The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 26
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 25
The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 24
Boy Scouts of America Votes To Allow Gay Members, Retains Ban On Gay Leaders
Nevada House votes to reverse marriage ban
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, May 23
It's Not the Principle, It's the Prejudice
Congratulations Mitch!
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.
News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Ben in Oakland
December 15th, 2008 | LINK
That’s very odd, because i think it was the hungarian Supreme court that gave gay people some sort of partnership rights to begin with. I don’t remember much about it, but I remember that much
Tavdy
December 15th, 2008 | LINK
It could all be a moot point anyway – a gay Austrian couple has a case being heard in the European Court of Human Rights (Horst Schalk and Johann Kopf v Austria) over Austria’s refusal to recognise gay marriage (Austria has Unregistered Cohabitation, which doesn’t provide many rights). As I understand it, if the ECHR rules that Austria should recognise gay marriage or civil unions it would affect almost all European countries – including countries like Hungary, Turkey and Russia; if the ECHR rules that gay marriage specifically it will also affect countries like France, the UK and Germany, which have civil-union equivalents; hopefully the recent New Jersey report findings will have some influence there.
Timothy Kincaid
December 15th, 2008 | LINK
Thanks for the info, Tavdy, but I think it may be slightly incorrect on your specific countries. Unless I’m mistaken,
UK has civil unions – nearly equivalent to marriage
Germany has Life Partnerships – some rights but less than Civil Unions.
Austria has Unregistered Cohabitation which has even fewer rights.
France has PACS, the least of all options.
Of course, Turkey and Russia have nothing at all.
Stefano A
December 15th, 2008 | LINK
Horst Schalk and Johann Kopf v Austria is about whether or not same-sex relationships fall outside or within the ambit of family life as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights covered under Article 8:
Horst Schalk and Johann Kopf argued that Austria has violated their right to a private and family life and their right to marry.
Article 12 states:
Article 14 provides for non-discrimination.
Family law remains a matter for the member states and not the EU. At present some EU nations, such as Spain and Belgium, and others as pointed out allow same-sex marriages or some other arrangement.
A declaration could be drawn up but it would require 50% of all MEPs to sign before it could be adopted as a resolution.
However, any EU-wide agreement on the issue of same-sex recognition would require a consensus among the 27 member states.
Given the positions of some states like Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, an EU-wide agreement would be unlikely.
Also, any current member who disagrees with an EU law can withdraw their membership in order having to implement such a law.
In October Vladimir Spidla, the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, said that it is up to individual member states whether or not to legally recognise gay and lesbian relationships.
So, while Horst Schalk and Johann Kopf v Austria may influence/inform what Austria does based on its own laws it wouldn’t force other nations to do so. That is, it wouldn’t make “moot” any/all individual national laws and require all nations to offer same-sex marriage or convert the French PAC, for example, to a marriage.
This is not the same as the pressure to get countries to recognize another country’s arrangment; i.e., France recognizing Britian’s Civil Union arrangement as does Britian’s recognition of a PAC which is what Spidla was alluding to regarding discrimination and “infringement procedures against some states on this matter”.
BTW: Neither Russia nor Turkey are EU member states although Turkey has been trying to become a member since the 80′s.
Just as a note of interst, Norway is also not a member as their electorate has voted against joining.
Stefano A
December 15th, 2008 | LINK
Ben:
No, the Hungarian Supreme Court nor a lower court made that ruling. The the Registered Partnership Act was approved by the Hungarian Parliament.
From 1 January 2009 lesbian and gay couples would have had almost identical rights as married heterosexual couples in common law. Some exceptions being the right to adopt, access to fertility treatment and the right to take their partner’s surname.
I’m not familiar with Hungary’s constitution so I don’t know what the “special protection under the constitution” is for marriage that the Hungarian Supreme Court used to rule same-sex marriage unconstitution but domestic-partnerships which only allow some rights constitution.
This situation seems to be similar to lines of distinction that Ireland has been trying to draw based on the Irish constitution. Although, admittedly, not as extreme as that of Hungary.
Tamas
December 17th, 2008 | LINK
The Hungarian Constitutional Court did indeed open up the institution of cohabitation for same sex couples very early on in 1995. But cohabitation is a very limited institution compared to marriage: you have to prove it every to you apply to some right and the rights that come with it are severely limited (no inheritance, no next of kin status, etc.) The new decision makes it clear that the Constitutional protection of human dingity (the bases for equality argumentation in Hungarian and German constitutional law) means that same sex couples are worthy of a higher form of legal recognition and protection more similar to that of marriage. The Court said nothing about how different registered partnership should be from marriage, so in the long run even adoption and artificial insemination could be added to the law.
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