The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, May 22
House of Commons officially passes marriage equality
British Commons Approves Marriage Equality Bill
Email address of Attorney General prosecuting 18 year old Florida lesbian
Gay Man's Murder Sparks Massive Rally
The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, May 21
Connecticut Scouts simply announce that they are accepting gay scout leaders
Church of Scotland allows ministers in relationship
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:
Richard W. Fitch
May 29th, 2009 | LINK
This came in my email thru another source, not sure where, but what struck me was that one of the reader there had the audacity to ask the question: “What exactly is this curriculum?” Of course, I have seen no follow-up by the rag trying to defend the traditional family on this question against the gay agenda.
Lindoro Almaviva
May 29th, 2009 | LINK
Teachers then ask if students are surprised to learn that those famous people are members of the LGBT community. The curriculum also provides a list of LGBT vocabulary words for students, including the following: bisexual, transgender, gay, LGBT and lesbian.
Contact information for the three members of the Alameda County Board of Education who voted for the LGBT curriculum is as follows:
Vice President Ron Mooney: fax: (510) 522-6926
Trustee Tracy Jensen: phone: (510) 865-6350 or fax: (510) 522-6926
Trustee Niel Tam: fax: (510) 522-6926
This is the last of the article. Since those people are going to hear from angry people, i suggest that they also hear from people who see what they are really trying to do and hear the congratulations for a job well done. How about that?
Richard
May 29th, 2009 | LINK
I wish the people who are swayed by the scare tactics and believe people who are not gay and therefore do not know what gay life is like but they paint these fantastical ideas of who we are, would read this and start being more diligent about educating themselves. I have yet to see a marriage that has in anyway affected my life. Why would someone else s business in their personal life affect me. I had a neighbor who said she was for gay rights yet told me it was her business what I do in my house because she has children. If I was strait she would not have made that comment. She said they could look through my window. Oh, yeah, I lived on the second floor. This is how ignorant some people are. I think we need to get the people out to vote and educate them. Why does someone else s religion get forced on me. When are we going to be free from religion in politics. I believe in Jesus Christ not in religion or most of the religious dogma that is skewed to the ideals of a few.
GreenEyedLilo
May 29th, 2009 | LINK
Thank you for doing the legwork on this and other anti-gay horror stories. I wish the people who needed to read this would, but it does help LGBT and supportive people with, say, our parents and other relatives who wish to start something.
I have a couple of very close friends, both bisexual parents of 8-year-old girls, and I’ve lately seen that they are already having to deal with some grief because of how others perceive their parents. They already know why their parents stop holding hands in certain venues and why some adults look all lemon-faced at their parents. The girls themselves are perfectly fine with it and can clearly and quickly explain their family lives–it’s adults who get confused, often willfully so, and make things worse. It makes me angry that these kinds of curricula are so violently opposed. The opponents claim to be “pro-family” and “pro-child”. Those phrases come with asterisks and extensive footnotes. But you know that.
One question I have asked quite a bit of right-wingers, and never gotten a solid answer to, is, “Okay, so what would you have taught about these kids and their families? Because they’re going to your local public school right now, and there will be questions.” They stammer and avoid the question. They have no real ideas of their own. And it’s hard not to think the worst, it really is.
John
May 29th, 2009 | LINK
I live in Alameda and have a kid in the Alameda public schools. It is actually a fairly liberal place (not a suprise, since it is an island in the SF Bay). I don’t have the exact figures, but I think more than 60% of the voters voted No on Prop 8 and there were few if any Yes on 8 yard signs.
This curriculum issue is very interesting and the lies that the right wingers (Mormons and a few Evangelical churches) have been putting out scared some folks into thinking that this was actually about sex education rather than an anti-bullying campaign. One of the two Board Members who voted against the curriculum has ties to a virulent homophobe who writes letters to the editor frequently.
