The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 25
The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 24
Boy Scouts of America Votes To Allow Gay Members, Retains Ban On Gay Leaders
Nevada House votes to reverse marriage ban
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, May 23
It's Not the Principle, It's the Prejudice
Congratulations Mitch!
Gay Couples Excluded from Immigration Bill Markup
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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L. Junius Brutus
August 1st, 2009 | LINK
I’m glad that NARTH is being countered, but we really need to get away from terms like “heterosexism”. There is no one in the world who takes someone who uses words like that seriously.
William
August 1st, 2009 | LINK
I’m also a bit puzzled by the reference to the supposed “intersection” of heterosexism and capitalism.
This isn’t the place to debate the relative merits of capitalism, socialism, communism etc., but I don’t see that that’s relevant in any case. During the first half of the twentieth century the persecution of gay men (and perhaps to a lesser extent of lesbians) knew no such political boundaries. Indeed, in many of the Soviet bloc countries gay men were treated even more shamefully than in the UK or the USA, and this maltreatment continued long after Britain and America had started on the slow journey to enlightenment. It doesn’t seem to have finished yet in Russia even after the fall of communism, and the negative attitude towards gays in countries like Lithuania is undoubtedly a hangover from the days of communism.
This conference is excellent news, but I do hope that it’s not going to be hi-jacked by people who have an anti-capitalist agenda, irrespective of whether that agenda is in itself legitimate. It’s really no more to the point than the affiliation some years ago in the UK of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality to the Campaign for Real Ale.
Jim Burroway
August 1st, 2009 | LINK
I’m not a big fan of the word “heterosexism” myself, mainly because it it often used as a perjorative, and I absolutely refuse to use the word in that sense.
However, as a concept, it is an important piece in understanding the mechanics of homophobia. I think Soulforce gave a definition that I am 90% comfortable with:
Another term used is “heterosexual privelidge”, another term that is often a very loaded term. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t validity behind the concepts that the terms are intended to describe, but the terms themselves are often loaded with some pretty angry connotations that I find uncomfortable.
Knowing the participants, I don’t believe it will have an anti-capitalist agenda. I took that topic to mean the place that heterosexual assumptions play in commerce and in business.
Timothy Kincaid
August 2nd, 2009 | LINK
I too am curious about the intersection of heterosexism and capitalism.
If I look around me, it can appear that capitalism is a strong influence in support of the gay community. The business world is FAR more inclusive and supportive than most state governments and definitely more than the Feds.
So I very much hope that it is as Jim describes – a look at how commerce and business can assume that the customer, vendor, employee, and competitor are all heterosexual and how a smart business can benefit from appealing to the “non-typical” customer.
But sadly, I suspect that the approach to capitalism may be from liberalistism – the assumption that everyone in the room adopts all of the assumptions of the most liberal of possible attitudes. Liberistism presumes that we all are unquestioningly anti-business and pro-socialism.
Sadly, liberalistism has been encoded into nearly every major social, religious, cultural, and economic institution in our community.
Quo
August 2nd, 2009 | LINK
The first part of the definition of “heterosexism” (“the presumption that everyone is heterosexual”) is absurd; nobody is “heterosexist” in that sense, or certainly NARTH is not.
The idea that opposite sex attractions and relationships are preferable to their same sex equivalents is perfectly true, and not an “ism” that society should expunge.
Burr
August 2nd, 2009 | LINK
So what the heck is the “it’s just a bad lifestyle choice” crowd pushing if not the presumption that everyone is heterosexual by default and should stay heterosexual then?
The idea that heterosexual relationships are preferable is perfectly false. Millions are in unhappy, forced heterosexual relationships that would be better off with none at all or finding someone of their own gender who is compatible.
Richard W. Fitch
August 2nd, 2009 | LINK
That, Quo, is exactly what ‘hetrosexism’ is about, and it is not ‘perfectly true’.
Priya Lynn
August 2nd, 2009 | LINK
Quo said “The idea that opposite sex attractions and relationships are preferable to their same sex equivalents is perfectly true”.
Speak for yourself Quo. That may be the case for straight people but for gay people same sex relationships are infinitely preferable to opposite sex relationships. That you’d make such an absurd statement is testament to the fact that you come here just to antagonize gay people. Keep your hostilities to yourself.
William
August 3rd, 2009 | LINK
Actually, Quo, I think that you’re wrong when you say that “nobody is ‘heterosexist’ in that sense, or certainly NARTH is not.” Nicolosi has said, if I’m not mistaken, “There are no homosexuals, only heterosexuals with homosexual problems” – a bloody stupid thing to say if ever there was one. He might as well have said that there are no left-handed people, only right-handed people with left-handed problems.
As for your statement, “The idea that opposite sex attractions and relationships are preferable to their same sex equivalents is perfectly true”, yes, it is true for the vast majority of people, whose orientation is naturally heterosexual, but quite untrue for the minority whose orientation is naturally homosexual.
William
August 3rd, 2009 | LINK
I would suggest as a definition of heterosexism “the belief that, even if everyone isn’t heterosexual, everyone ought to be.”
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