Box Turtle Bulletin

Laurie Higgins Endorses the Bullying of Gay Kids

Illinois Family Institute is only one of 12 anti-gay groups assigned Hate Group status by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It is a well deserved designation.

Laurie Higgins, the Director of the Division of School Advocacy for the Illinois Family Institute, gives voice to the attitudes and beliefs that have led to IFI being identified as a hate group. Laurie is also one of the organizers of the Day of Silence Walk Out.

She is not pleased that Dr. Warren Throckmorton is suggesting that Christian kids should treat gay kids as they wish to be treated. She is angry that he wants them to stay in school on the Day of Silence. And she is particularly irate that Throckmorton opposes the abuse of gay kids.

In her article, Dr. Throckmorton’s “Golden Rule” Misguided at Best, Higgins makes minimal lip service to “the worthy goal of ending bullying, but it’s quite clear that she does not at all wish that the bullying of gay kids should end at all.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets,” means that Christians should affirm to others God’s Word–the entirety of God’s Word–in a godly way.

Higgins declares that the Golden Rule means the exact opposite of what it says. Rather than do unto others as you’d have them do to you, she endorses the “affirming God’s Word” (ie public condemnation and ridicule) of others “in a godly way”. It is difficult to fathom a more perverse interpretation of Christ’s commandment.

[If] we allow schools to define discrimination so expansively as to prohibit all statements of moral conviction, character development is compromised and speech rights are trampled. And if administrators continue to define discrimination in such a way as to preclude only some statements of moral conviction, they violate pedagogical commitments to intellectual diversity and render the classroom a place of indoctrination.

Higgins supports discrimination, as long as it is based on “moral conviction”.

Dr. Throckmorton believes that “Christian students should be leading the way to make schools safe and build bridges to those who often equate ‘Christian’ with condemnation.” In this statement, Dr. Throckmorton glaringly omits the truth that Christians must condemn volitional homosexual conduct. And to those who view homosexuality as moral, this necessary Christian condemnation of homosexual behavior renders homosexual students unsafe.

Yes, Higgins actually supports making schools unsafe for gay kids.

She believes that “Christians must condemn volitional homosexual conduct.” In other words, Christian kids have a moral obligation to harangue and harass gay kids and publicly condemn them.

[As] moral beings living for a time in a fallen world suffused with brokenness of all kinds, we are all charged with the same moral task: We all must determine which of our myriad messy feelings are morally legitimate to act upon. Adults are supposed to help children navigate those murky waters.

Higgins believes that adults – teachers and administrators – should also condemn gay kids.

Let’s be clear. Higgins does not oppose the Day of Silence because it is the wrong way to go about ending the bullying of gay kids. Rather, Higgins opposes the Day of Silence because she believes it is a Christian kid’s duty to bully his gay classmates.

Administration Backtracking on Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell

From the New York Times

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made clear on Thursday that any repeal of the military\’s “Don\’t Ask, Don\’t Tell” law would have to be undertaken slowly, and suggested that it might not happen at all.

“If we do it,\’\’ Mr. Gates told reporters on his plane enroute to Rhode Island, “it\’s important that we do it right, and very carefully.\’\’

I think it would be prudent for the President to clarify that there is no “if” and that he’s not bailing on one of his campaign promises or “pushing it down the road a bit”. But I really don’t expect him to.

So I think that Congress needs to stop waiting for this President to lead on issues of basic freedom and equality and take the matter into their own hands. Overturn the military’s institutionalized discrimination already. The voters are behind you if the administration is not.

Alan Chambers will say ANYTHING

The Baptist Press says this about Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International:

For Chambers, the Day of Truth is personal. He struggled with and overcame unwanted homosexual attractions as a teenager and young adult. He is now married, and he and his wife and have two children.

“Many people don’t know that change is possible or that there’s any alternative out there for people,” he said. “… There was a time when I was trying to fit that with my life, trying to marry my homosexuality and my Christianity and trying to see if I could be a good gay Christian. It didn’t work.”

Really? Alan overcame unwanted homosexual attractions as a teenager and young adult? And his wife and children are evidence of this?

Now that’s a fascinating retelling.

Because I also happen to know that Alan has said that while his attraction has greatly diminished over the course of 16 years, he still struggles with homosexual temptation and lives a life of denial of what comes naturally to him. And it seems that in their effort to paint Alan as an ideal family man they forgot to mention that Alan took nine months to consummate his marriage or that his two children are adopted.

