NOM Commits Sodomy
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, February 11
The Daily Agenda for Friday, February 10
Again anti-gays blindly and gleefully shoot themselves in the foot
Rep. Walsh leads with her heart
Advocate, WaPo, AP Get it Wrong On Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Uganda Executive, Parliament Tussle Over Anti-Homosexuality BIll
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, February 9
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 450 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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a. mcewen
March 6th, 2009 | LINK
I totally understand where you are coming from but the constant refrain of what was done wrong by those against Proposition 8 is bringing me down.
Yes they screwed up on several fronts but now is the time to look past that. But on that same note, I can only hope that they learned from their mistakes.
werdna
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
I think it’s important not only hope that “they” learn from their mistakes, but to ensure that we all do. Discussing this stuff publicly is a bit of a bummer, but it’s still valuable. Barring a surprising ruling from the CA Supreme Court we’re going to have to fight this battle on the ballot again so it’s never too early to start thinking about what to do and what not to do next time.
Jason D
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
I agree with werdna, those that do not learn from past mistakes are destined to repeat them.
Though it may not be fun to go over every misstep, there were many, and it is important that we go over each one.
We’ve learned that politics-as-usual isn’t going to cut it anymore. It’s destroyed our country. The same can be said for the business-as-usual model for gay rights advancement. It isn’t working, and we need to move on.
But we can’t move on to something better until we identify where we are. How are we to do something different or better if we don’t know what we were doing before?
It’s not pleasant, but it’s necessary.
rusty
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
looking for that magic recipe. . .yes, whatever happens the eyes of the GLBT world, yes world, is upon Cal I Forn i A.
Although disappointing, the stumble of the No on 8 leaders has led more and more to start conversations with friends, family, coworkers, business leaders, politicians.
In my rose colored glasses of perfect 20/20 hindsight, if no on 8 would have passed last fall, they might have been a hint of ‘well you know, that’s Cal I Fornicators for ya’
The eyes are now focused on the MO’rmons, the Catholics, and the others who want to continue to demonize someone.
The Catholic Church is still having a tough time with an anti-semitic POP OFF.
Racial undertones are now producing a wake. There are folk sending out cartoon/greeting’s cards of watermelon patches on the front lawn of the White House in anticipation of Easter.
Things are not pretty.
But if the ‘recipe’ is perfected through the efforts of EQUALITY Cali and the other states. . . maybe there will be a Federal policy recognizing LGBT folk ‘in some way’.
Ben in Oakland
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
A. McEwen: the problem is, they haven’t learned a thing. I sent a letter to them yesterday On That Very Subject. I haven’t heard back from them, and I don’t expect to.
This letter was written in response to a request for a donation, as well as recent video ad by Equality California referring to Harvey Milk.
Dear Equality CA: No, I will not be contributing. As far as I am concerned, you ran a losing campaign based on shame and fear. It is the same campaign you have run for the past ten years, and it was exactly as successful. I could see our defeat coming with all the inevitability of a slow motion train wreck.
There were plenty of people, myself included, who did what little we could to convince you to change directions. You weren’t interested. The most recent video that I saw demonstrated to me that you didn’t learn a thing. For every Jerry Falwell there’s a Harvey Milk? No, there’s not. For every Jerry Falwell, there’s at least ten more little Jerry’s who are not so blatantly obvious in their bigotry, but who are otherwise the same. For every Harvey Milk, there’s an assassin with a gun desperately trying to work out his own issues.
I wish it were true, because we desperately need a Harvey Milk, someone who can actually speak articulately about homophobia and prejudice, someone who understands the the enemy is not the Religious Reich, it is THE CLOSET.
This ad, this whole campaign, were conducted from the dark recesses of a closet mentality. I know of not one thoughtful, out, conscious, and grounded gay person who thought that this way of thinking and waging politics was anything but a loser. You couldn’t even say the words Gay and Lesbian. YOU COULDN’T EVEN SAY THE WORDS GAY AND LESBIAN!!! What the hell is THAT about? The one gay male couple you showed for 3 seconds were silhouetted, and cropped above the waist so that they could not be seen holding hands.
