Box Turtle Bulletin

A Tale of Two Parties

There must have been two different parties on Saturday in Salt Lake City, both of them sharing the name “Buttars-Palooza.” How else would one explain the two very different estimates of crowd size. First, the Salt Lake Tribune:

More than a thousand people converged on the Utah Capitol on Saturday, not for legislative protest, but to party.

Couples, families and individuals danced on the south lawn to live music at “Buttars-Palooza,” a festival meant to exploit the audacity of Utah Sen. Chris Buttars’ now-famous comments about gays.

The LDS church-owned Deseret News had a different estimate:

The crowd of 300 or so cheered and waved rainbow flags.

“We are all here as part of something larger, something that is a little bit more threatening to Chris Buttars than the gay-rights movement,” said Araveni Olivares, a local activist. “We are part of a lasting movement for civil rights and social justice.”

The Deseret News’ coverage has taken a considerable turn lately, so much so that News reporters recently refused to allow their names to appear in their stories’ bylines in protest over editorial policy changes. Two well-respected editors, Chuck Gates and Julianne Basinger, were demoted after having criticized the paper for tailoring the paper’s content to be more pleasing to LDS readers.

José Sucuzhañay’s Killer: “So I Killed Someone — That Makes Me A Bad Guy?”

Keith Phoenix (right) being led out of the 83rd precinct in Brooklyn (DeCrescenzo / NY Daily News)

That’s what murder suspect Keith Phoenix, 28, said when he confessed to the hate-crime murder of José Sucuzhañay:

“So I killed someone — that makes me a bad guy?” Police sources said Phoenix showed no remorse for beating the 31-year-old victim in the mistaken belief he was gay because he was walking arm-in-arm with his brother. “He kept saying, ‘What’s the big deal? The guy’s dead,'” a police source said.

Phoenix, an unemployed felon out on parole, was caught on security video laughing just 19 minutes after he and Hakim Scott, 25, bashed José with an aluminum baseball bat on December 7. Phoenix reportedly continued to swing at Sucuzhanay even as he lay twitching on the ground.  José was declared brain dead five days later. Scott confessed and has shown remorse for his role in José’s death, saying he was glad to get it off his chest. But Phoenix is a different animal altogether.

Utahns Really Love Their Online Porn

Benjamin Edelman. “Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 23, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 209-230. Available online here (PDF: 128 KB/12 pages).

The HBO series “Big Love” features a storyline where Bill Henrickson, the father of a polygamist fundamentalist Mormon family, is trying to enter the Indian gaming industry in Utah with a unique hook. In order to appeal to an underserved Mormon clientele which isn’t inclined to go to Las Vegas, the casino would present a more wholesome environment. No alcohol or risque entertainment, but customers would get free lemonade, for example.

That, of course, is fiction. In real life a recent study by Harvard University’s Benjamin Edelman suggests that the porn industry is already doing well in the Utah market without having to make any accomodations at all..

A new national study based on data from a top-ten online adult entertainment provider reveals that Utah has the highest per-capita consumption of online porn in the nation. But it’s not just Utah. More generally, states that generally more conservative and religious are also among the best consumers of online porn.

There was a time when purchasing porn required traveling to a seedy bookstore on the bad side of town. But since the mid-1990’s, the Internet has changed all that. Pornography today is as easy to get as a book from Amazon.com. And with the explosion of broadband, delivering the more sought-after video content is easier than every before.

Since many of these porn sites offer monthly subscriptions, credit cards can provide a convenient tracking mechanism for studying visitors’ online behavior. Edelman obtained anonymized credit card data from a top-ten online porn provider which operates hundreds of web sites, and correlated that data with Zip code information to create his state-by-state analysis. While it’s impossible to know how representative this provider’s customer base is, they run literally hundreds of web sites offering a very wide variety of adult entertainment.

This study found that 36% of Internet users visit at least one adult web site each month, with each visit lasting an average of 11.6 minutes. And of those who visit at least one adult site per month, the average such users visit adult website 7.7 times per month. By looking at zip code information, the authors were able to come to some rather surprising conclusions.

