What's Good For Uganda Is Good For Canada?
Murder Music Performer Brings Violent Message To Uganda, Sponsored By Pepsi
Atlanta mayor-elect finds his election to be confirmation of anti-marriage position
Archbishop of Canterbery reacts to lesbian bishop
Sunday Driver: "Cuba Needs More Hookers"
Spain Apologizes To Man Imprisoned For Homosexuality
Cockroaches
Undercover At Ex-Gay Camp
Featured Reports
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:
Ben in Oakland
June 26th, 2009 | LINK
I tihnk bloggers are probably more active, more aware of what’s going on, and thinking aobut it more.
Ken in Riverside
June 26th, 2009 | LINK
That gay and lesbian people wouldn’t identify gay issues as the most important issues that Obama is dealing with isn’t a very interesting observation. Most gays I know don’t consider their sexuality to be the primary defining source of identity.
I read your blog along with The Daily Dish as my primary sources for gay-rights issues. So, while recognizing the potential selection bias, I have to say that I am very, very unpleased with Obama’s performance on gay issues. I don’t think I can put it better than Sullivan when he says that Obama just wants us to go away. What evidence do we have to the contrary? Symbolic gestures like hand-written notes to DADT discharges and a speech here or there when DNC fundraisers lose contributions from gay orgs. Which is the real policy? The one submitted to the SCOTUS or the one to which lip service is given at fund raisers?
I’d be fine with the achievements being made later in his term. President Obama’s campeign co-opted “hope”. It was an inspiring and uplifting message. Where is our hope? We HOPE to have equal rights one day. We HOPE that our spouses won’t be deported. We HOPE that whatever hospital closest to us honors our rights as spouses. We HOPE that our professional lives and skills would be valued on their own merits, independant of which sex we are attracted to.
Perhaps President Obama doesn’t want to diminish our hopefulness by doing so little as engaging our community before damaging our interests with something as trivial as a SCOTUS brief.
Next time, I’m voting for the candidate that runs on the “Certainty” platform.
Bruce Garrett
June 26th, 2009 | LINK
That link isn’t working. I’d like to see the source. If it’s from a mainstream news outlet then I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them trying to marginalize the bloggers. There’s not a whole lot of love lost there…
Burr
June 26th, 2009 | LINK
“It is equally unclear that the agenda the blogs are pressing on the White House is one the broader community would choose.”
What nonsense. There’s nothing to choose. Equal rights are a demand of our very existence. The community is not split on what they would CHOOSE to happen. They may be split on their level of patience, however.
Cooner
June 26th, 2009 | LINK
What do I think?
I think it’s not too surprising. Like Ben said above, bloggers are more aware than the typical man-on-the-street. And like Ken said, few people consider their sexuality the most important aspect of their life, especially when bigger problems are pressing.
I think it’s reasonable to assume some priorities, that some broad challenges we’re facing must take precedence over others.
At the same time, though, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. While there’s some threat of seeming selfish or greedy, and while some people do go too far in harsh criticism, I think we have a right to keep reminding the government that these are real issues that we want, nay, need to see progress on soon.
Yeah, fixing the economy is probably a lot more important than repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. But repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would also be a lot easier. They could probably get it done on their lunch break, figuratively speaking.
Hunter
June 26th, 2009 | LINK
I’m also getting a broken link. There’s not enough information in the quoted portion to evaluate the survey — what actual choices were the respondents given, and in what context were gay rights presented as part of the overall picture?
As for the blogs not reflecting the average LGBT, what media outlet does reflect the average anyone? CNN? New York Times? Fox? Excuse me, but is there a slight conceptual gap here? And, to be perfectly honest, I do see the role of political blogs as adversarial, at least in part — it’s some thing that’s been missing in this country for a while.
Based on the segment in this post, I don’t see much of value in the survey — which is probably why it got reported.
Lynn David
June 26th, 2009 | LINK
It would have been peachy-keen if the democrats had gotten their act together and passed just one initiative. And I think that one should have been ENDA or rather, GENDA. That would have been what I think should have been done.
But I’m with the guy on the NY street [at whatever link that is supposed to be], I’d much rather have some sort of effective health care passed. I got purposefully price out of my health-care insurance by the company I was with, and cannot get new insurance because of certain pre-existing conditions. I’ve spent into the mid-6 figures the last serveral years on healthcare which has destroyed a life savings.
DOMA and DADT could have been left until later. I suspect that Obama would rather institute new rules into the military after bring home most of the troops anyway. DOMA could wait until 2010 or later.
NH Baritone
June 27th, 2009 | LINK
I have been extremely disappointed by the President’s failure to follow through on his pro-gay campaign rhetoric.
Inviting a few gay folks in for tea and cookies does NOT come close to fulfillment of his pre-election promises, and neither does giving minimal rights to gay couples who work for the Feds. Even Condi Rice did that.
He should immediately through his stop-loss executive power suspend the implementation of “don’t ask-don’t tell.” (This will provide a period of experiment for the military to live with openly gay people among its ranks.) He should put all of his weight behind ENDA. And he should insist that congress begin repeal of DOMA within its current session.
Ed White, Knoxville
June 28th, 2009 | LINK
I think it’s not just a matter of LGBT bloggers being more informed – they’re IMMERSED, thoroughly, in LGBT news, with the intent on creating or at least perpetuating more of it. The weaker journalistic types lean toward the dramatic to generate more buzz – it’s addictive and gets noticed. But even the more ethical, thoughtful bloggers aren’t immune from the echo-chamber effect of the blogsphere. The buzz of the day or the week bounces around and gets amplified sometimes to the point that it doesn’t really match the reality on the ground.
I’m not a blogger, but I’m not immune either. In preparation for a speech at our local PrideFest, I read everything I could find on the web for weeks, trying to decide where my audience might be at. In the earlier days, a couple of weeks ago, I found the near rage I was reading appalling. By the time I finished writing my speech 2 days ago, I had gotten caught up in it somewhat myself, and tried to play the middle, recognize the anger and try to mitigate it.
But from the reaction, during and after my speech, I now feel it was a bit of a wrong note the way I recognized this anger as if it were somehow commonplace: I couldn’t really find that much anger in the audience, and in fact, the cheers I got were from counseling patience.
Granted, Knoxville’s LGBTs have always been more moderate – even conservative – than the rest of the country in general, but I have a feeling the rest of the country is far more patient that the blogsphere and many immersed activists, too.
Michael Ditto
June 29th, 2009 | LINK
I think we and the President can multitask.
Leave A Comment