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For Our Opponents: Talking to Your Kids About Same-Sex Marriage
The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, June 18
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The Daily Agenda for Sunday, June 16
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, June 15
The Daily Agenda for Friday, June 14
South Africa Teen’s Death Shows It’s Time to Ban Ex-gay Therapy Everywhere
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.
Lynn David
November 14th, 2008 | LINK
Was any of Cameron’s work ever brought up in the California Prop 8 debate or advertisements of the “Yes on 8″ organizations? Perhaps in a pamphlet?
Hunter
November 15th, 2008 | LINK
Thanks are indeed due to Drs. Frisch and Throckmorton, but I’m afraid I’m cynical enough at this point about the tactics of the anti-gay forces in this country that I won’t be surprised if the numbers from 1996 to be quoted extensively, with no reference to the numbers after that date.
It’s what we’ve come to expect.
Rodolfo Alvarez del Castillo Legarreta
May 6th, 2011 | LINK
I am writing since Mexico. Sorry if my english is not fluently. You wrote: ” …. the mortality for homosexual men marrying after 1996 is virtually the same as for heterosexual men in Denmark … “.
Do you know average age that men married in Denmark?
If men married in average at 30, then they would have 44 years in 2010. So, you can not affirmed that Cameron’s theory is wrong, because they not have reached died age suggested by Cameron. If we want to prove that Cameron is wrong, we have to be scientifically serious and not to be fanaticals.
Timothy Kincaid
May 9th, 2011 | LINK
Rodolfo,
The person you described as “fanatic”, the one who wrote the sentence you quoted, is the highly respected Dr. Morten Frisch, MD, PhD, DSc(Med), of Copenhagen, Denmark who was the senior epidemiologist on the study.
To really understand, go read the links. There is a great deal of information on the other threads, as well as by Dr. Throckmorton.
The take away point from this thread is that Cameron made a claim based on Dr. Frisch’s work, and Frisch described it as “agenda-driven, pseudo-scientific gobbledygook”. Frisch then went on to illustrate how Cameron was entirely wrong.
Rodolfo Alvarez del Castillo Legarreta
May 9th, 2011 | LINK
Timothy
I am reading Dr. Frisch links and I am still having questions. I move in a gay community in Mexico city and since I read Dr Cameron statement I have been asking my friends death causes and average death age on the community. I am scared … I know it is an small sample, but death age average is 50 years old and main cause of death is colon’s cancer.
Timothy … do the same investigation in your community … if the results are different I will be happy …. but if the results are the same I believe we have to accept the truth and demand goverments investment to create medicins and treatments for this problem … regards
Scott L.
May 9th, 2011 | LINK
Rodolfo, a personal poll is entirely useless. Have you done death statistics for ALL men in Mexico? Do you have the data for risk factors, such as diet and exercise? Do you even have a median age of death for ALL Mexicans? Without this information just saying that you’ve asked a few people you know is absolutely meaningless.
Rodolfo Alvarez del Castillo Legarreta
May 11th, 2011 | LINK
Scott
I have not done death statistics for all men in Mexico, you are right. The situation is , since I read Cameron statement I have been asking in gays bars and with my friends death and age causes in the community and unfortunately information coincide with cameron statement. My position is no to say like Cameron said, It is God’s punishment, of course not. My position is, maybe It is true and maybe we need to invest in medical science to understand why it is happen and to found a cure.
Timothy Kincaid
May 11th, 2011 | LINK
Rudolfo,
Asking one’s friends is very seldom an indicator of anything, especially anything to do with statistics (yet we all seem to think that “what our friends believe” is important).
To the best of anyone’s knowledge, gay people do not live any longer or shorter than heterosexuals, and other factors such as diet, alcohol, smoking, exercise, and genetics play the most significant roles in life expectancy.
Perhaps the greatest correlate (though not necessarily cause) of life expectancy is income. The World Heath Organization shows a 23 year difference between life expectancy of low income and high income individuals.
You seem to be reluctant to accept the facts. You seem to be insistent that our honest analysis is fanatical and that Cameron’s assertions are “the truth.”
But let me be very clear: regardless of what you have heard in a bar, the statements by Paul Cameron have no scientific value. They are bias-driven, artificially contrived, and fraudulently provided.
They are the quintessence of what is called “junk science”, something presented as though it is objectively observed when in reality it is nothing but deception.
This is not my opinion; it is the collected and shared opinion of the scientific community. Cameron has been expelled from several organizations for fraud and misrepresentation.
Here at BTB we are not interested in telling lies to ourselves. But we also will not let lies be told about us.
Rodolfo Alvarez del Castillo Legarreta
May 19th, 2011 | LINK
Timothy
Your point of view is solid. I agree with many arguments. I know Cameron is like the devil for us. But I just still have the same question … Why not request a profesional poll to government in order to know death age average? …. if the result confirm our feeling, it would be great … if the result confirm Cameron statement I belive we are not to change our possition, but we can demand medical research in order to attend this problem
Timothy Kincaid
May 19th, 2011 | LINK
Rodolfo,
An accurate poll on the age of death of gay people would be, at this point, almost impossible. We cannot even get a good poll on what percentage of the populace is gay.
Older gay folk are SIGNIFICANTLY more hesitant to identify publicly as gay. They’ve lived through eras in which that resulted in discrimination, physical violence, or even incarceration. And even today, there are few services for older gay people and anti-gay discrimination in elder housing and care is shocking. Any study would by default undercount older gay people.
My advice is this: stop acting as though Cameron is someone to either confirm or disprove. He is not a credible scientist or a legitimate researcher. His announcements have no value and do not need to even be considered.
It is as though your Aunt Thelma decided that Asians own more shoes. It’s all in her head and only a fool would act as though Aunt Thelma’s musings are important enough to determine policy or even require study to find out whether or not Aunt Thelma is right or wrong.
Rodolfo Alvarez del Castillo Legarreta
May 20th, 2011 | LINK
I never thought to hear the word impossible in a forum like this. The bottom line is that in mexico city gay people are dying young, there is sufficient evidence that at least in our communities is happening. We need urgently to invest money in medical research to improve life expectancy.
But unfortunately we are slaves of Taboos like Cameron because we believe the other part is always wrong.
Timothy Kincaid
May 20th, 2011 | LINK
Rodolfo,
Clearly you really want to believe what you want to believe and logic, facts, or th eprinciples of scientific process are not going to sway you.
So I’ll not endeavor further.
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