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!
Gay Couples Excluded from Immigration Bill Markup
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
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Peace
January 19th, 2009 | LINK
I was hoping that the issue with the sound (which I’m willing to believe was just very, very unfortunate luck) was in some way the reason they didn’t broadcast it. That’s pretty much the only story I would have been ok with. ::sigh::
Bene D
January 19th, 2009 | LINK
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/01/obama_team_take.html
If there is an up side to this is HBO doesn’t own the rights to Sarah Pulliam’s video on YouTube so they can’t yank it for copyright violations.
Bene D
January 19th, 2009 | LINK
Oh shoot – sorry about the link. Here it is in tinyURL.
http://tinyurl.com/8vm96c
David C.
January 19th, 2009 | LINK
I’ll start keeping score after the inauguration.
Timothy Kincaid
January 19th, 2009 | LINK
So let me see if I have this right…
As those who attend the inauguration are showing up and finding their place, talking to their neighbors, discussing the upcoming event, etc. in the background they will broadcast the concert. And for those few there at the very beginning of the re-broadcast, they may hear Rev. Robinson. Maybe. If they aren’t talking to each other.
Not exactly the same thing as the HBO free show on every television in the nation, is it? And it certainly isn’t comparable to the invocation.
It’s pathetic. That’s what it is.
Damon
January 19th, 2009 | LINK
So…whats everybody going to do about it?
Is this what its going to be all about for the next 4 years? Perhaps the republicans will have their revolution next election and we can continue doing this for 12 years. ENDA, the Matthew Shepard Act remain out of sight, DADT and DOMA remains in sight and the public continues to not take LGBTQ people seriously and our community, so fractured, will continue falling all over themselves getting up in arms over slights in entertainment, races pitted against each other and busy tying the gay rights movement with the atheist movement.
Great.
David C.
January 19th, 2009 | LINK
It is much easier to just sit around and complain but that will get us precisely nowhere.
My suggestion is that we pay attention to what matters. Right now we have a barely functional economy, and perhaps soon a barely functional nation. At the same time, the call for universal civil rights is gaining in strength, and we should join in that steady drumbeat, without emulating the shrill demagoguery of the enemies of freedom that would divide us and instead working to unite all people in the noble cause of freedom and inclusiveness.
We must tell the truth in measured tones and with clear conviction all the time, proclaiming it persistently, and with intent, in every forum to which we can gain access, never allowing lies about us to drown out the truth. Know what half-truths and distortions are being circulated about LGBT people and make sure that no one gets a pass on a lie about Gay people. Blog, e-mail, write op-ed pieces and letters to the editor, plaster posters in the public square, and don’t stop for one minute proclaiming the cause of universal civil rights for all people.
We must join forces with those that share the common cause of freedom. Build bridges with anybody that can be induced to reach out to us by our own reaching out. Be exemplars of citizenship and participate in our communities, not just the LGBT communities, but everywhere opportunity manifests for that participation. It’s time to end the selfish expectation of being handed our rights for they must be earned every day by good deeds and responsible behavior that everybody can’t help but see.
Continue supporting Gay supportive elected officials and let them hear from us constantly by taking the time to carefully craft our communication with them, building their understanding of the need and urgency for redress, and offering what help we can give. Look for opportunities to participate in political activism and volunteer to help LGBT organizations to mobilize those that support the cause of full civil rights for LGBT people everywhere.
People are only ever truly known by what they do. So what are you doing to be free?
tristram
January 20th, 2009 | LINK
I like David C’s message (rhetorical flourishes and all!). Rep. John Lewis’s steadfast support for gay rights (mentioned in a contemporaneous post) lends powerful support to the importance of our making a sincere and sustained effort to empathize with and reach out to all the minority and disadvantaged communities that are still struggling to participate fully in American society.
Buffy
January 20th, 2009 | LINK
“I always knew he would disappoint us. I just didn’t think it would happen before he even took the oath of office.”
I’m afraid you had much more faith in him than my wife and I did. He has merely lived down to our expectations of him with every slap he has delivered to our faces.
CLS
January 20th, 2009 | LINK
Let’s see what he’s done on this so far. First, he invited a notorious homophobe to give the “big” prayer. He excused that as “dialogue” even though no dialogue is taken place just an honor bestowed on the bigot. In addition, we know he wouldn’t have tried that excuse if Bush had, at his inauguration, brought in a notorious racists to pray. Then dialogue wouldn’t excuse it. This only works for antigay bigots.
After the big controversy that his decision caused, and only when it wouldn’t go away, did he then ask Robinson to do a similar prayer in some much smaller event which will barely be noticed, unlike Warren who will be given a prominent position exceeded by only a handful of people — like Obama, Biden, etc.
And then they “accidentally” flubbed up the Robinson prayer so it didn’t get broadcast. Right. I believe it.
The gay vote is seen as “safe” and so, when it does them political good, the Democrats are happy to shaft gay supporters. Obama is just another politician not the messiah. Some people will take a long time to figure that out.
Leave A Comment