BREAKING: Exodus International is Shutting Down
Liveblog of Exodus Conference
First Impressions Ahead Of Exodus 2013 Conference
Arizona group to put marriage back on ballot
Exodus International Issues Apology, Hints At Further Developments Tonight
Ex-Gay Leader Sentenced For Criminal Sexual Assault of Male Clients
Andrew Comiskey Doesn't Believe In Apologies
Murkowski makes three
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
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
That is a question that will be asked on the 2010 US Census and it you’re heterosexual it’s a pretty easy question to answer. But not if you are a same-sex couple.
Burr
September 14th, 2009 | LINK
Agreed. It doesn’t have to be recognized in order to be truth.
Let everyone see the truth now for once.
Mel
September 14th, 2009 | LINK
As I wrote a few months back in an op-ed published here in Maine, my partner and I are married twice – once in a chapel here in Maine with clergy in front of our loved ones, and once by a justice of the peace in Nova Scotia. Regardless of whether anyone likes it or not, and regardless of the outcome of November’s referendum, the fact itself of our marriage remains. We just expect our government to step up to the plate and recognize that reality.
Lindoro Almaviva
September 14th, 2009 | LINK
That’s the reason why I have not married. I am an aggressive person and if anything like that happens to me, my response will be:
Listen, this is my marriage license, there is a statute in the US constitution called the Full Faith and Credit Clause that clearly mandates that Acts, records and judicial proceedings or copies shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the US and it Territories and Possessions as they have by law or usage in the courts of such State, Territory or Possession from which they are taken. So, if you get on the way of federal law, be prepared for me to sue you all the way to the Supreme Court. After the SCOUTS confirm that you were wrong, be prepared for me to sue you for all your are worth. In summary, by the time I am done, it will be my father’s name on top of the building and my signature on everyone’s checks except on yours; because you will be fired faster than you can do a 180 turn. Now move! 10, 9, 8, 7…
I’m not kidding. I could care less what HRC says, or what Lambda legal says. This sh1t happens to me and I will sue and if HRC and Lambda get on the way, I’ll sue them for cluttering my suit so I do not get my day in court. For me is as simple as that. Then again, I tend to see things in black and white and I remind myself every day that we live in the gray areas.
GreenEyedLilo
September 14th, 2009 | LINK
We and several friends of ours have decided that we’ll definitely answer “married” on the Census form. We are in-between, too–we’re legal in New York, and married in Massachusetts (had to *twice*!) to make that happen, but as you said, it’s awful to travel cross-country and become considered legal strangers. We have a lot of paperwork to take with us when we travel, and we’ve been told that our use of a shared hyphenated last name and the fact that we both wear wedding and engagement rings might help us if, Gods forbid, our status to each other is challenged.
Anyway, I didn’t realize that there’s a broader movement afoot here. I’m really glad to read that. That’s what the Census is for anyway–a snapshot of the USA that shows us all what we really are.
Vancity
September 14th, 2009 | LINK
I actually suspect that a majority of same-sex couples living in marriage-like relationships will say that they are not married.
And I suspect that as soon as the results of the census are released, anti-gay groups will pounce on the findings as “proof” that gays and lesbians cannot form durable relationships….
Duncan
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
Surely there must be precedent for couples being married in their state but not recognised as such by the federal government, since marriage laws vary between states. What do Mormon (or Muslim) polygamists say on the census?
Johnson
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
We live in a state where our union of over 10 years isn’t legally recognized, but considered ourselves “married” in any event. Unfortunately, we’ll never get the chance to make it official since my partner passed away a few weeks ago from cancer. Of course, we had to go through all of the other legal channels spending several thousand dollars to make sure we were protected.
Embarcadero
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
I was recently selected by the census bureau for one of their micro-samples about employment. The study lasted 6 months or so (more or less, I can’t remember, but they called every month).
I told them my domestic partner status (my SO was a non-resident alien up until 6 weeks ago, so we couldn’t enter into a domestic partnership without risking deportation).
The census bureau marked us as “married.” I’m wondering how many other times this has happened. Given that we’ve lived in the same household (in different places) for nearly 10 years, it does strike me that there is probably little sociological difference between long-term cohabitation and legal marriage – just a guess.
I’d like to know how many married couples happen to be of the same sex – despite whatever normative rule the Census applies. I bet the numbers would be quite a surprise.
Timothy Kincaid
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
Johnson,
Our thoughts and prayers are with you during your time of loss.
zoe kentucky
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
Johnson,
I am so sorry.
Regarding the census– if we get asked my wife and I will most certainly say we are married; if they question us we’ll show them our rings, wedding and honeymoon albums. We’ve been together for 10 years, married for nearly 7. What else would we say?
ZRAinSWVA
September 18th, 2009 | LINK
Tim, my husband and I have been together 23 years, and we married in Vermont last week; however, we live in Virginia, where our relationship has no status–and in fact cannot legally exist. The next few weeks may be interesting, since I plan to register my husband with my employer–a state institution of higher education that has a nondiscrimination policy which includes sexual orientation; if they refuse to recognize the relationship based on state law, I will sue based on its nondiscrimination policy.
With regard to your question, we will absolutely mark that we’re married on any census we receive. We are! And this tangled mess of married-not married state and federal laws has GOT to go!
Richard W. Fitch
September 18th, 2009 | LINK
Reading all the comments on this thread raises for me the awareness of how antiquated some of the states’ rights issues have become. We live in a society where hundreds or thousands of families/people move across state lines in any year to gain employment and other vital opportunities. When marriage and adoption rights are state based and conservative courts very hard to move into the 21st century, it imperils the livelihood and lives of a considerable number. DOMA really needs to go!
Joel
September 21st, 2009 | LINK
As a sidenote, I’ve done a fair amount of genealogical research into my Utah pioneer ancestors. Those who were in engaged in polygamy were always recorded in census records as such (Head of Household, Wife, Wife, etc.), though those plural marriages were not legally recognized in Utah Territory and certainly not by the federal government.
Leave A Comment