Our next school board election will probably see right wingers trying to capitalize on this to take over the school board. If they win, I am sure they will over-reach and liberal Alameda will not tolerate intelligent design, watering down evolution and trying to impose school prayer in some way. We’re in for some headaches for the next few years.
Hobsen
May 29th, 2009 | LINK
Such teaching is required by the California Education Code, which is probably why the Alameda County Board of Education is insisting on it. And since the county has about a million and a half residents, it is hardly surprising opponents could come up with 500 signatures on a petition in opposition. The story does not say that the signatures are those of parents of children in the county schools, or even of county residents.
AdrianT
May 30th, 2009 | LINK
Nicely put Jim – we get this too over here in the UK fromsimilar outfits (the ‘Christian Institute’ being one). These organizations seem to be nothing more than good PR machines – if you pump out the same lie enough times, people start believing it. They capitalize on the fact that neither the media nor the public at large care to check the facts, and simply ask ‘how do I know this is true?’ (this applies across the board, from WMD in Iraq, to the saintliness of the Dalai Lama…)
It’s really important to be vigilant about refuting these claims because this is the premise they use for campaigns to maintain discrimination such as adverts against gay marriage.
Timothy Kincaid
May 30th, 2009 | LINK
John,
Thanks for the report from the site. I hope the school board doesn’t get overrun, but Alameda may resist a homophobia-based campaign.
Alameda county voted against Prop 8 by 61.9% to 38.1% and the City of Alameda was even better: 68.4% to 31.6%.
----
May 30th, 2009 | LINK
So now that prop 8 supporters know that the gay-marriage ban did nothing to prevent this sort of curriculum, what will they do?
CLS
May 30th, 2009 | LINK
In my experience WND runs anything that pushing their values no matter how crazy, dishonest or absurd.
The first time I came across them it was because they mentioned a book I wrote on South Africa under the ANC — it was not a complimentary book but it was factual. Yet this article also mentioned an alleged plot by South African blacks to slit the throats of all white people—something i knew to be totally bat crazy. Contrary to Western media claims the relationships between black and white was relatively good. (The relationship between blacks and the government was a different matter.) The very idea that tens of millions of black were keeping this plot a secret was as ridiculous as one could get, yet there it was reported as fact. And they were quoting my book in this article, though it said no such thing. An email to them was ignored.
Timothy Kincaid
May 30th, 2009 | LINK
Thanks, CLS
Those curious about WND’s credibility may also want to consider that they ran an article titled “soy is making kids gay.”
And it wasn’t satire.
HappyCat
June 1st, 2009 | LINK
My rule is never trust what you read on anti-gay web sites that don’t allow comments. Take Peter LeBarbera’s site, AFTAH. No comments allowed and his distortions of the truth can be blown out of the water in a heartbeat. NOM has its BS as well and no room for differing opinions. Or if they do allow comments, they erase differing opinions quickly.
Ephilei
June 1st, 2009 | LINK
Jim – your words about fear here are very insightful. Thanks
NOM does allow comments on their blog which impresses me. It’s fun to read because 95% are pro-gay. Makes you wonder who’s really paying attention to NOM.
John
February 5th, 2010 | LINK
Just an update. 20 parents (with the help of the right wing Pacfic Justice Institute) filed a lawsuit ( Balde, et al v Alameda Unified School District) in order to opt out of the curriculum. Balde et al lost. A judge ruled against the opt out, because the crriculum was anti- bullying and not health related as the plaintiffs argued.
Balde is Irene Penalosa “Aisha” Balde. She and her husband Musa Balde (Imam and founder of the Alsmrda Islamic Center) are being sued by the City Attorney of Oakland, California on 82 counts of fraud. The Baldes run American Legal Services, a business in Oakland that is accused of defrauding immigrant of thousands of dollars each with false promises of gaining them legal status even though the Baldes knew these people didn’t qualify. Suit for $8.2 million. Couldn’t happen to nicer folks. I love karma.
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