The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 24
Boy Scouts of America Votes To Allow Gay Members, Retains Ban On Gay Leaders
Nevada House votes to reverse marriage ban
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, May 23
It's Not the Principle, It's the Prejudice
Congratulations Mitch!
Gay Couples Excluded from Immigration Bill Markup
How To Spot A Swivel-Eyed Loon
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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tristram
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
Even if Ref. 71 holds on, Tuesday’s results have made DOMA untouchable, put marriage equality off for several years in NY and NJ, and shifted the battlefield not to California, but to Iowa and NH where we’ll be fighting against renewed repeal efforts.
Alex
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
Here’s a bit of irony: Yes on 1 advocates repealed gay marriage partly because they don’t want it taught in public schools, but who wants to guess which issue students are discussing in social studies class today?
Chris McCoy
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
If we are to win in future states/battles, we need to learn from both California and Maine and squash the “gay = pedophilia” tactic that the Christianists are using to spread fear and hate against our community.
Does anyone really think that Brown v Board of Education would have stood up to popular vote at the time?
As I said before. Stop playing Mr Nice Gay. Act Up.
J. Stellon
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
I disagree that ME necessarily has a dire impact on non-referenda states like NY and NJ. One thing has been shown consistently: while gay marriage loses on a direct vote, it is not an issue that impacts legislative contests. So there is no reason for the hacks in NY and NJ to care about a ME People’s Veto. It will all come down to the usual horse-trading and favor-swapping.
However, yesterday’s defeat clearly has to give pause to the repeal Prop 8 movement. Since it is unlikely that the repeal 8 people could do any better in messaging and GOTV than the No on 1 people, they may need to reconsider 2012 and start pondering 2018, by which time enough Prop 8 voters will have died for a rematch to make sense.
AJD
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
It’s really hard for me to be optimistic when I see things like this.
Tristram is right: The theocratic fascists have yet another victory, and just as Prop. 8 proved they could win in a supposedly liberal and pro-gay state, Question 1 proves they can defeat a measure passed by a state legislature while fighting a campaign that is both better-funded and far more competent than No On 8 was. We should be prepared for the possibility that our victories in Iowa, New Hampshire and even Vermont may be short-lived.
Let’s be realistic. A majority of Americans still hate and fear us. We can blame the lying and scare tactics of groups like NOM, but there’s one thing we can’t deny: They work. And they work for a reason, because the people whom they are able to persuade were biased against us from the beginning and already saw our relationships as a threat. All they needed was a little push.
I read an article the other day in which a woman in Maine who said she had gay relatives and nothing against gay people, but still planned to vote “Yes.” Likewise, my partner’s fundamentalist Christian brother and his family knows about us and sees us pretty frequently, but would likely vote to ban gay marriage if given the chance also.
I really think our best hope is that the Supreme Court will rule that civil rights aren’t a popularity contest, but that’s obviously not a sure thing. We should be open to the possibility that we’ll probably have to wait another 20-30 years before having full equality in this country, while Canadians already have it…
The more I look at it, the more I regard this country’s claims to being the world’s greatest nation as being sort of like Budweiser’s service mark “The King of Beers.” It’s an empty phrase that ignores how seriously behind the curve we really are.
Dan
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
There is a hidden story in last night’s ME results. Given the high turnout, which rivaled that of a midyear election and the extraordinary ground effort by No on 1, how is it possible that we wound up losing areas like Augusta, which we won in 2005 by substantial margins? In every single town except one, we did worse last night than we did in 2005. Where we won, we won by thinner margins than in 2005. And where we lost, we lost by greater margins than in 2005. The overall effect was to turn a 2005 victory of 55-45 into a 53-47 loss, in spite of greater turnout. That does not happen by accident.
I think the untold story is the Yes on 1 ground game. The whole S4MM operation was very secretive. I did not read a single internal campaign leak over the course of 4 months. Their ground campaign is one giant black box. Schubert claimed to have 100,000 people on the ground in CA on Election Day 2008 – 5 volunteers for each of CA’s 20,000 precincts. I saw no evidence of this in ME, but it is blindingly obvious that he had something on the ground in places like Augusta. Were these people quietly recruited from Catholic churches? Were they Mormons slipped into the state in the dead of night?
Emily K
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
we can run an outstanding campaign in a north-eastern state that is largely secular and still lose. What’s the fu**ing point anymore? Just put a bullet in my skull.
Really. I’m serious.
Burr
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
Iowa can’t do anything until 2014, so no need to worry about that state yet.
occono
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
Can’t there be a Constitutional Convention next year?
Elliot
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
Emily: Do you really think a bullet in your head is going to help anything?
Emily K
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
Elliot: One less homo on earth; one more in hell i guess.
Elliot
November 4th, 2009 | LINK
Emily: In other words, no.
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