News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Iowans couldn't care less about gay marriage
Military Times poll shows sharp decline in support for DADT
Our condolences to the Burke family
"Family" Leader Reportedly Confirms Opposition to Uganda's Anti-Gay BIll
Ollie North: Repeal DADT and What's Next? NAMBLA and Same-Sex Marriage
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.
According to Everyday Christian,
Earlier this week, about 70,000 signatures had been gathered, with more expected, according to Bob Emrich.
Earlier this week, other press was reporting 55,000. I guess we’ll wait and see.
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Bill S
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
Either way, I always get depressed when I’m reminded just how many people harbour an animus towards LGBT people. The fact that it no longer surprises me depresses me too.
AJD
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
So I guess we can give up hope that they won’t come out with enough signatures when the invalid ones are discounted… And if the Maine Equality people plan to run this campaign the way the ones in other states have been run, we can give up hope for marriage in general.
I have to say it, but I think the gains in some states have been illusory, and things are likely to get a hell of a lot worse before they get better.
Kameron
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
I expect we will lose because heterosexuals have oppressed gay people for millenia and that won’t stop anytime soon. At least put up a good fight. Donate money to equalitymaine, make online videos, talk to people in Maine, write letters to newspapers.
Burr
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
How ironic that the staple of “Progressive” reform at the turn of the century gets abused for some very non-progressive agendas in state after state.
Idiots. Taking things out of representative government’s hands and turning it over to the unwashed masses of the mob.
This is why the courts are the only real way to fix things.
AJD
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
My thoughts exactly, Burr. It was so shortsighted of the Progressives to implement the initiative process. They never bothered considering that demagogues from the other side could use it as well.
Richard Wood
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
Yes, we wouldn’t want the people to actually decide anything regarding the tenor and shape of the society…which is in fact nothing more than the people making it up. Especially when we can’t get what we want that way. Let’s have a few judicial elites decide. Err, so long as the judicial elites agree with us, of course. When they don’t, let’s call them homophobic fascists too.
tristram
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
It’s time for us to stop whining and get to work. THE absolute priority for every lgbt person from coast to coast should be to defete the marriage veto referendum in Maine. This is a state where the legislature stepped up to pass the bill and, despite some reservations, the governor signed it. Whether the number is 50,000 or 100,000, the anti-lgbt forces have apparently got the signatures to put the “peoples’ veto” on the ballot this fall, and the wingnuts are mobilizing frantically to pass the veto.
Maine has a lot of fair-minded people; this is a WINNABLE battle for us. But it will take a tremendous effort and a huge expenditure of effort and money. This cannot be like California where we woke up and streamed into the streets after we lost. This is where we need to show it’s not just ‘activist judges’ and ‘bought politicians’ who will stand up for fairness. This is where we can stuff the line that ‘every time the people vote, the gays lose.’ This is where we have to show the political leaders, in Maine and Washington D.C. and across the country, that when they stand up for us, we stand behind them and stand up for ourselves. Or not, it’s up to us.
----
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
I hope this isn’t the case (although very probable), but if the people’s veto succeeds in the ballot, will there be a way in the future to re-install marriage equality there?
Burr
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
No Richard. We already decided the shape and tenor of American society when we founded this country and wrote the Constitution.
Guess what? Theocratic ignoramuses like you LOST.
It’s time our legal system finally enshrines it without doubt once and for all, and stop the hijacking of our highest law for selfish, petty attempts at forcing the world into a box it just doesn’t fit.
Burr
July 10th, 2009 | LINK
Those damn uppity negroes.. Why didn’t they just realize that whites were just exercising their majority right to decide the shape and tenor of their society? Why they never even managed to pass any majority wins popular votes on their rights. They needed those elitist judges to destroy the white’s perfect justified discriminatory lifestyle..
Timothy (TRiG)
July 11th, 2009 | LINK
I don’t think I’ll ever understand a country in which “elitist” is a dirty word.
The judges know the law, and decide on the basis of the law. This is how it works, and how it should work.
TRiG.
Richard Wood
July 11th, 2009 | LINK
If you actually believe black civil rights happened b/c of the actions of some judges, you are wholly ignorant of the facts of that piece of history. Elites on both sides of the issue (e.g., the Johnson government and the southern state governments) were not the agents of the social change of the 1960s and 1970s. Real, everyday people decided that set of questions. If the homosexuals were actually convinced of their eternal righteousness, they’d be more than happy to pursue the same path. Strangely, they don’t.
Richard Wood
July 11th, 2009 | LINK
“Theocratic.” Right. I’m the first atheist theocrat in the history of the world.
Funny, the homosexuals accuse everyone else of stereotyping them, but they absolutely cannot grasp the idea that it’s not just the Christian fundies who oppose them. The two of you make a good pair, in fact.
You will just say anything, won’t you, Burr? Next you’ll be talking about how chicken scratchings tell us things about lung cancer.
Timothy Kincaid
July 13th, 2009 | LINK
No, Richard,
We fully recognize that anti-gay animus comes in all packages. It’s just that the religious folk have at least some basis – however misled – for their attitudes. Those who are anti-gay for no reason whatsoever are a bit rarer. We don’t as often experience blatant animus without even the pretense of principle.
Timothy Kincaid
July 13th, 2009 | LINK
Actually, Richard, the civil rights of individuals which were denied based on race were never put up for a popular vote. Further, marriage in Maine was not enacted by “some judges”, but by the legislature and the governor.
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