The Daily Agenda for Friday, February 10
Again anti-gays blindly and gleefully shoot themselves in the foot
Rep. Walsh leads with her heart
Advocate, WaPo, AP Get it Wrong On Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Uganda Executive, Parliament Tussle Over Anti-Homosexuality BIll
The Daily Agenda for Thursday, February 9
Something I'd Like to Know, But Never Can
The Solicitor General impact
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 therapist 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 450 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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Burr
November 7th, 2009 | LINK
51% in a poll is not enough. Too many lying bigots feeling guilty about their wrong opinion and undecideds still in those numbers. It’s what we’ve had in Maine and California before it went to the ballot box and we know how that turned out.
Until there’s polls that put marriage equality in a majority above any margin of error it’s hard to feel enthusiastic about pressing on.
As for people against putting it on the ballot, I think that’s just general Prop fatigue.
Robert S.
November 7th, 2009 | LINK
As a Californian myself, as much as I want marriage with my partner of 4 years, 2010 is way too soon to be voting again. What do we do if the haters vote an even louder NO this time?
Dan
November 8th, 2009 | LINK
Why is this even a debate? The Tenners haven’t done anything to indicate that they could really qualify for the ballot. The whole thing is a joke.
Also, I agree with Burr. I don’t believe the 51% at all. It is probably exactly where it stood in November 2008, slightly modified by this past year’s deaths in the 65+ group.
Steve
November 8th, 2009 | LINK
The tricky thing about the 51% is that the people participating in the poll have not been bombarded by ads filled with animus toward gay families in recent months, which they will be before voting the next time.
Bruno
November 8th, 2009 | LINK
51-43% = 51-49%. That is way too close to think we would win at the polls. We need to see our side consistently at 55% and above to even consider the possibility of a win at the polls.
Dan
November 8th, 2009 | LINK
I just saw the full poll which was released today at latimes.com. The one thing that caught my eye is that it has 70% of respondents identifying as white.
Now, even though whites are over-represented among registered and likely voters, I have trouble believing that it gets to 70% in CA, where whites are now less than 50% of the population. If whites are over-represented in this poll, then it is likely that the pro-marriage position is inflated, since whites and Asians are more likely to support it.
Frequent Flier
November 8th, 2009 | LINK
It is clear from Maine and California that polls on marriage have a clear Bradley effect versus actual results. I Washington we were polling around 57% and will end up around 52/53. ME and CA were polling in our favor 52/53% and the percentage of the actual opposition. Clearly we need to be polling at least 55% to think we have a chance. I honestly think we need to wait till 2014. 5 years of 65+ deaths, no Obama on the ballot to drive minority turnout to unusually high levels and time to give the voters a breather. I hate having to say that, I hate that this is even an electoral issue at all but that’s the reality. Going back an losing time and time again is a narrative that does us long-term damage. A better strategy in my opinion would be to go after electoral victories in states that we can win civil unions or DP’s in as we just did in WA. Places like AZ (our only defeat of an anti-marriage amendment to date, where the saving grace that civil unions were also banned), NM, IL, MN, PA, MD, etc. We can WIN those fights, in the near term and change the narrative in people’s minds that gay rights can’t win. And as noted in another post on BTB our CA and ME opponents have conceded the civil union/DP fight already. Then you move to a national civil union that is treated exactly like marriage in law as they have in the UK and New Zealand. From there marriage is only a matter of time, but at least people see real benefits in the interim.
Rik
November 8th, 2009 | LINK
It is really a tragedy that gay men and women are not allowed to express their love and commitment legally. But like many other of my gay friends, 2010 is much too soon to try again. I find it so hypocritical that Christians and Mormons can’t find it in their hearts to live and let live. They express worry about the core family, when they forget that the majority of American families are one parent. Divorce is rampant. Perhaps if all these people (and I won’t call them bigots…yet) put all their energy and money into helping so many children, adults, and seniors in need….that would be the “Christian” thing to do. Stop worrying about our bedrooms and worry about your own.
AJD
November 9th, 2009 | LINK
How about we address the issue of our rights being put up to a popular vote in the first place? On some Web site (maybe this one) I saw someone recalling a picket sign slogan that would work well: “You may not be gay, but you may be next.” If our rights can be simply put up to a popular vote and taken away thanks to the fleeting passions of easily manipulated voters, then why not those of other minorities? Maybe drive home the point that in some parts of this country, fundamentalist Christians are on their way to becoming a minority, and not exactly a popular one.
And I don’t think Prop. 8, Question 1 and Ref. 71 are simple matters of hypocrisy among fundamentalist Christians. They’re part of a nationwide effort that began in the 1970s to roll back gay rights and erase gay people from existence.
Pender
November 9th, 2009 | LINK
I hope we’ve learned by now that we should reflexively subtract abut 5% from our supporters’ numbers on polls, since that’s about the amount by which we reliably underperform on election day.
Paula
November 9th, 2009 | LINK
I was raised Mormon and it really bugs me that the church is at the forefront of the one man/one woman laws. They do not believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. Men are sealed to more than one wife all the time, though a woman cannot be sealed to more than one man for any reason. They try to avoid their polygamous past by not discussing what still goes on in temples and in doctrine. Start blasting them with documentaries in every state they fight against gay marriage and they’ll learn that they need to stay out of it if they don’t want their own dirty laundry aired.
Look into it. Although they no longer civilly marry two women to one man at a time, if there is a divorce or death and remarriage, women are forced to only be sealed for eternity to one man while men can be sealed serially to as many women as they want.
I also know a whole lot of Mormons who feel bad about voting against gay marriage, but believe that the church will have to perform gay marriages in teh temples if equality laws are passed. Make it clear in the language of the law that religions can perform and recognize whatever they want or not, as the case may be, and you’ll have a lot of reverse Bradley. They’ll say they follow the prophet, but won’t bother to show up to vote or contribute money because they really don’t feel good about messing with civil rights over religious differences.
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