Who’s Really Being Silenced?
Jim Burroway
April 20th, 2009
BTB reader Elliot Ryan noticed something about the YouTube webpage which hosts the Illinois Family Institute’s “Dare To Stand” video, and wonders who is really being silenced?
News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoricEx-Gay Ministry Admits Sexual Abuse; Grateful At Not Being Found Out
Lt. Daniel Choi Arrested In DADT Protest At White House
Another Baptist church not anti-gay enough for Texas
Dutch military disagrees with Sheehan's revision of the Srebrenica massacre
Sheehan blames Bosnian massacre on gay Dutch soldiers
Kathy Griffin Calls for DADT Repeal in D.C.
Ugandan LGBT Activist To Tour Eastern US
Blogswarm: Call Nancy Pelosi, Demand ENDA's Passage
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
BTB reader Elliot Ryan noticed something about the YouTube webpage which hosts the Illinois Family Institute’s “Dare To Stand” video, and wonders who is really being silenced?
William
April 20th, 2009 | LINK
Ha, ha, ha! Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. Is anyone?
Priya Lynn
April 20th, 2009 | LINK
That’s the epitome of hypocrisy – complain about how gays are silencing Christians, claim they want to have a “discussion” and then refuse to let the other side speak.
Jason D
April 20th, 2009 | LINK
Priya, that seems to be the way the opposition tends to run. I’ve noticed that in general, “”Conservatives”" have this tendency to put out messages in social networks but then close off discussion. I recall, for example, reading a LCR blog that doesn’t even have a comments section. And routinely anti-gay forces put up videos on youtube and refuse comments and or ratings.
Jeremy at GoodAsYou has noted that there is a National Organization for Marriage Facebook group, and there is next to nothing supportive being written on their page.
Lynn David
April 20th, 2009 | LINK
They are fast losing crediblity….
occono
April 21st, 2009 | LINK
The first time they put up the video, it got a one-star rating and mostly negative feedback in the comments, then they took it down. They disabled ratings and comments when they put the video back up.
It’s been mirrored though by another user with comments enabled.
JandyA
April 21st, 2009 | LINK
Elliott.
I was surprised and pleased to see your Art on BTB when I fired-up my computer today. Congrats to you for expressing “our” interests and concerns with your talented depiction of what is TRULY the truth. As with any crusade, each side has their means and methods of disbursing propaganda.
Thanks for your convictions and presentation, regardless of where we may sometimes differ. Hopefully this will show others what a talented and thoughtful person you are.
JandyA
Ephilei
April 22nd, 2009 | LINK
You also can’t even post comments on IFI’s YouTube profile.
Fortunately, the competition in the Internet world has a survival of the fittest mentality. Content without interactivity will die out like an animal without hearing. Ignorance will be its own reward.
Leave A Comment