It turns out that by every measure, the state of Utah is the highest per-capital consumer of online porn. Based on per-thousand Internet and Internet broadband users, the top ten and bottom ten breakdowns look like this:

The figures for broadband users are particularly notable since having high-speed access is critical to accessing online porn. According to Edelman, “As of June 2008, broadband users outnumber narrowband users 18 to 1 at sites that comScore classifies as adult.” That makes sense, since dial-up users are much less likely to endure the long download times required for video or high quality images. This may explain why Mississippi, which has limited availability for broadband statewide, comes in at number three for broadband users, but doesn’t even break into the top ten among Internet users generally. West Virginia is dead last among internet users overall, but rockets to number ten when dial-up customers are excluded.

When looking at broadband porn consumption trends nationwide, the map looks like this:

Some observers suggest that this study indicates a red state/blue state divide in porn consumption. Edelman did his analysis before the 2008 elections, but he did look at the 2004 presidential results where he couldn’t find any significance based on poll data by Congressional district.

But the 2008 electoral map at the state level does show that of the ten highest porn-consuming states, eight went for John McCain. And of the twenty-nine states in the lowest two porn-consumption categories (2.7 subscriptions per thousand broadband users or less), nineteen (66%) went for Barack Obama. It would be interesting to know whether there’s a correlation between porn and political leanings at the Congressional district level for 2008.

That said, Edelman did find some interesting characteristics for states with higher religiosity and more conservative values:

…[I]n regions where more people report regularly attending religious services (per National Election Studies 2004) … a statistically significantly smaller proportion of subscriptions begin on Sundays, compared with other regions. In particular, a 1 percent increase in the proportion of people who report regularly attending religious services is associated with a 0.10 percent reduction in the proportion of purchases that occur on Sunday. This analysis suggests that, on the whole, those who attend religious services shift their consumption of adult entertainment to other days of the week, despite on average consuming the same amount of adult entertainment as others.

…In the 27 states where “defense of marriage” amendments have been adopted (making same-sex marriage, and/or civil unions unconstitutional), … there were 0.2 more subscribers to this adult web site per thousand broadband households, 11 percent more than in other states.

And then there’s this:

…In states where more people agree that “Even today miracles are performed by the power of God” and “I never doubt the existence of God,” there are more subscriptions to this service. Subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where more people agree that “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage” and “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.”

Those comparisons broke down like this:

• States where the majority agreed with the statement, “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.60 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed.
• States where the majority agreed with the statement, “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior,” bought 3.56 more subscriptions per thousand people.
• States where the majority agreed with the statement, “Even today miracles are performed by the power of God” bought 2.74 more subscriptions per thousand people.
• States where the majority agreed with the statement, “I never doubt the existence of God” also bought 2.74 more subscriptions per thousand people.

Civil Rights Pioneer Backs Same-Sex Marriage

He joined sit-in protests at restaurants in Washington, D.C. that refused to serve African-Americans, and he volunteered to register black voters in rural Mississippi. He was run out of Ruleville, Mississippi at gunpoint by a man who was the town’s mayor and justice of the peace. Charles Cobb, Jr. knows what civil rights are all about:

“If people want to get married, I don’t care if they’re the same sex,” said Cobb. “Not all civil rights are racial.”

Charles Cobb was field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi from 1962 to 1967. He is also a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists. His new book, On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail, provides a city-by-city guide to the history of the civil rights movement in the South.

Bearden Spared Death Penalty For Killing Ryan Skipper

Joseph Bearden, right, reacts to the verdict. (Ernst Peters/The Ledger)

Joseph Bearden, 21, has been found guilty on all counts stemming from the death of Ryan Skipper and was sentenced to life imprisonment today. After nearly two days of deliberation, a Florida jury found Bearden guilty of second degree murder, theft of a motor vehicle, accessory after the fact to robbery with a weapon, tampering with evidence, and dealing in stolen property.

Bearden was being tried for first-degree murder, But with the guilty verdict for second degree murder, Bearden was spared a possible death penalty. Judge J. Michael Hunter told Bearden that he believed he killed Ryan because he way gay. While the judge gave him the maximum penalty for second degree murder, Bearden will nevertheless be eligible for parole in twenty-five years.

Bearden’s codefendent, William David Brown, Jr., 20, will be tried separately at a later date.

In March 2007, Ryan’s body was found by the side of a rural Florida road with more than 20 stab wounds and his throat slashed. Police allege that Brown and Bearden killed Ryan and stole his car. A witness testified that Brown killed Ryan because he was gay. After finding it impossible to clean up the blood in the car to sell it, Brown and Bearden set it on fire. But because it didn’t fully burn, investigators were able to obtain fingerprints from the car.