If Alan’s going to tell kids about the “alternative out there for people”, he should tell them what that alternative really is. But I guess telling the truth wouldn’t serve his goal of vilifying and hindering those good-hearted students who are trying to stem the flood of abuse against their gay classmates in public schools.

Your Mail Order Ally

You’ve probably don’t recognize the name of the Universal Life Church, but you have heard of them and may even know one of its ministers. The ULC is that organization that will ordain you as minister for free over the internet without any religious training or belief requirements.

What you may not know is that this church is not a gimmick. They are a real church with real congregants and a real belief system. And part of their beliefs are that everyone is ordained by God to be a minister and that your religious values and ideals – as long as they are not violent – are as valid as anyone else’s (though much of their ministry has the language and a theological association with Christian traditions). Which is why they have for decades been providing mail-order ordination.

For the most part, the ULC has been non-political, entering into the fray only when the rights of their ministers or ministry have been challenged. But now the ULC has a cause that they believe is worth fighting for: you.

The Universal Life Church Monastery (TheMonastery.org) has announced a legal defense campaign that will take action in all states that have enacted unconstitutional same-sex sacramental marriage restraints. The Universal Life Church Monastery reports that “States that deny ministers the religious right to perform the sacrament of marriage, regardless of the couple’s sexual orientation, do so in violation of the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.”

It’s not clear what actions, if any, that the ULC will engage in. But it is encouraging that they have begun to look into the constitutionality of states denying recognition of sacraments solely based on the doctrines of those denied.

I’ve long felt that laws which recognize the marriage sacraments of the local Southern Baptist Church but refuse to recognize those of the local Congregational Church were likely in violation of the Constitution. But because more people attend churches that are anti-gay (including legislators), they feel comfortable in declaring that pro-gay churches should be denied equality under the law.

And this has become even more clear to me when I note that nearly all of the argument in favor of excluding same-sex marriages performed by a Congregational Church were based on religious doctrine. Virtually all of those who stand to speak in opposition to marriage equality do so motivated by the desire to encode their religious doctrines into law.

This isn’t the first time churches have objected to inequality. More than a few Unitarian Universalist or United Church of Christ ministers have announced that they would not solemnize opposite-sex marriages for as long as the state banned them from solemnizing same-sex marriages.

So I’ve been waiting for the day when a denomination would announce that they were going to court to sue for religious freedom. I just was kinda was hoping that it would be the United Methodists or the UCC rather than the church of mail-order ministers.

Sentinel Op-Ed on “Day of Truth”

There are opposing editorial pieces in today’s Orlando Sentinel about Exodus’ “Day of Truth.” On the “Day of Truth,” which takes place three days after the Day of Silence, Exodus encourages students to pass out note cards and wear t-shirts declaring the “truth” about homosexuality. They also offer to have a “conversation” about it.

One of the pieces is written by me, the other by Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International. The Sentinel doesn’t let you see opposing op-eds before they are printed, so I’d like to respond here.

Chambers’ tactic is to elicit sympathy for those “tormented by their sexuality”:

I hear from them every day. I hear about the jokes they endure from ignorant and unfeeling friends. I hear about the rejection they fear.

Then, he identifies the source:

I hear about the pressure they feel to identify themselves as gay and how that pressure conflicts with what they believe and know in their hearts.

So people struggling with their identity suffer because they are pressured to identify as gay? When distilled from the column, this sounds ridiculous, and it is. Students are of course mocked for being effeminate, but it’s not because they refuse to come out; it’s because being gay is stigmatized in many places. The real source of all the jokes is anti-gay animus like that espoused by Exodus International. They are making the problem worse, not better.

Here are Chambers’ hopes for the “Day of Truth”:

I hope they will talk about how everyone needs to be empowered with more information, not less. I hope they will talk about every person’s right to determine his own course in life. I hope they will talk about how to show compassion to their gay and lesbian peers. I hope they will talk about the thousands of men and women, like me, who are living beyond the gay life we once thought was our only future. It’s a conversation I wish I could have had back then.

Basically, Chambers thinks homosexuality is a sickness that others aren’t compassionate about. The solution? Send them to ex-gay therapy so they can fix it. The call for “more information” is incredibly disingenuous given that anti-gay groups like Exodus do everything they can to discredit scientific organizations that disagree with their views on homosexuality. This is false compassion; at heart, it’s borne of the prejudiced assumption that being gay is something wrong. Who wants to engage in a conversation about how they are disordered?

