News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Andrew Comiskey Doesn't Believe In Apologies
Massachusetts GOP Senate Candidate goes to Pride
The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, June 19
Another Exodus Conference Is Upon Us. Let's Review.
For Our Opponents: Talking to Your Kids About Same-Sex Marriage
The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, June 18
The Daily Agenda for Monday, June 17
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.
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.
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.
That’s right. There are bisexuals among us. And Peter LaBarbera found a “homosexual newspaper” that was willing to admit it. One can only guess what Peter thought the “B” in LGBT stood for. At any rate, it seems he’s still struggling with the concept. His headline? “Half of Homosexuals Are Bisexual”.
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Ben in Oakland
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
“Half of Homosexuals Are Bisexual”.
Now he’s admitting that there are people who like it both ways, further eroding the clear boundaries of heterosexual normativity.
But i’m confused. If half of me is bisexual, does that mean that I am 3/4 gay and 1/4 straight? And which quarter of me is it that is straight? I know it’s not above my neck, it’s not my hands and arms, and I know it’s not, shall we say, lower. That pretty much leaves my knees, but then…
Straight looking cop
Seeks Straight Marine to please
But how straight do they look
When they’re down on their knees?
I guess that means that no part of me is straight, or likely to be. Sorry, Peter.
Christopher Waldrop
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
Peter’s headline contains a serious typo. It was supposed to say, “Half of all heterosexuals are bisexual”.
Scott
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
Dang, I thought I was ok leaving my irony meter on when I visit this site. Now I go and zap another one thanks to Pete.
I guess the stupid goes all the way down on him.
Zeke
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
I don’t know which is more ridiculous, LaBarbara’s article or the one he references.
“Half of all homosexuals are bisexual”?
By definition NO HOMOsexuals are BIsexual and NO BIsexuals are HOMOsexual.
I don’t even believe that half of “self-identified homosexuals” are actually bisexual unless one considers anyone who’s ever had sex with a person of each sex bisexual. That would make me bisexual and I’m absolutely positive that I’m not. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. :)
Burr
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
Okay.. what difference does it make even IF half of us were actually bisexual?
It doesn’t change the fact that we should still be allowed to choose a partner of the same sex and have all the same rights as those who choose the opposite sex.
Pointless thing to point out even if true, which it’s not.
tavdy79
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
Here’s one that’ll really screw with The Peter’s noggin: What about genderqueers? If you’ve got a person who doesn’t identify as purely male or purely female, how can they be straight? After all, you’re straight if you’re only attracted to the opposite gender, you’re gay if you’re only attracted to the same gender, and you’re bisexual if you’re attracted to both.
But what’s the opposite gender of a person who is genderless (agender, neutrois) third-gender (exogender, autogender) both male and female (hermaphrodite) somewhere between the two (androgyne, ambigender) or whose gender isn’t fixed (bigender, genderfluid)? When you leave the gender binary, definitions of gay, straight or bisexual aren’t so clear-cut.
GreenEyedLilo
August 21st, 2009 | LINK
Good lookin’ out, Burr and Christopher. Lots of people who act bisexual (or have had a bisexual history) do identify as straight. I’m guessing Peter thinks this means he can say the ex-gay stuff wouldn’t hurt after all, that gays and lesbians do too have heterosexual “potential,” that there’s “hope” for us. As a same-sex married bisexual woman who is happy to make her own decisions regarding her sexuality, I’d have to say his definition of hope and mine are different.
And that’s one of the more charitable possibilities I came up with. I don’t actually want to get too far inside Porno Pete’s head. It’s a scary place.
Tavdy79, I’m thinking just this bit of bi visibility that I wrote in a hockey fangirl blog earlier this week, about Penguins right wing Bill Guerin, might induce a migraine in Porno Pete: “I’ll behave myself if we meet him, honest! I’ll only touch his bicep a little bit. It’s not like I’m gonna propose that we both ditch our wives for the night and go find a motel room.”
Seriously, the Bi Health Summit was a good idea, and I am very glad that there are concerned professionals, bisexual and otherwise, who are finally working to address our community and its needs. Here’s to people like Cheryl Dobinson and Stewart Landers who offer real, true help. And here’s to talking about real things, thereby making it really, excruciatingly difficult and confusing for Peter LaBarbera to do his job. :-)
tavdy79
August 23rd, 2009 | LINK
GreenEyedLilo: Bill Guerin’s biceps? try Sean Lamont’s glutes!
Hunter
August 23rd, 2009 | LINK
In LaBarbera’s defense, he can’t be expect to discern the difference between “homosexual” and “GLB,” which is what the article he referenced actually said. He’s just not intellectually equipped for that sort of subtlety.
The CFP article is not great — CFP seems to have adopted the corporate media’s habit of letting assertion stand for fact — but LaBarbera’s not reporting what they actually said.
Why am I not surprised on either count?
GreenEyedLilo
August 23rd, 2009 | LINK
@ Hunter: I’m not at all surprised by either one myself. It’s like, if someone told him “I have some apples, bananas, and oranges, and half the fruit I have is oranges,” he’s concluding that half of all fruit is oranges. I am not sure whether he is actually that dense or just counting on his potential donors being that dense, and if so, which would be worse. There’s a lot of malice either way.
@ Tavdy: I always appreciate tips like that. ;-)
Max the Communist
August 24th, 2009 | LINK
I feel badly. I blogged the bi health summit and, unfortunately, was twist-quoted by Pete about HOW SICK WE WERE–obviously because of our perverse bisexual lifestyle. Usually, we bis just get ignored–until people talk about guys on the down-low or Tila Tequila makes it into the news.
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