LaBarbera Award: Mat Staver

Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver spoke before the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where he charged that allowing same-sex marriage would lead to an epidemic of criminality:

Same-sex marriage sets forth a fatherless policy. It will deprive children of ever having the opportunity of being raised in an environment where mom and dad are present. You don’t have to read thousands of sociological research studies to know that marriage matters and moms and dads and genders do matter to the well-being of children. You can go to any violent jail or crime area within the jail or a prison, and go to the men’s section of the prison or the jail and ask where the violent offenders are housed. And when you go there, ask them one question. And the one question is this: what was your relationship with your father? Universally, the answer will come back “I had no father.” There is a correlation between fatherlessness and and why these young men are behind bars for committing violent crimes.

If that were true, then I guess we shouldn’t allow lesbians to marry. But men on the other hand, who would provide two fathers, would double-inoculate their children against criminality.

But of course, this is nonsense. Staver says “you don’t have to read thousands of sociological research studies,” but he should perhaps read a few of them rather than remain in willful ignorance. Because none of those studies comparing families comprising of two lesbian parents or two gay men as parents to families headed by two heterosexual parents have been able to discern any measurable differences in the general outcome of children — and most certainly not in the criminality of children.

In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics — who know a thing or two about children — conducted a wide ranging review of the vast professional research literature, and they concluded that:

A growing body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with 1 or 2 gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual. Children’s optimal development seems to be influenced more by the nature of the relationships and interactions within the family unit than by the particular structural form it takes.

In other words, good parents, very broadly speaking, make for good children. Inadequate parental relationships or adverse family dynamics lead to a greater risk for negative outcomes. And that’s true regardless of the parental makeup.

So we award this latest LaBarbera Award to Mat Staver, because no one needs to remain mired in willful ignorance rather than acknowledging what the research actually says.

Slate Article on Gay Libel Laws

I wrote a while ago on Box Turtle Bulletin about defamation suits where someone is falsely accused of being gay. I have a longer piece in Slate magazine about the issue, please read: Queer Eye for the Libel Guy: Should stars really be able to sue for libel if someone says they’re gay?

I made sure to mention BTB in my bio, too. Happy reading!

James Dobson Resigns As Chairman of Focus On the Family

James Dobson (Mike Simons/Getty Images)

The Associated Press is reporting that James Dobson is resigning as chairman of Focus On the Family, but he will continue to play a prominent role in the organization. Dobson, 72, notified the board of directors on Wednesday, and the 950 remaining employees were told this morning at a monthly worship service at their Colorado Springs headquarters.

Jim Daly, the who succeeded Dobson as president and CEO six months ago, said that Dobson will continue to speak out on political matters. He will also continue to write his monthly newsletter. Dobson will continue to host FOTF’s radio program for the time being, although there is some indication that the program may be retooled with a new host or group of hosts in order to reach a younger audience. Focus officials have acknowledged difficulties in raising money from younger families recently. But with Dobson continuing to play a prominent role in the organization, this latest move likely won’t signal a change in FOTF’s positions or tone in the short term.

Dobson described his resignation as the last step in their transition plan:

“One of the common errors of founder-presidents is to hold to the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority,” Dobson said in a statement. “… Though letting go is difficult after three decades of intensive labor, it is the wise thing to do.”

Focus On the Family has undergone a series of layoffs over the past few years. At its peak, FOTF employed some 1,500 employees. As of September 2007, FOTF reported an $8 million budget shortfall. Daly said they are now “right on track” with a revised annual budget of $138 million, a budget which dwarfs that of the Human Rights Campaign and the HRC Foundation, representing the largest LGBT advocacy group, by 3.6 to 1.

New Mexico Senate Votes Down Domestic Partnerships

Last week we told you that a Domestic Parterships bill was advanced from the Senate Judiciary Committee to a full vote of the Senate. Now the Senate has voted and rejected the bill.

All 15 Republicans voted against this effort to provide same-sex couples with limited rights, responsibilities and protections. While 17 Democrats did vote in favor of this less-than-equal proposal (for which we are appreciative), 10 more were unwilling to give gay couples anything at all. The Democrats who said no are:

Pete Campos
Carlos R. Cisneros
Timothy Jennings
Lynda Lovejoy
Richard Martinez
George Munoz
John Pinto
Bernadette Sanchez
John Arthur Smith
David Ulibari

Perhaps it is time to start thinking about primary opponents.

