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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Christopher Eberz
August 19th, 2010 | LINK
“Come out, come out wherever you are”
Richard Rush
August 19th, 2010 | LINK
Timothy, in your first sentence, didn’t you mean to say,
“a poll of
MaineRhode Island residents?”F Young
August 19th, 2010 | LINK
“Greenburg Quinlan Rosler has conducted a poll of MAINE residents…”
This must be a mistake.
“…it does not appear to be conducted in a way that would provide significantly invalid results.”
I have no particular qualifications regarding polling, but I personally think that any poll on LGB issues that is done with human callers will overestimate support for LGB’s.
I think polls done by robot callers produce lower and more accurate results because respondents are not as embarassed expressing their true opinions when they deal with anomymous computers.
This particular poll seems to go out of its way to create empathy between the caller and respondent, by asking about warm and cold feelings, and by using the first person. So, I suspect that it overestimates support more than most.
F Young
TampaZeke
August 19th, 2010 | LINK
I think the first thing to question would why they would poll Maine residents to gauge the opinions of Rhode Islanders. :)
Other Fred in the UK
August 20th, 2010 | LINK
Forgive me for being stupid, but surely highlighting the religious exemption merely causes respondents who might oppose such a bill because of misinformation or concerns about religious liberty to favour such a bill. The difference in results between this question and one that did not mention the religious exemption would be due to a lack of factual information known to respondents to the latter. Surely, the question including the mention of the religious exemption gives a ‘truer’ picture of peoples feelings on the matter?
Elliot
August 20th, 2010 | LINK
I’d be interested to see a graph that shows how the people who personally knew someone who is gay fared as opposed to those who did not.
Jon
August 20th, 2010 | LINK
If you look later on, they ask first “do you favor or oppose gay marriage.” Then they explain the religious exemption and ask again. The support number increases significantly with the explanation. But even before that, there’s still a majority in support.
What’s most important to me is that of the 79% that know a gay/lesbian person, 81% know a g/l couple, and 78% know 4 or more g/l people. And for 56%, the g/l person they know best is a close friend or member of their family. Rhode Island is a small state, where everybody knows everybody. For a long time, that seemed to hold gay equality back, because it made it harder for people to come out — if everybody knows everybody, then everybody knows your parents. But then it reached a tipping point, where enough people were out and living perfectly happy lives — it got to be that because everybody knows everybody, everybody knew someone who was gay. And we’ve known for a very long time that knowing a gay/lesbian person is the single factor that makes people more likely to support equality.
I haven’t lived there in a while, but I love Rhode Island.
TampaZeke
August 20th, 2010 | LINK
It’s just a shame that American’s are too uninformed about the Constitution and past practice to not understand that there has ALWAYS been and will ALWAYS continue to be a religious exemption to performing ANY marriage.
NO religion and NO religious leader has EVER been forced, by the government, to marry ANY two people that they didn’t want to.
I challenge anyone to provide a single example that proves this statement wrong.
justsearching
August 20th, 2010 | LINK
Who wants to think of themselves as cold or unfavorable? They should have had more neutral terms like “approve” and “disapprove.” I don’t think those results show much that we didn’t already know.
Timothy Kincaid
August 20th, 2010 | LINK
“Maine” error fixed.
Tony P
August 21st, 2010 | LINK
I got the phone call with this survey so of course you already know how I answered.
I’m curious how they did their sampling.
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