2008 | LINK
Meanwhile– yoo-hoo, el rose!! Are you here?
codyj
October 29th, 2008 | LINK
GOOD LUCK, BEN !! What a WONDERFULL letter, it also, as it has other readers,brought a tear to my eye..so TRUE for ALL of “us’ . Best Regards,Best Wishes, and good luck, to you, now ,and ALWAYS. Cody J
Ben in Oakland
October 29th, 2008 | LINK
Thanks, cody. Please feel free to use it however you can.
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