Second Arrest Made In José Sucuzhañay Murder Case

Keith Phoenix

The second man wanted in the murder of José Sucuzhañay was arrested this morning in a pre-dawn raid in the Bronx. Keith Phoenix was sleeping when police found and arrested him without incident.

Phoenix is alleged to be the one who beat José Sucuzhañay with an aluminum baseball bat while a group of men beat and kicked him while shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs. Phoenix was also caught on surveillance tape laughing and smiling just nineteen minutes after the attack.

José, an Ecuadorian immigrant was not gay. But he was walking home arm in arm with his brother, Romel, after a night of heavy drinking when the assailants drove by and mistook them for a gay couple. Romel was not seriously injured in the attack. José was declared brain dead five days later.

Hakim Scott, 25, was arrested on Tuesday and reportedly gave a complete confession. He was arraigned Thursday on charges of second degree murder as a hate crime.

Richard Cohen Is Back In The PFOX and Exodus Orbit

Richard Cohen is back and he’s on tour, with the full blessing of Exodus International member organization PFOX.

Two years ago, the ex-gay movement was widely embarrassed by Richard Cohen when in July 2006 he revealed his “holding” or “touch” techniques before a nationwide audience. It’s a controversial techniques that Cohen promotes through his International Healing Foundation. Cohen had also been president of the PFOX, but he was forced out after that CNN episode aired.

That embarrassment was compounded when in March 2007 he appeared on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. That prompted PFOX and NARTH to scrub their web sites of all mention of him, and Exodus International publicly distanced themselves from his techniques:

Exodus International does not endorse the work of Richard Cohen or the methods utilized in his practice. Some of the techniques Mr. Cohen employs could be detrimental to an individual’s understanding of healthy relational boundaries and disruptive to the psychological and emotional development of men and women seeking clinical counsel and aid.

That was wise, if belated. Five years earlier, Cohen had already been expelled from the American Counseling Association (ACA) for multiple ethical violations.

Well, that exile didn’t last long. Even though PFOX scrubbed their web site to pretend they had never heard of Cohen, we learned that just a few months later PFOX was referring “clients” to Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation. Then last year came word of a possible rapprochement between Exodus and Cohen. That was quite a turnaround considering that Exodus International president Alan Chambers had resigned just a year ealier from PFOX’s board of directors because they hadn’t distanced themselves enough from Cohen

And now PFOX, which through all of this has remained a member in good standing in Exodus’s referral network, is promoting Cohen’s “National Tour!” — complete with exclamation marks. Actually, there are no tour dates set just yet. They’re still begging for people to invite him. But the timing’s no coincidence. Cohen will have a new book out, “Loving Gays the Right Way: The Other Side of Tolerance.”

Let’s see, what would the other side of tolerance be?

To remind you of Cohen’s “healing” techniques, here’s a clip of Cohen on CNN.

LaBarbera Award: CO State Sen. Dave Schultheis

One might conclude that Colorado GOP state Senators have become jealous over all the attention being paid to the abundance of anti-gay shenanigans over in neighboring Utah, How else can we explain this two-fer in three days?

On Monday, we had some serious nuttiness from Colorado State Sen. Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley). Now just two days later, we have another state Senator from the Rocky Mountain state making an award-winning bid. Colorado State Sen. Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) thinks that having an HIV-positive baby is just punishment for its mother’s promiscuity:

“What I’m hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that,” he said. “The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior.”

That’s what Schultheis said to the Rocky Mountain News when asked if he really meant what he said when he spoke in opposition to a bill on Wednesday requiring all pregnant women to be tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. If the virus can be detected early enough in the pregnancy, the unborn baby can be treated to prevent the transfer of the virus.

Schultheis however believes that leaving babies untreated and increasing the risk twelve-fold that they will become infected is just what the doctor ordered. Speaking form the Senate floor, Schultheis said:

Colorado State Sen. Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs)

“I’m trying to think through what the role of government is here. And I am not convinced that part of the role of government should be to protect individuals from the negative consequences of their actions.

Sexual promiscuity, we know, causes a lot of problems in our state, one of which, obviously, is the contraction of HIV. And we have other programs that deal with the negative consequences – we put up part of our high schools where we allow students maybe 13 years old who put their child in a small daycare center there.

We do things continually to remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior, quite frankly, and I don’t think that’s the role of this body.

