House of Commons officially passes marriage equality
British Commons Approves Marriage Equality Bill
Email address of Attorney General prosecuting 18 year old Florida lesbian
Gay Man's Murder Sparks Massive Rally
The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, May 21
Connecticut Scouts simply announce that they are accepting gay scout leaders
Church of Scotland allows ministers in relationship
Last Minute Bid to Sink Marriage Bill Fails in British Commons
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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Andrew
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
I keep reading that people are starting to support it. And it still seems ridiculous to do it when no one is there. You’re right.
Matt
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
Hear! Hear! I’ve donated to No on 1 and will send something to WA State.
Timothy Kincaid
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
While I appreciate Bastion’s generosity, the community is as motivated as I’ve seen in a decade or so. The “jump-start” was the loss of Prop 8 which woke us up.
We are a different people. I see a change in the way that folks are streaming in to report police abuse rather than sit back and not want to draw attention. I see it in the Chico’s Tacos situation in which a handful of guys refused to let being kicked out of a restaurant happen. I see it in small organizers here in LA who aren’t listening to the big dollar boys tell them to wait til 2012. I see it absolutely non-political folk suddenly finding an interest in politics.
We don’t need a jump start. We need a win. In Maine and in Washington.
I’m with Jim on this. Before you buy your plane ticket to DC, send a check to Maine or Washington.
Dennis
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
As a resident of a conservative southern state that is currently fighting to uphold its ban against gay adoption, please tell me how a victory in Maine or Washington (not even marriage, BTW) will affect me. I am happy for the progress being made piecemeal across the country but it does nothing for the vast majority of LGBTQI’s throughout the country. The most inclusive path towards equality is federal equality.
Please read the promational material in re the march. The entire point is to afffect a grassroots change by serving as a focal point of networking and education on best practices. While there may be a stroll around the Capitol that is not the only reason for the march.
Those who speak of Maine see this first-hand in the partnership the California No on 8 has formed with Maine’s Yes on 1 campaign. Wouldn’t that purpose be better served if shared with all 50 states?
cowboy
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
Have you forgotten: Mr. Bastian gave a million of HIS money to the defeat of Prop 8. It didn’t work. He must have felt sick in seeing how his million evaporated. I know I would feel a little helpless if I lost a million that way.
Give him some slack.
Albert
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
Also from a Southern state that offers only spite for gay people. Maine and Washington are important, but not to those of us living in legally- and police-hostile areas like Georgia and Texas. (Think of recent bar raids.) Our only option is asking the Federal Government to help stop general populace votes on civil rights.
Columbus Day is briliant because this is for the media attention and so many are off work on Monday. Come on, the flights are like $150 round trip and the hotel rooms are less that $100!
Cole
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
* Use EqualityMaine’s and the CourageCampaign’s phonebanks
* Call friends and family in Maine and encourage them to vote no on repealing marriage equality
* Write to Mane newspapers, websites and tv stations in support of marriage equality
* Make videos in support of marriage equality and what repealing it will do online at youtube, dailymotion, veoh etc.
* Donate money and time to EqualityMaine
* Twitter and blog in support of marriage equality
http://tinyurl.com/l4hru8
Dan
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
Dennis emotes:
“As a resident of a conservative southern state that is currently fighting to uphold its ban against gay adoption, please tell me how a victory in Maine or Washington (not even marriage, BTW) will affect me.”
States act as laboratories for policy. Public policy is tested in states, then compared and contrasted by legislators in other states. Having multiple states with marriage equality demonstrates to the entire country that the claims of the anti-gays are untrue and that marriage equality is sound public policy. One reason we have legislatively enacted marriage equality in New Hampshire and Vermont is because those states were able to look at the experience of Massachusetts. One reason we have civil unions in CA and NV is because they had the experience of Vermont to draw on. Winning in Maine will directly benefit people in NY, NJ, and DC, who may vote on marriage by the end of the year. Those states coupled with Maine comprise 10% of the population of the US. 10% of the population may not matter to you, but it should.
A win in Maine and Washington does not mean that win everything you want in TX, but it is a start in that direction. By contrast, the “federal equality” you seek could not give you adoption rights since that is a state issue, not a federal one. And even if the federal government was relevant to this equation, marching in an empty city for the upteenth time won’t accomplish what you want. If the 1979, 1987, 1993, and 2000 marches didn’t establish “federal equality” why would you think the 2009 march will do it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Enjoy your stroll on an empty mall. I am sure that will make a big impact on the TX legislature.
----
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
What a waste. At least he should have donated that money to help Maine and Washington preserve their newly-obtained rights.
Burr
September 15th, 2009 | LINK
$100,000 for portapotties? Seriously?
I dunno. Anything is better than nothing. But I remain skeptical.
Nate
September 16th, 2009 | LINK
Yeah, I would have to agree. While many like to look back on the Civil Rights marches as inspiration for a march like this, we tend to forget that it was the people working hard in the background to change policy, pass legislation, and help change behavior that did most of the work. Yes, marches can be helpful, but people actually buckling down and working with the system to accomplish change….that’s when change happens.
tristram
September 16th, 2009 | LINK
Jim – I agree with you 100%. Why do you think Tony Perkins and his fellow christianists were not in D.C. with their fellow tea-baggers this past weekend? They were in Maine holding closed-door rallies and spreading falsehoods about the state marriage-equality law. They understand that at this point, Maine and Washington state (not D.C.) are the front lines of the lgbt battle for dignity and equality. The anti-gay forces are pouring massive resources into those states. They know that once we win one ballot issue in one state (for the first time since what – Harvey Milk/Ronald Reagan and the Briggs thing in California?) the momentum will swing in many states and at the FEDERAL level.
But our lgbt “leaders” are all focused on their own October “tea party” in D.C. – mostly out of pique that Obama in his first 7 months in office has prioritized dealing with such minor matters as the recession, Iraq, Pakistan/Afghanistan and health care over re-igniting the culture war at the federal level by pushing our issues prematurely.
Burr
September 18th, 2009 | LINK
http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2009/9/16/ME/376
Maine poll.. 48% Yes, 46% No, 6% Undecided
Not looking good considering the trend of support fading by the time people head to the ballot box.
PJ
October 9th, 2009 | LINK
I’ll be at the march…I hope you all will be thee too. PS – 70K + 30k = 100K, not $130K
Emily K
October 9th, 2009 | LINK
And what happened as a result? A massive organizing of public demonstrations across the nation. I can’t afford to go but I wouldn’t brush aside the power of people meeting other people in person so quickly. It’s very easy to get jaded when people think the only way to make “change” is to whip out the ol’ credit card from behind a computer screen.
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