Box Turtle Bulletin

Box Turtle BulletinNews, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Latest Posts

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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

Daniel FettyThe 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.

Seamus Hasson’s Amazing Mathematics

Timothy Kincaid

December 10th, 2008

Seamus Hasson, new recipient of our LaBarbera Award for his comparison of Prop 8 protesters to El Qaeda, made some amazing claims on KPFK yesterday:

…there have been at least ten churches painted with swastikas, threats to close down or else. There’s been six churches with small-bore rifle fire through their windows. By my count, there have been at least six instances of burning Books of Mormon on the church steps. These aren’t isolated occurrences here and there; this is an uprising of some sort.

I checked up on Hasson’s claims by reviewing newspaper reports of vandalism following the passage of Proposition 8. While I may have missed some reports (if so, please advise), my numbers are substantially different from those of Hasson.

Instances of swastika vandalism:

Other use of swastika:

  • Days following vote – Roman Catholic Church in Riverside, CA. Yes on 8 signs arranged in the form of a swastika on the lawn – no spray painting. (from SL Tribune’s compilation of Prop 8 response)
  • 11/9/08 – Saddleback Church in Orange Co., CA. A protest sign was carried saying – “Will your rights be next?” – with a Nazi swastika drawn in place of the “x” – no spray painting.

I do know of at least one instance of spray painting on a church. In the days following the vote, a Mormon Church in Utah was tagged with “Nobody is born a bigot”. This was likely related to Proposition 8, but no swastikas were used.

So as for “churches painted with swastikas” by protesters over Proposition 8: Hasson’s count: ten; my count: zero.

Burning Books of Mormon:

So as for “instances of burning Books of Mormon on the church steps” by protesters over Proposition 8: Hasson’s count: six; my count: one.

I found no instances of churches being threatened to “close down or else”. None. And by “small-bore rifle fire”, Hasson means a bb gun (as in “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid“).

Which leaves me with the following conclusion: Either

  • There are an abundance of painted swastikas on churches and burning Books of Mormon that did not make it into the news;
  • Hasson can’t count to ten; or
  • Hasson is deliberately lying about vandalism that he claims is coming from the supporters of Proposition 8.

I’ll let you decide.

Comments

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Rick
December 10th, 2008 | LINK

Word to Seamus Hasson:

Closed fist receives nothing.

Buffy
December 10th, 2008 | LINK

Methinks Hasson is lying through his teeth. Not only does he not have any facts on his side, but people of his ilk are prone to fabrication so….

cowboy
December 10th, 2008 | LINK

It’s still speculative about the ONE incident of the Book of Mormon burning in Littleton, Colorado.

Unless someone in Littleton, Colorado can provide some morsel of information I would say there is little to support the burning of the Book of Mormon on some stoop at a Mormon Church is related to the Proposition 8 in California controversy.

I could just as easily blame it on a disgruntled person(s), a break-off sect (Polygamists) or on a crazed Evangelical zealot who had a beef with the Mormons.

But nothing, so far, links the vandalism to Proposition 8.

Suricou Raven
December 10th, 2008 | LINK

I’ve seen something like this on Digg – lots of commentest posting stories about the terrible atrocities the ‘Gay Agenda’ has committed following the passing of Prop 8. Recurring accusations include all of the above (Except for the rifle fire, havn’t seen that elsewhere), plus repeated claims of assaults, several claimed arsons, broken windows and death threats. One very popular rumor says that gay protestors beat up and hospitalised an old woman. Of course, very very of these claims come with a *source* to check, and those that do almost always link to a far-right blog of very dubious reliability which only links to other far right blogs of dubious reliability ad infinitum.

I’m not sure how much of this is deliberate rumor-spreading and how much is confirmation bias. If someone *wants* to believe that gays are violent, hateful, anti-christian bigots then they can be expected to believe any story that supports this view and repeat it without criticism.

Suricou Raven
December 10th, 2008 | LINK

Reading my own comment, I note that posting at two-twenty on the wrong side of midnight is not a good idea.

AdrianT
December 11th, 2008 | LINK

The person who left burned copies of the book of Mormon is guilty of nothing more than the crime of litter.

This is not a hate crime. There is no evidence of intimidation against any particular person. No Church property was attacked or stolen. No-one has been stopped from expressing their faith or worshipping. In desecrating his / her copy of the book, (s)he is perfectly within his rights, since the 1st Amendment is designed to protect the right to express criticism of religion.

Another thing: the perpetrator of this act went no further than the front door. Meanwhile the Church sees fit to interfere and ruin the most precious, intimate affairs of people who otherwise mean no ill-will to anyone.

And as long as these kind of things happens in the name of their religion, the Church must expect that others can also be offended, and that they are going to let them know about it in direct, disrespectful, yet non-violent terms.

It’s only a book, and it does not deserve to be treated with respect.

Duncan
December 11th, 2008 | LINK

Actually, if cross-burning can be treated as a action (punishable by law) and not an expression, I don’t see why book-burning should not be.

Zeke
December 11th, 2008 | LINK

It’s interesting that these people NEVER mention the gay supportive churches that have been repeatedly vandalized and whose pastors and congregants have been viciously harassed and threatened.

UCC churches across the country, including my own in Tampa, have REPEATEDLY been the target of vandalism (even arson) hateful grafiti and threatening letters, emails and phone messages. MCC and UU churches have endured the same including the gay supportive UU church in Tennessee where an anti-gay gunman broke into a Sunday service and shot worshipers dead.

I haven’t seen Hasson or any of the people in the NY Times ad who have PLEDGED to “commit ourselves to opposing and publicly shaming anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry, against any faith, on any side of the cause, for any reason” make comments, do press releases or take out full page ads to condemn these cowardly acts against PROGRESSIVE churches. It’s pretty clear that their statement is, as is so often the case, a lie.

I’ll be contacting them to see if they are REALLY going to stand by their pledge.

Somehow I sincerely doubt it.

GaySolomon
December 11th, 2008 | LINK

@ Duncan

Context is important. Cross burning by the Klan was often associated with lynching or other acts of extreme violence. There is no such context associated with this isolated incident involving the burning of a Mormon book.

FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_burning

From the above link, you should take note that Cross burning is apparently protected under the First Amendment of your Constitution:

“In Virginia v. Black (2003), the United States Supreme Court ruled that burning a cross at a Klan rally is protected by the First Amendment, but also held that a statute could constitutionally proscribe cross burning carried out with the intent to intimidate the target of the speech.”

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