This is PATHETIC. This is why we lost.
I watched the hearings yesterday, and was appalled. More of the same. No talking about prejudice, religious or otherwise; the whole Yes on 8 campaign was nothing else, and is a clear attempt to force religious dogma on civil law. No concern for the children and families of gay people; those children are being denied equal protection of the law as well, because their parents cannot be married. No pointing out the obvious difference between DP and marriage– if they can vote to “disappear” my marriage, they can vote to “disappear” my domestic partnership as well. And they would have done so if they thought they could have gotten away with it. Let us not forget that there was another petition being circulated by Randy Thomason which would have done exactly that. The judges were no more convinced by the revision-vs.-amendment argument than I am. One more opportunity to make our case was squandered in a miasma of political correctness and everybody-make-nice liberal squishiness. And I say that as a thorough-going liberal.
So, NO DONATION. However, if you would like, I will be happy to provide you with my written critique. It’s nothing I haven’t said a lot before, but your organization needs to read it and understand it.
Because more of the same will not work for me. I would rather lose this battle because we have told the truth, than lose it because we have lied and hidden ourselves in shame.
Ben Janken
Eddie89
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
I think that Courage Campaign would probably be a better group to give my gay dollars to lead the gay civil marriage campaign.
After seeing some of their ads, I can see why they call themselves the “Courage” campaign!
Buffy
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
They knew about it. But what good was that wishy-washy letter compared to “I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman”? The Yes on 8 camp exploited that statement to the hilt, so sending copies of that letter to every person in California would have done little or nothing.
Jay
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
Ok, enough already about ‘them’. You know what? ‘Them’ is ‘us’. ‘We’ screwed it up. Most of the gay community was incredibly apathetic until relatively shortly before election day.
I’m tired of the finger pointing. We all have excellent 20/20 hindsight, but EQCA and NCLR were the only ones stepping up to the plate at that time with major fundraising efforts.
The community needs more strong leaders, and those who would lead would do well to knock off the bickering. Remember Harvey Milk’s message: “You’ve gotta give ‘em hope”. Community leaders who want to build hope need to do so by first stopping the attacks on the failed No on Prop 8 campaign.
A big reason why *we* lost the No on Prop 8 campaign is because it was a campaign being run in the absence of a movement. Let’s work together to build a solid movement that a solid, coherent campaign can be built on. Only then will the earlier mistakes be avoided. This is not about a candidate, or a proposition, this is about a *movement*. We need to reenergize the gay rights movement.
It is likely that the CA Supreme Court will rule against us. We need to be working toward the 2010 election NOW. There are already two competing propositions that have been filed with the CA Secretary of State’s office: one would be a straight repeal of Prop 8, the other proposes that the state get out of the marriage business altogether and issue civil unions for all. The first problem we face going forward is which of these propositions do we really want to see on the ballot? A signature gathering campaign needs to start NOW. Getting the message out that this has an impact on the gay & lesbian community has to start NOW. It takes time to get people to know us and recognize that we’re real people and not an abstract concept that’s ok to hate.
It’s time to come together as a community and move forward in preparation for 2010. I can guarantee you our opposition is.
Bill
March 7th, 2009 | LINK
Guys there is a great LGBT civil rights organization called the Empowering Spirits Foundation. They are very creative in how they approach this hot topic issue, in that they engage in service oriented activities in communities typically opposed to equal rights to foster thought and change for LGBT equality.
A friend of mine told me about it and I thought it was a great, positive approach to the issue. We had so much fun at the last event and it was great to give back to the community. Plus it was great to converse with others on the other side of the table in a way that wasn’t confrontational.
Anyway, this can be such a heated issue and I thought this was a unique approach.
Dan
March 8th, 2009 | LINK
The weekend before the election, I was one of a large number of No on 8 volunteers who distributed, in the predominately African American neighborhoods in Oakland, a flyer quoting Obama’s opposition to Prop. 8, as he stated in the letter to the Toklas club.
I think the No on 8 campaign should have made more use of Obama’s opposition to 8, but it untrue that they did not use the letter.
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