Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 18th, 2010
From Tulsa World
Champagne corks popped at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center on Thursday night after the City Council voted to add sexual orientation to Tulsa’s nondiscrimination policy.
Oklahomans for Equality members cheered and jeered at a rally as they watched councilors discuss the issue and their votes on a large-screen TV at the center.
“As a gay, black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it’s a monumental night,” said Tracy Allen, incoming volunteer coordinator at the center.
Yes. The Tulsa in Oklahoma. And the vote was 6 to 3.
Which means that it’s official. The Great American Culture War is over and we’ve won; now it’s all just a matter of time.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Tommy
June 18th, 2010
There was never any doubt we’d win the culture war, just a matter of how long our opponents chose to drag their defeat out. No war has ever been as throughly one sided as our current culture war.
The culture war began around four years after Brown v. The Board of Education, when Jerry Fallwell began galvanizing the Christian Right with statements like, “The true Negro does not want integration…. He realizes his potential is far better among his own race… [Integration]will destroy our race eventually. In one northern city, a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife.” He followed these sermons by opening whites only Christian schools. And thus a Culture War was born.
Since that time, almost every place they took a stand, they failed.
1. Segregation, not only gone, but the entire country went against them.
2. Miscegenation: same thing.
3. Abortion: still legal with a string of failures trying to make it illegal.
4. Prayer in school: Failed.
5. Creationism in school: Failed.
6. Intelligent Design in school: failed.
7. Feminism: Well they did stop the ERA, but that’s still mostly a failure.
8. Abstinence Only Education: a complete disaster.
All they have left are gay rights, and even then they are losing, and losing badly.
Victor
June 18th, 2010
The war never ends, so long as there are those who cannot abide differences, cannot resist the urge to inflict themselves upon others, cannot choose reason over fear.
Never imagine that day will come. Vigilance must be forever.
Joe Allen Doty
June 18th, 2010
There are idiots who posted on the Tulsa World website and the newson6.com website who think that “sexual orientation” means the same thing as “homosexual.”
The city Councilor who introduced the measure to add “sexual orientation” is a Republican. That was a pleasant surprise. He even said, “Every person has a sexual orientation.”
The City of Tulsa’s Human Rights Council held open Hall Meetings in the Spring of 1994 for discussion about adding those TWO words to the city charter and I attended the first one.
There was a sign up list for those who wanted to voice an opinion. I made sure my name got on there.
One person who lived inside the Tulsa City Limits pastored a church in the rural community of Berryhill signed up to speak. But, he didn’t speak as a resident of Tulsa, he spoke only as pastor of that church.
Some other pastors spoke before me, too. They even tried to claim there were no homosexual in their churches.
They were shocked later when I told them that I knew better than that a I personally knew some other wise openly gay men who attended their churches.
I am glad that they added those two words.
BobbieJane
June 18th, 2010
The culture war is not over as long as gender identity is not included. We need protection also.
Lindoro Almaviva
June 18th, 2010
Just sexual orientation? or did they go for the whole LBGT?
Mark F.
June 19th, 2010
I don’t need “protection” from people making their own free decisions. In fact, I reject such “protection.”
Gay people often boycott those who discriminate against them. But, they want to force homophobes to rent and employ them. Just what I want to do—help a homophobe make more money! Go figure.
Priya Lynn
June 19th, 2010
Mark, if you’re happy being evicted from your home or fired from your job for being gay, knock yourself out, but don’t expect any other LGBT’s to shoot themselves in the foot.
Emelye Waldherr
June 20th, 2010
Culture war over? Are you guys kidding me? Instead of discriminating because of who you love they’re just going to change their tactics to discriminating because you are too girly or masculine. This law is only going to help those gay and lesbian people that pass as straight anyway.
Non-discrimination laws that do not include gender identity/expression are worthless for anyone who doesn’t act or pass as straight. Good luck with your culture war victory!
Timothy Kincaid
June 20th, 2010
Jo Allen Doty,
I find that local level Republicans are often quite different animals than those who are in Congress. Local folk have to deal with real problems involving real people who they actually know rather than some nebulous “homosexual agenda” as presented by anti-gay activists.
I am never shocked when a local Republican is a troglodyte, but I am also now not shocked when a local Republican is an ally. Their conservatism may have to due with property taxes and the waste of city funds rather than whose life they want to control.
And thank you for adding your voice to the debate in Tulsa.
Timothy Kincaid
June 20th, 2010
Lindoro,
Just LGB. The T was too much for the Tulsa city counsel.
But history shows us that once an area gets over its fear of LGB, then often protections for T come along after. Not every time, but often enough to be hopeful.
Timothy Kincaid
June 20th, 2010
Mark F,
I too find non-discrimination laws in the private sector to be troubling. I think people should have the right to be hateful bigots.
But (and for me it’s a very big but), if you are going to have non-discrimination laws that list groups of people, then leaving off certain folk only gives governmental sanction to discriminate.
“Don’t discriminate against Hiram or Maria or Latisha but Bruce… well, we have nothing to say about discriminating against Bruce.” Bruce ain’t gettin the job.
Which is why it can seem especially frustrating for transgender folk to see sexual orientation added. It’s just further isolation as “the one person not on the protection list”
cd
June 20th, 2010
I’m a partisan liberal Democrat, but one thing I’ve learn in social issues politics is that no Party is capable of or willing to do all of the work that is needed. Republicans may end up having done only 5% or 10% of the work when all is said and done. But it’s a vital bit, even if it is small and tends to come late in the game.
I’ve also heard of a few cases, notably one in Alabama, where strong liberals putting up somewhat misleading fronts have made political careers as Republicans.
No one with much experience thinks these measures are anything like a full remedy or expects them to be enduring law. The hope is that they minimize the misdeeds perceived to be morally or financially unaffordable until the culture has changed. At which point they become extraneous.
Leave A Comment