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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anteros
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
oh i think i get it… he’s not gay… he’s married, right? he’s just a married, same-sex attracted man who has sex (kinda sorta) with men, for a fee. on a hook-up website, that would probably be abbreviated as DL-SSA-MSM-$$$ or something like that… that’s not gay, right?
Maurice Lacunza
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Nice Anteros. Rekers says his wife will be retiring soon and will accompany him on trips…isn’t that what Ted Haggard put in place?
And, didn’t BTB call it out when they said he would do the usual game play: christian counselors, camp, forgiveness, and then join some off the beaten trail ministry?
Disgusting. The Christians really turn a blind eye to their own gay leaders but they burn at the stake the rest of us. Appalling.
queerunity
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
I’m not gay either, my weakness is just that women don’t turn me on and men do.
Brian
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Yes, I too suffer from unwanted same-sex attraction. It’s just that I’m not the one who doesn’t want it…
Ben in Oakland
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Can a televised statement from him, iwth his wife standing behind ihm wearing sun glasses, be far behind?
Oh wait. Larry craig already did that.
I needed a wide stance to lift my luggage while I was hikin’ the appalachian trail to show that I’m not gay…
But my desires are still down on their knees in the mensroom at a park in florida.
or sumpin.
Lindoro Almaviva
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Come to think about it I am not gay either. It is just that every time I see a man with a hairy chest and a nice sculpted beard, and nice blue eyes and great hands and a nice firm….
No, I am not gay, never was, never will.
Unless Gil Marini comes calling, then I will be the gayest man in the face of the whole earth.
This is the perfect scenario to explain how things go from sad, to funny to pathetic in 7 days or less.
Brian
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Do you think next he’ll say he didn’t inhale?
Ben in Oakland
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Brian: it is very difficult to inhale if your throat is blocked. try it and you’ll see.
Silly.
Priya Lynn
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Rekers is the perfect symbol of the failure of the “exgay” movement. I’m unhappy with myself because I feel sorry for him – he’s spent his life living a farce and now in his 60′s instead of recognizing the futility of pretending not to be gay he’s going to waste what little’s left of his life continuing to struggle to please the bigots who’ve deprived him of happiness all these years.
Ben in Oakland
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Priya– they may have deprived him of happiness all these years– who knows?
but they certainly didn’t deprive him of an awful lot of cash. money can’t buy happiness, but it certainly helps.
Richard Rush
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
“In a follow-up e-mail to Christianity Today, Rekers said that his wife will be retiring soon and will accompany him on trips when their sons are unavailable.”
Huh? Most men I know with working wives coordinate their vacation time to travel together. They don’t wait until their wives retire. And Rekers says, even after she retires, she will only accompany him when their sons are unavailable. Would she only be going to carry his luggage? If his sons were not available to go on his recent trip, why was it so urgent for him to travel during that exact time period whereby he was forced to hire a rentboy?
Rekers must still be shell-shocked from the revelations of his homosexuality, because every statement he makes is bizarre. Or maybe he is just so accustomed to spouting scientific/religious bullshit all his life and having his audience say amen.
B John
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
Well Richard, he had to go at that exact moment because that particular rent boy was in dire need of Christian Counseling, which could only be done in a hotel in a foreign country. And besides, his wife wouldn’t want to be having to sit around the hotel lobby waiting on the counseling sessions to finish up.
And Rekers is just getting counseling to help him learn to make better decisions (like how to not get caught next time). You know, because after 60 years of putting himself in the public spotlight, and supposedly earning a PhD, he hasn’t managed to learn how to make good decisions for himself. It’s not counseling to make him straight…nope, already there.
A number of blog posters and commenters had previously written suggesting showing some pity for the guy, and not being so harsh in our judgement. They almost had me convinced. If this jerk would just show one ounce of humility, go quietly away, and STFU, maybe I could give him a chance to see if he has some redeeming qualities. I’m now seeing why all the judges kept dismissing his testimony as a waste of the courts time. So far, not one intelligent phrase has crossed his lips.
