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
Last Minute Bid to Sink Marriage Bill Fails in British Commons
Will Illinois Be #13?
The Daily Agenda for Monday, May 20
Gay Man Shot To Death In NYC Hate Crime
The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 19
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
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Jamaica is an evil place to live if you are gay. This we have reported on this many times.
John
July 21st, 2009 | LINK
I’ll bet that these folks would appeal to something in the Bible too in order to justify their behavior towards gays. Yet while they may self-righteously consider themselves to be good lil’ Christians they completely ignore the message in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It wasn’t just that the charitable act that this Samaritan did for an injured Jew, while the man’s fellow Jews and leaders ignored his plight, but that someone Jews considered to be a heretic worthy of hell had grace enough to do this.
Joe
July 21st, 2009 | LINK
I boycott anything Jamaican and I also tell my straight friends for what it is and to visit another friendlier island instead. Up yours Golding!
When I see a tourist bureau advertising Jamaica, I walk in and tell them how it is and ask to have them remove their advertising for Jamaica.
Until Jamaican elected officials make an effort, it’s a lost cause.
Suzan
July 21st, 2009 | LINK
Treat Jamaica the way we treated the apartheid government of South Africa and the way many are now treating Israel.
Total boycott. Do not buy anything from Jamaica including coffee, music etc. Do not travel there. Tell cruise lines you will not travel on cruise ships that dock in Jamaica.
----
July 21st, 2009 | LINK
I wonder which religion is worse regarding gays: the kind of Christianity predominant in that island, or Rastafarianism?
Emily K
July 22nd, 2009 | LINK
John: Jews don’t believe in Hell.
Johnson
July 22nd, 2009 | LINK
Jamaica lives and dies on tourism (overwhelmingly from the US) and until they feel the economic squeeze, this will continue and only get worse.
John
July 22nd, 2009 | LINK
Emily: Interesting but not the point. One doesn’t hear of Jamaican Jews causing problems, but instead many so-called Christians from Jamaica. By that I mean faithful and cultural Jamaican Christians.
Priya Lynn
July 22nd, 2009 | LINK
Jamaica is a good example of why simple laws against assault and murder are inadequate. Despite it being against the law to assault or murder gays such crimes happen in disproportionate numbers against the gay community and the law enforcement officers frequently only pay lip service to such laws when it comes to gays A hate crimes law there would quickly send the message that targeting gays for who they are won’t be tolerated and is a crime against a community as well as the individual involved.
tinagrrl
July 22nd, 2009 | LINK
Boycott all things Jamaican.
Write about it. Speak up about it.
Their culture has no redeeming value.
Christopher Waldrop
July 22nd, 2009 | LINK
Priya, your comment reminded me of something I read several years ago about how in my city (and probably most others as well) places where gay men got together were often high-crime areas. Police looked the other way when the victims of muggings or assault were gay men. I agree that simple laws against assault and murder aren’t enough, but there needs to be a cultural shift as well. Police need to treat everybody equally under the law.
mikeksf
July 22nd, 2009 | LINK
I believe it was just a month or so ago that calls went out to boycott Jamaican tourism. The local gay goup opposed that idea and so it seems to have gone nowhere.
I’d like to suggest pressure, demonstrations and boycotts targeted at Ziggy Marley. He’ll be in LA on 7/25/09 and then in Honolulu. His music and family are intimately associated with Jamaica. I don’t know if he has spoken out on the issue, but, if he is the man of conscious and compassion his music of love and family and god proclaim than his words are certainly needed. If he supports this culture of hate than we need to know that.
Mike Airhart
July 23rd, 2009 | LINK
A boycott effort was launched several months ago.
However, the one GLBT Jamaican organization opposes any action, and many U.S. GLBT organizations refuse to support a boycott that is not supported locally.
Before a successful boycott can take root, there must be a broad and well-funded public education effort to demonstrate that inaction and denial will not keep gay Jamaicans safe.
The Jamaican GLBT group, J-FLAG, seeks donations to stop the violence — but they say nothing about what they would do with the money, other than buy office supplies.
http://www.jflag.org/
ANDRIA
July 27th, 2009 | LINK
It is unfair and unrealistic to say boycott Jamaica, and that Jamaicans are so call christians. How can you put all Jamaicans in one catagory. If that is the case then we can say all gays have AIDS and is sure to burn in hell. I am Jamaican and have many gay friends. I love people for who they are not what they are. that is the preception of almost all the individuals I know. people have a right to their openion, as long as no one get hurt. violence and hatred can come from anywhere not just Jamaica.
Timothy Kincaid
July 27th, 2009 | LINK
Indeed.
But in Jamaica they seem to get hurt at a much higher rate than anywhere else in the Americas. Jamaica is a cauldron of hatred, bigotry, and discrimination.
And if you have gay friends, and if you really and truly like those friends, you will try to make their lives better and work for their freedom and equality rather than criticize those who actually want to benefit the lives and improve the freedom of your “friends”.
kayla
August 8th, 2009 | LINK
okay you guys are so stupid to even think of writing soemthing this unrealistic. like what? some of my riends are gay and we went to jamaica for grade 12 and they treated them with as much respect as they treated the other people. you people are hating because it is such a beautiful country. I’m white and i think Jamaica is a wonderful place, for everyone! No one cares what you say, It’s dumb and immature for whoever even wrote this nonsense artical.
kayla
August 8th, 2009 | LINK
And by the way, Jamaica has the most tourist out of all the countries for 2009 so all you guys are saying went to waste. and so will you for believing this crap.
Brianna
August 9th, 2009 | LINK
Jealous much? Why would you boycott? How stupid! You can find something bad about every country but you decide to just boycott Jamaica? Wow… Rasists. I call them like I see them. I will always love Jamaica. IT HAS THE MOST TOURISTS FOR 2009 BABY! YEA!
Timothy Kincaid
August 10th, 2009 | LINK
kayla/Brianna,
Jamaica isn’t even in the top ten of countries visited by tourists.
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