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
How To Spot A Swivel-Eyed Loon
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:
a. mcewen
February 18th, 2009 | LINK
The policy was only asking for trouble.
I hate when things like this happens because you just know it will be religious right talking points and fodder for videos like “Silencing Christians” no matter how silly it is.
David C.
February 18th, 2009 | LINK
There are really two (at least) problems here: 1) abuse of statutes that were designed to protect workers from harassment by supervisors and coworkers, and 2) the interpretation of these as applying to a situation into which workers were assigned and over which their supervisors had no real control.
There is no way that the “abuse” could have been “pervasive” or “sustained”. The men in question were riding in a fire-truck traveling down the parade route, never even really close to spectators, and there was certainly never any physical contact. I think these men saw an opportunity to cash in on something and were likely prompted by a lawyer that saw an opportunity to get in on a piece of the action. There certainly was no work-related quid pro quo, and they were otherwise insulated from the crowd. If this is an example of straight machismo, well, I think these guys are cry-babies.
Nevertheless, the city should have always asked for volunteers and never “required” anybody’s participation in San Diego Pride. Of course, you don’t see police officers who are “required” to be there to maintain order complaining, but that’s a different story I suppose.
Timothy Kincaid
February 18th, 2009 | LINK
This lawsuit had little to do with harassment of any sort and MUCH to do with establishing the existence of gay people as an offense to others.
The amount of money is small, but LiMandri doesn’t care about that. LiMandri is on an anti-gay crusade and they have just won a VERY important victory.
The basis for this lawsuit was far less in what the fire-fighters might have heard or experienced from the middle of the street six feet up with the windows closed and earphones on and everything to do with “I don’t want to be around gay people”.
LiMandri’s goal all along was to find that gay pride parades are offensive and harassing. Once that is established, it provides a basis for every homophobe in the nation to sue their employer for the harassment of providing police or fire service in gay neighborhoods, the harassment of health inspectors going into gay restaurants or clubs, the harassment of social workers going to gay households.
Workers can now refuse to be around gay people or threaten to sue.
I very much hope the City wins on appeal.
Stefano A
February 18th, 2009 | LINK
As an expat of Hillcrest, I could not agree with you more Timothy. Specifically with regard to the motivations underlying this trial.
Part of this whole ordeal was him trying to get the courts to say that the firefighter’s participation was an infringement on their First Amendment rights as well.
Fortunately in that suit LiMandri and the firefighters also brought, San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Anello noted in a written ruling that . . .
According to that ruling, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department acted in accordance with state and local anti-discrimination laws by participating in the parade. City officials considered the department’s presence in the event part of its “community-building activities.”
Also, reading the comments of the jurors, although they voted 12-0 only on the first and last questions (of the 9) they were asked to give a verdict on:
It was perfectly clear that their verdicts were not really based on harassment, but what they were really voting on in this case was the issue of whether or not the firfighters should have been required to attend.
An already moot point by the time of this trial.
David Roberts
February 18th, 2009 | LINK
Timothy said:
Agreed.
Joel
February 18th, 2009 | LINK
I hope this wont be the beginning of a recoil effect on gay rights.
Truly sad.
Jason D
February 19th, 2009 | LINK
I’ve said from the beginning that it’s rather ridiculous.
If you’ve ever been to any large parade or outdoor gathering the crowd itself is so loud that it’s deafening. It’s impossible to talk on the phone, and quite a challenge to hear someone standing right next to you unless they are shouting in your ear. Being the focus of the crowd’s energy, not to mention music from floats and nearby buildings, sitting six feet above the crowd in a noisy vehicle — it’s rather hard to believe they heard anything specific, and even more ridiculous that driving such an large and imposing vehicle they could feel at all threatened by the crowd.
They were essentially driving a tank through a disco.
Scott P.
February 19th, 2009 | LINK
Timothy, I think it a real stretch to go from being required to attend a parade and fighting a fire, inspecting a club and providing services. Police, firefighters and social workers can’t decide which laws they’ll enforce, which fires they’ll fight or which services they’ll provide. That would be like a fry-cook refusing to cook a burger. It’s an essential part of the job, not a sideline. The cook may refuse to wear a mascot costume out front, but he can’t refuse to actually cook.
Timothy Kincaid
February 19th, 2009 | LINK
Scott P.
Perhaps you were unaware that the firefighters that sued were stationed at the Hillcrest fire station at 9th and University. That part of University is called “Rainbow Mile”. The pride parade literally went past the building in which they work.
A jury has declared that they can refuse to associate with the people just outside the door. They can refuse to be part of community outreach to the community in which they are located.
Scott P.
February 19th, 2009 | LINK
I see. So, if a fire breaks out in “their” neighborhood, you think this decision gives them the right to sit in their fire-station and refuse to do what they’re paid for. Is that what you’re saying?
Do you honestly think that if that happens each and everyone of them wouldn’t be fired? There’s a hell of a lot of difference between being in a parade, which is extraneous to their jobs, and actually refusing to do what they are PAID to do.
Again, no person can legally refuse to do the job they are hired to do without being fired with just cause.
I honestly think you are being hysterical in imagining that that would happen. I may be wrong, but I don’t think so.
Leave A Comment