NOM Commits Sodomy
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, February 11
The Daily Agenda for Friday, February 10
Again anti-gays blindly and gleefully shoot themselves in the foot
Rep. Walsh leads with her heart
Advocate, WaPo, AP Get it Wrong On Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Uganda Executive, Parliament Tussle Over Anti-Homosexuality BIll
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, February 9
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 450 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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David C.
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
My heart bleeds peanut butter for them. The text of the remark I want to make lies outside of the BTB Comments Policy, and it is out of respect for this forum that I have refrained from uttering it here.
Dan
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
Glad to see that the SoS has finally corrected itself on the minimum error rate.
I am not quite ready to declare victory, what with more than 100,000 names to be checked. But the deeper we go into the count, the less likely it is that the anti’s can make up the deficit. Indeed, the deficit is growing, and we have yet to hit a patch (which I am sure is coming) that is closer to the historical average error rate of 18%.
How sweet will it be if it winds up that these douchebags paid for all these signatures only to fail by a few thousand names? Every dollar wasted on this is one less dollar that will go to hurt gay people somewhere else.
Dan
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
Timothy:
When and if R71 goes down, that will leave Maine as THE big battle remaining for 2009. Indeed, it is probably the biggest story of 2009 – the East Coast equivalent of Proposition 8. There is no question that our adversaries see it that way.
Yet there is very little meaningful coverage about what is going on. This is the most undercovered story of the day.
What is our side doing? We know we were beaten in last month’s fundraising reports, but what effort has been made to contact the people who ponied up for Prop 8? I mean David Geffen and Ellen DeGeneres and Brad Pitt and Tim Gill and Jared Polis and the teachers’ union and on and on? What is this group of leaders doing on a day to day basis to avoid the miserable outcome we suffered in 2008? Would BTB consider calling these people and doing an in-depth post?
Timothy Kincaid
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
Dan,
I agree that Maine has very little coverage. I have few contacts in Maine and thus coverage is difficult for me.
I do plan on putting in some effort to try and give some reporting but at the moment I’m very busy with some deadlines for my real job and Jim is traveling where his access is spotty.
We hope to provide more as time goes on but can’t make any specific promises at this time.
homer
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
Well somebody wasted a boatload on money that could have been better spent feeding children or helping poor folks.
grantdale
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
Timothy, I know you love numbers. (Who doesn’t???) And I know you’re always uncomfortable without knowing a confidence interval. (Who isn’t???).
At current count (27288 reviewed), and conservatively moving all of the 84 “pending” into the “accepted”… a (simplistic) binomial proportion estimation gives the following.
Using a 95% ci
118915 < accepted < 120022
Using a 99% ci
118741 < accepted < 120196
They need 120577. As the (currently small) number of those rejected as “duplicates” can be expected to proportionally rise as the count continues… this indicates the initiative will fail to go forward. Possibly only by a squeak.
(Don’t ask for a more rigorous estimation of the proportion or for hypothesis testing of achieving the 120577. I have the flu.)
Dan
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
Thanks Tim! There is no blog better suited to doing real coverage on this than BTB!
When you have time to turn to it, may I suggest that – even if you have few of your own contacts – it would be helpful to just call up the head honcho on No on 1, Jesse Connolly, and just put to him the hard questions. Nothing requiring him to divulge campaign tactics of course, but rather questions confirming that they are doing the basic, critical things that No on 8 failed to do (e.g., Get-out-the-vote that includes Election Day transportation, pro-active media campaign, genuine field work in every county, use of all available interested volunteers).
David C.
August 6th, 2009 | LINK
While we are on the subjects or R71 and Prop 8, note that at least one California marriage equality group, Courage Campaign, is soliciting contributins in a bid to raise $200,000 to
This group wants to decide if there is support for placing “a marriage equality initiative on the ballot in 2010 — and to help build the movement to support it.”
Clearly, the battle is ongoing in California, and the competition for money and other resources remains keen. This points to a need for better national coordination, but failing that, campaigns need to recognize that the economic climate is such that resource competition is going to be as demanding as the ideological warfare it enables.
Unfortunately, in Maine we do not control the timing, our opponents have made that decision for us, however the marriage equality movement needs to take into consideration the national scope of the effort where it does have the option of selecting the time as it does in California and elsewhere.
Dan
August 7th, 2009 | LINK
@David C.-
I think those are excellent points. Maine is not an island unto itself. If we lose there (which I would say is the more likely outcome as of right now), then that will have a deleterious effect on CA and on other states (NY, NJ) that might be considering granting marriage equality. If we lose, it will bolster the other side’s strongest argument: the people reject SSM in every state in which it is voted upon. On the other hand, if we can pull out a win, it will shatter that argument and give a big boost to the folks in CA and elsewhere. It would signal that the momentum really has shifted in our favor.
That is precisely why Maine is the titanic clash of 2009 and should out-prioritize everything else. And I say that as a non-Mainer.
TomChicago
August 7th, 2009 | LINK
So, the game seems to be to get the number of signatures past the counters. If there are this many disqualified signatures, it must be a very shady endeavor. Perhaps the message will get through to those who are trying so stubbornly to stop us that there is not the authentic will in our country to merely spite our efforts, since our efforts do not, once and for all, diminish their marriages.
Désirée
August 7th, 2009 | LINK
to Tom:
actually, that’s the “game” with any petition drive, not just this one or GLBT-related ones, but all of them. That’s why they know what the historical error margin is and why signature gatherers always try to get a large enough cushion. Nothing inherently shady about that. If anything, so far, this petition has had a lower disqualification rate than the historical average for the district.
KZ
August 7th, 2009 | LINK
No. I will not say anything sarcastic about feeling bad for Washington’s anti-gays. This Referendum 71 is a complete waste of money, time, and manpower. homer posted exactly what I have been thinking for the past few days. I will be a loss for more than just gays and lesbians if R-71 has enough signatures. The good news is that whether or not R-71 pulls through and Washington’s DP law is repealed, attitudes are changing. LaBarbera’s and Gallagher’s goals will appear more desperate and pathetic.
John
August 7th, 2009 | LINK
This is some of the best news I’ve read all week!!! Wouldn’t it be great if one of these hateful resolutions went down in flames? What would the conservatiives do then???
“Let the people vote”? Apparently, they don’t WANT TO!!!
Burr
August 7th, 2009 | LINK
If they miss out on this, could they just push it again?
Timothy Kincaid
August 7th, 2009 | LINK
Burr,
No, they can’t.
This proposition is due to a peculiarity of Washington law. In that state if a legislature passes a law, opponents can collect signatures to put it on hold until it is voted on by the citizens.
This proposition is in response to a bill. If they don’t have enough signatures it becomes law.
They could make a future attempt to reverse the law by initiative, but by then the DP enhancement would have been in place. And the sky wouldn’t have fallen.
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