The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 25
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
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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Scott
January 20th, 2010 | LINK
ummmm. Cooper was using fix-stistics.
Ben in Oakland
January 20th, 2010 | LINK
not to mention, holland had DP’s for most of the time in question, indicating that perhaps the problem is the devaluing of marriage by creating similar but not equal DP’s.
I’m sure loads of straight people saidL:” Hey wait? Gay’s can’t get married and don’t need to? Maybe we shouldn’t either.”
Itr is every bit as valid as arguing the other way. It makes just as much sense.
Ben in Oakland
January 20th, 2010 | LINK
What i want to hear asked is this by thejudge;
Well Mr. cooper, you clearly seem to be cheery picking your data to support your point, when the reality of the data doesn’t support your point at all.
Why are you doing that? Do you think you might be prejudiced against gay people?
and when we get to the “We’re not bigots. This is our sincere rleigious belief.” I’s like to hear this.
“So you would like to see your religious beliefs take precedence over equality before the law in civil marriage. If you as a Christian said that Jews were not entitled to the same tretament by the government as you, would not that be religious bigotry? If you said segregation is based upon your sincere religious belief, would that be different as well?
Do you think we’ll acutally hear those quesitons asked?
B Mann
January 20th, 2010 | LINK
Is just me, or are these arguments against gay marriage and in support of hetero marriages getting sillier and sillier? Charts are in our favor in that they prove “nothing”. This will hopefully be viewed as a waste of time.
Cole
January 20th, 2010 | LINK
The reason why heterosexuals use this argument against gay couples getting marriage rights is because heterosexuals believe gay people are less than them therefore by our association with marriage we will lower the value of marriage and drive away heterosexuals. It’s so ingrained in heterosexual thought that they don’t even have to say it explicitly, other heterosexuals already know what they mean.
Whatever heterosexuals do with their own marriages will be their own doing. If none of them get married it’s their own decision. Marriage rates for heterosexual couples were falling long before gay couples demanded marriage rights because happiness plays a larger role for heterosexuals in getting married. Divorce rates for heterosexual couples were going up for a while because the divorce laws were relaxed dramatically and happiness became a much bigger factor in decisions to end marriages.
grantdale
January 21st, 2010 | LINK
The trend downwards since 1970 is even less stark than the raw marriage rate per 1000 population would suggest.
There are two traditional peaks in marriage rates this century in most Western countries — immediately post WWII when all the troops returned home, and from the mid 1960′s to early 1970′s. The latter peak is itself due to the first because it was when the post-war baby boom came to marriage age.
If the graphs are redrawn using the population of eligible age and status (ie single) you get a much flatter line.
Marriage hasn’t died in the Netherlands. There are just fewer people per head of population that can get married in the first place. Many younger Dutch couples, like many younger Europeans, only go out and get legally married after having a child or two. They still get married, but not as their grandparents did.
The rise in divorces during the 1970′s is far more reflective of social change than are the marriage rates. Divorce ceased to have the same stigma and the financial and social status of women had altered from previous generations. There was an initial rise, but divorce rates have been largely static (or even declined) over the past 30 years in many Western countries.
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