As a result of that I finally came to the conclusion I would have to be a no vote on this because this stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part, and I just can’t vote on this bill and I wanted to explain to this body why I was going to be a no vote on this.

Former Republican Gov. Bill Owens stated the obvious: “It’s extremely inconsistent for any person who is pro life to oppose this effort to potentially save the life of a child.” Every other Republican in the state Senate supported the bill. But despite this latest embarrassment, Senate minority leader Josh Penry said, “It’s not my job to go around and censor people and tell them what to say.”

But there’s something else that’s not being said. It’s the reaction on learning that someone is HIV-positive: that the person is without morals and somehow deserves his or her infection. A person can have sex only once and still contract AIDS. That sexual act can be consensual — it can be the result of having sex with her legally-wedded husband who is infected — or the “sex act” could nonconsensual, whether it’s rape or molestation.

This blame-the-victim mentality so emphatically articulated by Schultheis, the assumption which springs so automatically whenever the subject of HIV and AIDS is broached, that is the very same mentality which hinders efforts to curb the epidemic — all to the detriment of mothers and their unborn children. And other sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, spouses and partners, and all the others who become infected every year.

This latest controversey came on the heels of another embarrassing outburst by a fellow Colorado State Senator. On Monday, State Sen. Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley) spoke out against a gay-rights bill comparing homosexuality to murder. This was just after reading aloud a verse from Leviticus 20:13, which mandates the death penalty “if a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman.”

Arrest Made In José Sucuzhañay’s Murder

José Sucuzhañay

New York Police has arrested a suspect in the December 7 beating death of José Sucuzhañay. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last night that police arrested Hakim Scott of the Bronx and were looking for a second suspect.

We have done what we said we were going to do, bringing Jose’s killers to justice,” Bloomberg said. “In this city, there is no such thing as a second class citizen.

“Anyone who commits a hate crime, we will not rest until we arrest them.” Bloomberg said.

According to witnesses, José was walking arm-in-arm with his brother Romel after a night of heavy drinking when several passengers in a maroon SUV mistook them for a gay couple. Someone yelled, “Check out those faggots over there,” as the SUV pulled over and as many as three attackers emerged from the vehicle. One of the men broke a bottle over José’s head. When he fell to the ground, another began beating him with a baseball bat while the others kicked and punched him, yelling anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs. The attackers fled when Romel called 911. Romel was not seriously hurt, but José was declared brain dead a week later.

Hakim Scott

Scott has a lengthy rap sheet, including arrests for assault, robbery and weapons possession. He will be arraigned on Thursday on a charge of second degree murder as a hate crime. According to police, he was the one who broke the bottle over José’s head. Once in custody, Scott “made a full confession,” according to investigators.Two others are still being sought.

Keith Phoenix

Update: Police are offering a a $22,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the second suspect. Police say that Keith Phoenix, 28, was vehicle’s driver. They also say he was the man who beat José with an aluminum baseball bat. Phoenix is on parole for armed robbery and is a friend of Scott’s from their Bronx neighborhood.

Hawaii Senate Committee Tied on Civil Unions

After 15 hours of testimony, the Senate Judiciary Committee tied 3-3 on whether to advance a civil unions bill. This would normally deadlock the issue, but Democratic Senate leaders will use a rare procedure to pull the bill onto the Senate floor for a full vote.

The bill is assured passage in the Senate and will go to Governor Linda Lingle (R), who has not stated her position on the bill.

Presbyterians Move Towards Acceptance

Charlotte, NC, is home to many Presbyterians. So many that the Charlotte Presbytery is the fourth largest in the PCUSA denomination.

Charlotte Presbyterians have, historically, not been particularly supportive of gay ministers. But this has changed.

In a close vote Saturday that reflected deep division, Presbyterian church leaders representing the Charlotte area officially ratified a proposal to end their denomination’s long-standing ban on gays and lesbians becoming pastors and elders.

But this significant victory does not speak to the eventual outcome of the proposal.

For the change to take effect, it will have to be endorsed by 87 of the denomination’s 173 presbyteries by mid-May.

Currently the national tally is 46 presbyteries against the change and 36 for it. The odds are against passage, but it is expected to be much closer than a similar ratification effort in 2002.

Meanwhile, the largest Presbyterian church in Arkansas isn’t waiting for permission.

Little Rock’s Second Presbyterian Church elected Michael Upson as a deacon, along with several other deacons. Upson is openly gay, and has been in a relationship with another man for over twenty years.