Chambers is trying to portray his movement as one that seeks to help people, but the website reveals their real aim: “to counter the homosexual agenda.”

Gov. Paterson Introduces NY Marriage Bill

Today, fulfilling his promise, NY Governor David Paterson held a press conference announcing that he would introduce a bill to the NY State Senate to legalize same-sex marriage. Although many supporters of marriage equality had originally balked at addressing the vote too quickly, today he was joined by NYC Mayor Bloomberg, Assembymember Danny Odonnell, Sen Tom Duane, City Council Speaker Chris Quinn, and Empire State Pride Agenda head Alan Van Capelle.

Jeremy at Good-As-You has video of the press conference.

This bill may fail in the Senate. And some fear that if this bill is defeated that it will be seen as a setback for marriage supporters and a victory for anti-gays.

But I think that if fear silences the debate and keeps the Senators from going on record, then the anti-gays have already won. It’s time to be counted. And those who oppose equality must be exposed.

And I’m optimistic. I think that there is a strong possibility that when it comes time to place their name next to this historical marker, some Republicans may surprise us and vote for the bill. Maybe even enough to make New York the second state to voluntarily enact marriage equality.

Washington Gets All-But-The-Name

In 2007, the State of Washington enacted a Domestic Partnership registry. It was beefed up in 2008, and now legislation has passed to give it all the same rights and responsibilities as marriage:

The bill, which adds hundreds of rights and responsibilities to current law, passed the house on a 62-35 vote. The vote follows a 30-18 in the state Senate several weeks ago. The bill now heads to Governor Christine Gregoire’s desk for a signature.

Congratulations Washingtonians

Illinois Family Institute’s VideoFAIL! (Update: It’s back in all its red-scare glory)

The Illinois Family Institute, one of only twelve anti-gay groups in America listed by the SPLC as a hate group, tried to out-fear NOM’s fearmongering commercial released last week with a fearmongering video of their own. The IFI’s video, which endorsed the current status quo in schools where kids are being bullied and hounded into killing themselves, was posted as a response to the Day of Silence slated for Friday, April 17.

I had hoped to post about the IFI’s video this evening, but guess what? It’s no longer on YouTube. There’s nothing but a note saying “This video has been removed by the user.” And the original link on the IFI web page bragging about this video is also gone.

So what gives?

JoeMyGod seems to have some of the details leading up to its withdrawal. The IFI originally listed a Baptist Church in Glendale, Arizona as a producer of the video. In fact, the video referenced that church’s DareToStand.org web site. But that church denied having anything to do with the clip. They have posted a note, which reads:

Please note: The Illinois Family Institute posted an article on its site April 15, entitled Dare to Stand regarding a video produced by a church in Illinois. Because the radio ministry of Northwest Valley Baptist Church coincidently [sic] bears the name Dare to Stand, we were mistakenly connected with it.

Neither Dare to Stand radio nor Northwest Valley Baptist Church is in any way involved with the development of this video or with the web site connected with it (www.dare2stand.com). Our website is www.daretostand.org. Please contact the Illinois Family Institute at www.illinoisfamily.org for more information.

The IFI’s web page was then changed to identify the video’s creator as Grace Gospel Center in Bensonville, Illinois. And then sometime after that, the video and the web page both vanished into thin air.

So I can’t give you a blow-by-blow analysis of the video’s false claims. Just as well though. When they are putting out false claims about who is actually involved in making their own video, you know it has problems.

Update: It’s baaaack:

This video reminds me of a short movie that was put out in the 1950’s which imagined the United States invaded by the Communists. It featured Jack Webb and was called Red Nightmare:

Nevada’s Governor to Veto Domestic Partnerships

Nevada’s Senate is now considering a bill to create a Domestic Partnership registry (pdf) which would provide domestic partners with “the same rights, protections, benefits, responsibilities, obligations and duties as do parties to any other civil contract created pursuant to title 11 of NRS” (marriage law).

But even should this bill pass, Gov. Jim Gibbons has said he will veto the bill:

Responding to reporters’ questions, the Republican governor said Tuesday that he will veto SB283, the domestic partner measure now under consideration in the state Senate, if it reaches his desk because “I just don’t believe in it.”