Jonathan Oz
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
For what its worth I agree with Reker in his statement that he is not gay, but then for me, “gay” implies not merely a sexual orientation, but also an ease with and an acceptance of that sexual orientation.
By my definition, Reker has a homosexual sexual orientation, but the dear boy is galaxies away from being gay.
Timothy Kincaid
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
B John,
I may have even more pity for him than if he did come to his senses. At least then he might have hope for a fulfilling future and the opportunity to reverse his damage.
Now he only has a life of empty yearning surrounded by disillusioned spouse, family, and friends to look forward to – all while knowing that he’s a fraud. What a miserable existence he’s selected for himself.
It is truly truly sad that this guy is incapable of facing the truth.
Norm!
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
HUH? He is married?!? I somehow missed that from the coverage.
What medically-ailing husband ditches the wife and rents a boy to go on a European vacation? (Rhetorical question.)
Sounds like the Rekers have an untraditional marriage to me.
Maurice Lacunza
May 12th, 2010 | LINK
To Richard Rush,
I think you are right about Rekers being shell shocked. The truth that he has hidden, and for expensive reasons, is out of the bag. He is for sure in shock, disbelief and reeling from shame and God knows what kind of accountability to whom. He is spouting some awfully bizarre stuff.
And, you are correct say that in the past, he may have been able to spout a few bible sounding excuses to his audience and they all said Amen to him. As a result his real behavior stayed hidden. Now, the problem is bigger and the real world is asking for the truth because of his anti-gay occupation. His family and church wants to believe his lies because the truth is unbearable to them: Gay people exist no matter how hard you try to fight it.
Lynn David
May 13th, 2010 | LINK
Rekers may be bisexual or homosexual, but he is not gay. He doesn’t deserve to be called gay or use the label for himself unless he should come to that point of acceptance of his true self.
Lynn David
May 13th, 2010 | LINK
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2010/05/07/ahem/
Jamie O\'Neill
May 13th, 2010 | LINK
You’ve got to check out
http://teensextoday.wordpress.com/
It’s one of Rekers’ websites. The page is headed “Benefits of Forgiveness”. Here’s the text …
Forgiveness is an essential part of any relationship. Professor George has written an excellent article on the benefits of forgiveness within relationships. Check out the first two paragraphs of his article (you can purchase the full article below).
“Like everyone, there have been times that you and I have needed to forgive someone else. And, like everyone, you and I have had times when we’ve needed to be forgiven by someone we’ve offended.
Are there emotional and spiritual benefits to forgiving another person? What happens to our emotions when we decide not to forgive someone? Does experiencing forgiveness have the power to heal damaged emotions or heal a serious psychological disorder? There are some striking and sometimes surprising answers to these kinds of questions…”
DN
May 13th, 2010 | LINK
When Rekers takes his wife on vacation, will they write up a contract specifying what sexual acts she will perform on him?
Speaking of which, I know that escorting is legal because you’re not paying for sex – you’re paying for the escort’s time and whatever two consenting adults agree to do is OK. Well it seems to me that writing a contract explicitly laying out the sexual nature of the transaction wouldn’t be quite above-board…
Tina-cious.com
May 13th, 2010 | LINK
I don’t really think he’s gonna be traveling all that much from now on.
Unless it’s on the city bus to get his welfare check.
Maybe Ted Haggard will give him a ride.
mikeksf
May 13th, 2010 | LINK
I read on an earlier post that his son is adopted. Is that true?
Ben in Oakland
May 13th, 2010 | LINK
He’s a rekersexual. It’s kinda like a fauxmosexual, but without the “diamond” tiara.
Dibs on the coinage and rights.
Christine
May 14th, 2010 | LINK
Yes, Norm, he is married and has 5 adult sons.
This information is provided in his short bio in the 2009 book edited by Julie Harren Hamilton (NARTH President). Rekers has a chapter in that book.
What I am curious to know is why wouldn’t his wife be able to travel with him if his sons are adults?
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