French President Hollande Signs Marriage Bill
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 18
Fox News Ignores Marriage Equality Wins
The Era of Civil Unions Is Coming To An End
Orthodox Priests Lead Violent Attack On LGBT Rights Rally in Tbilisi, Georgia
France's Marriage Equality Bill Clears Final Hurdle
The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 17
Marriage Equality Made This Maryland Legislator Drive Drunk
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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Penguinsaur
August 20th, 2009 | LINK
“What? Whats that you say? The most anti-gay states in the nation get raped by Hurricanes several times a year? Sorry, I cant hear your facts, I’m to busy blaming a drop in humidity in Massachusetts on those vile sinners”
Steve
August 20th, 2009 | LINK
I’d like an explanation from these people for the following.
Prior to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions last year, Focus on the Family produced a video asking people to pray for rain during Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. Instead the weather was absolutely perfect. Moreover, the Republican Convention was interrupted by another huge hurricane headed towards New Orleans.
Could it be that God had a message in there somehow?
Chris McCoy
August 20th, 2009 | LINK
Religious zealots have been using natural disasters to proclaim the wrath of G-d for centuries.
The eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia was used by Islamic clerics to win converts en masse in the area by claiming that the eruption was proof of Allah’s wrath at the heathen Hindu practitioners of the time.
The great SF earthquake of 1906 was used by the newly created Pentecostal movement to proclaim G-d’s wrath at the sexual excesses prevalent even back then, in San Francisco.
Another example of Confirmation Bias, that they never blame themselves when Tornadoes and Hurricanes destroy churches.
Emily K
August 20th, 2009 | LINK
as long as they’re battling against “distorting the grace of God into sensuality” they might want to get rid of “Song of Songs” from the Bible.
snj
August 20th, 2009 | LINK
auntie em auntie em it’s a twister….it’s a twister!
cut me a break.
Gay people are natures selection and natures answer to over population of the planet…..
besides what ever happened to “God made us in his own image”
I guess we were made by someone else???????????????????????????
paul j stein
August 20th, 2009 | LINK
Don’t forget who gets all those church ladies beautiful for “Sunday Morning Hair Drags” in houses of worship all over this nation!
Marcus French
August 20th, 2009 | LINK
Hey BoxTurtlePeople,
Some ponderings on this issue this fine night: http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2009/08/20/lutherans-approve-statement-what-does-god-think/
Timothy Kincaid
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
Marcus,
When we begin to look for the hand of God in natural disasters, we see a most complex message.
Take, for example, the Hurricane Katrina that some saw as the master of the wind and sea sending his judgment against a city of sin and depravity. But a closer look revealed that the Almighty spared the French Quarter and all the gay parts of town and instead devestated the rural conservative parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.
In fact, God’s chose to spare gay bars in New Orleans (the only establishments that stayed open to provide water and limited food to residents, gay or straight) and instead His wrath extended to ripping the roof off of James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, a center of anti-gay activism.
Looking for divine interference in destruction is a tricky endeavor. If natural disasters tell of God’s condemnation and judgment, all we can say with certainty is that God hates trailer parks.
Marcus French
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
Timothy,
Yes, we definitely need to be careful in this regard. Whether in interpreting the meaning or cause of a natural disaster, or in declaring what the will of God is on a particular issue.
The idea that God is not involved with weather in our day, or does not judge nations via natural or human means however, seems to me an untenable position for a Christian to take biblically. It’s one thing to say a particular declaration of divine judgment and its prophetic significance is mistaken, it’s another to dismiss the idea wholesale.
You may believe Mr. Piper is mistaken in his interpretation of the tornado, but he did not say it glibly, indeed understanding that the warning is for all of us (including himself). I don’t hear Piper piling on here… I hear the somber prophetic declaration of a man who fears God and takes His Word seriously.
RebLaw
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
A number of my former co-workers were huge fans of Piper. Like they evangelized and listened to his sermons at work. Fun times.
I tried to leave a comment on that site explaining that the damage was not limited to the Convention Center and church, as I live a block away, but alas I was foiled by my unwillingness to give a real e-mail address to them, oh well.
Timothy Kincaid
August 24th, 2009 | LINK
Marcus,
Then I will take it as a confirmation from you that God adores the gay parts of town but is seriously annoyed at those who live in trailer parks. Perhaps it’s because of their anti-gay attitudes?
And as for the tornado in Minneapolis, clearly that is because He is pissed about the ELCA’s decision to issue a statement on sexuality that reaffirms the definition of marriage so as to exclude some of His children.
I, unlike Piper, am being glib. But if I were serious, my case is FAR easier to prove than his.
Even the most casual glace would show that God seems to have his hand of protection on West Hollywood, Chelsea, and Boystown while ravaging the more conservative parts of the nation with fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and all sorts of natural disaster.
The problem with folks like Piper is not their insincerity. Rather, it is their willingness to see confirmation of their biases in the world around them without much consideration as to whether their claims make the slightest sense.
Pipers statements remind me of two quotes. The first is from Anne LaMott:
The second was my grandmother who I adored but who was a bit inclined to see the world from her rather limited perspective:
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