One interesting thing about Nevada is the power held by just one industry. Financed almost entirely by casinos, the State of Nevada collects neither income tax nor sales tax. And what is good for the Vegas Strip is good for Nevada.

Should the rest of the Strip decide to join Paris Las Vegas and seek to market to gay travelors, Jim Gibbons may well see a miracle that cures his disbelief.

ACLU: Tenn Schools Illegally Blocking Access To LGBT Websites, Allows Ex-Gay Sites

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as many of 107 Tennessee public school districts could be illegally preventing students from accessing accurate and balanced online information about LGBT issues. The same Internet filtering software however allows access to ex-gay groups. In a letter sent to Knox County Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and the Tennessee Schools Cooperative, the ACLU demanded that they unblock access to LGBT sites.

This is from the ACLU’s press release (not yet available online):

“When I found out about this web filtering software, I wasn\’t looking for anything sexual or inappropriate – I was looking for information about scholarships for LGBT students, and I couldn\’t get to it because of this software,” said Andrew Emitt, a 17-year-old senior at Central High School in Knoxville . “Our schools shouldn\’t be keeping students in the dark about LGBT organizations and resources.”

…In its demand letter, the ACLU notes that websites that urge LGBT persons to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through so-called “reparative therapy” or “ex-gay” ministries – a practice denounced as dangerous and harmful to young people by such groups as the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics – can still be easily accessed by students.

“One of the problems with this software is that it only allows students access to one side of information about topics that are part of the public debate right now, like marriage for same-sex couples,” said Karyn Storts-Brinks, a librarian at Fulton High School in Knoxville, pointing out that the software blocks access to organizations that support marriage for same-sex couples like the Religious Coalition for Freedom to Marry or the Interfaith Working Group while allowing access to organizations that oppose marriage equality. “Students who need to do research for assignments on current events can only get one viewpoint, keeping them from being able to cover both sides of the issue. That\’s not fair and can hinder their schoolwork.”

The schools in question use filtering software provided by Education Networks of America (ENA). The software’s default settings blocks sites categorized as LGBT, which include:

• Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
• The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
• Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
• Marriage Equality USA
• Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry
• The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
• Dignity USA (an organization for LGBT Catholics)

The ACLU is giving the districts until April 29 to come up with a plan to provide access to LGBT sites or any other category that blocks non-sexual websites advocating the fair treatment of LGBT people by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.

Jamaica Boycott: What Are The Alternatives?

Yesterday, I provided a quick update to the Jamaican Boycott. In that post, I noted the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, Allsexuals and Gays’ (JFLAG) opposition to that boycott. But as I demonstrated, JFLAG’s position doesn’t speak for all LGBT Jamaicans any more than the HRC speaks for all LGBT Americans. I also closed with this question:

To those who are against the boycott, I have one thing I\’d be interested in learning: what do you think ought to be done differently from what has been tried before — assuming you really want a different result?

Today, JFLAG’s blog has joined the debate in two posts. The first is a repost of Michael Airhart’s article on Jamaican voices in support of the boycott. The second is a post which defends JFLAG’s opposition to the boycott, and ends with a re-wording of a similar question I asked yesterday:

Do any of you support this boycott? If not, what alternatives, if any, are there for helping the LGBT people of Jamaica in a respectful manner?

CNN on Anti-Gay Bullying

CNN’s Anderson Cooper did a marvelous story last night on Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover and Eric Mohat, and the daily anti-gay bullying which drove these boys to kill themselves. He was buried on Friday. Meanwhile, Focus On the Family, Exodus, and the Alliance defense, among many others, continue to defend the current status quo which leads to more deaths of young people — including straight kids as well as gay.

When “Protecting Marriage” Means Ignoring Marriage

The Des Moines Register has a very small blurb about a new bill that a state Senator wants to introduce now that the Senate is winding down:

No Iowans should be forced to recognize a gay marriage if they\’re religiously opposed to it, a state senator said Tuesday.

Sen. David Hartsuch, R-Bettendorf, said he is proposing a bill that says “a person shall not be compelled to recognize a marriage solemnized in this state if such recognition conflicts with the person\’s religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

It\’s too late for lawmakers to file new bills, but Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley asked the Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal Tuesday to sponsor the bill with him. Gronstal said he\’d consider it.

This would broaden the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision, which held that no religion would beforced to recognize a marriage it didn’t want to, to include virtually anyone. But this bill, it seems to me, would run afoul of the state Supreme Court decision, opening up same-sex couples to precisely the kind of discrimination that the Supreme Court sought to address.

More Lies from David Benkof

Last summer I started a project of exposing the lies of David Benkof, a man who had been gay (going by David Bianco), then bisexual, then queer with mutable identity, and now is “deliberately living traditionally”.

At that time Benkof was writing articles in straight publications in which he claimed to be a columnist for gay newspapers (he thought it gave credibility to his anti-gay rants). He also briefly had some articles published in some gay magazines until the editors or publishers discovered his intent.

After a bit of observation, it became clear to me that Benkof suffers from what I\’ll call “Truth Deficit Disorder”. He found it almost impossible to go more than a few paragraphs without busting into hyperbole, exaggeration, distortion, or just flat-out falsehoods. And David\’s favorite subject about which to, ahem, wax creatively was same-sex marriage.

However, David\’s desire to support Proposition 8 exposed him to those who were running the effort. And in what was a great surprise to him (but no one else) he discovered that bigots are generous in the extent of their arrogance and animus. Homophobes don\’t have much fondness for Jews, either.

And, feeling disillusioned, on July 13 of last year he blogged his final good-bye.

I wished him well and promptly put him out of mind.

Well now he\’s back and it seems that his methods haven\’t changed much since he saw the ugly side of bigotry. He\’s still more than eager to trot out dishonesty and deception as his hallmark and calling card.

Today Benkof has an article in the New York Post in which he uses a false pretext to spread more dishonesty about gay folk. Big surprise.

First Benkof praises Vermont for enacting religious liberty protections in their marriage laws. But the praise is artificial, based on a false premise, and nothing but a vehicle for attacking the gay community. Again, big surprise.

The Green Mountain State’s new law says in its “Public Accommodations” section that religious groups “shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges to an individual if the request . . . is related to the solemnization of a marriage or celebration of a marriage.” It also bars civil lawsuits against religious groups that refuse to provide goods or services to same-sex weddings.

Benkof sees this as a real difference. It isn\’t.

Churches can already deny services, accommodations, advantages, etc. to married couples of the same sex based on their religion. They always have and always will. What the Vermont law does clarify is that religious organizations, such as the Knights of Columbus, may also deny their halls or their facilities for marriage ceremonies.

And this is a clarification that I believe to be beneficial. I think that those religiously affiliated non-profits or fraternal organizations that wish to uphold their religious convictions about orientation or race or religion should be able to do so…. provided, of course, that they are not receiving special benefits from the state for being “open to all”.

But that\’s where Benkof and I cease to see eye to eye. What he does next is typical Benkof:

Without serious religious freedom guarantees, disturbing punishments have been meted out to people and groups who have acted consistent with their belief that marriage is between a man and a woman and that children are best served with both a mother and a father. The following actions have taken place in states with gay marriage, marriagelike institutions or even strong nondiscrimination laws on the basis of sexual orientation:

Now that is a carefully written paragraph. If one cares little for honesty and only wants to try and claim some technical truth, then one can feel all clever with oneself for writing it.

He doesn\’t say that what follows has anything to do with marriage. He just implies it by saying that this is how Vermont differs. In other words, deliberate deception rather than a direct lie.

These thing all happened “in states with marriage, marriagelike institutions or strong nondiscrimination laws.”

Or with running water.

Because the truth is that not a single example he lists had ANYTHING to do with marriage. Or with marriage laws – the subject he’s pretending to be talking about.

Then Benkof trots out the usual half-truths of anti-gays about a New Mexico photographer, eHarmony, Boston\’s Catholic Charities, and the lesbian denied fertility treatment.

Geez, the average reader – the one that Benkof is counting on reading his piece – would think, “Gosh, that\’s all due to gay marriage”. And if they missed that connection, Benkof slams it home by immediately talking about “the courts in Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, and Iowa”.

Now we\’ve covered all of Benkof\’s talking points before. But you may enjoy taking a good look at this video rebuttal by Rob Tisinai to the type of claims that Benkof’s making (including a few of his actual complaints). It shows just how dishonest Benkof and his ilk are and how they will say anything in the advancement of their attack on the lives and freedoms of gay men and women.

Mel White vs. Tony Perkins

Soulforce’s Mel White calls out the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins beginning at the 6:45 mark: