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
How To Spot A Swivel-Eyed Loon
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
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
What happens when the sons of two prominent conservative Republican Mormon families meet? Why, they become a cute couple, of course.
elaygee
September 15th, 2010 | LINK
What horrible families they have! drop them and get new ones
homer
September 15th, 2010 | LINK
If my memory is correct, when Matt Salmon Sr. was the editor of the student newspaper at Arizona State University in the 1980s he refused to allow the student GLBT group to publish notices of their meetings because he thought they were sinful. You sow what you reap I guess
Lucrece
September 15th, 2010 | LINK
What a hard-faced bimbo-scumbag of a sister.
She earnestly expects people to believe that calling someone a “fag” and “pedophile” didn’t come from hatred but just shock?
Maybe she didn’t know her brother because they never bothered to really listen to him, just expecting him to live up to their expectations.
I echo the advice above. That’s not family. Those are vicious strangers that he needs to excise from his life while he finds people worth the title.
Lynn David
September 15th, 2010 | LINK
About the same as Robert Gagnon when he cold-heartedy compares gay relationships to consensual incest.
Christopher™
September 15th, 2010 | LINK
They’re so cute, I hate them. :-)
You have your biological family… and then you have your logical family. Sometimes, as hard as it is, it’s best to distance yourself from your biological family (by not expecting anything from them anymore), and seek out solid, loving members of a logical family.
Here’s to them in that endeavor.
David C.
September 15th, 2010 | LINK
Time will change things. If it doesn’t, don’t look back boys. Love on.
Rob San Diego
September 15th, 2010 | LINK
A Republican is still a Republican, no matter what you call them, conservative, tea bagger, religious nut head, it’s all the same. Mind you the only RINO Republicans are the gay ones.
dave
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
It was just such a shock, because Kent seemed to change so quickly. He was different from the brother I knew for 25 years.
He didn’t change, you changed. The lies you believe changed you, your brother is still the same and is still there but you changed. You better change yourself back and get a grip on reality and start understanding and accepting it or you’ll be the one denying yourself and your brother happiness. The world made it hard for him to accept truth and reality and he did it and now it’s your turn.
Leonardo Ricardo
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Do you really think that Matt R. Salmon, ¨the Gay one¨, will ever be released from the ¨sealed¨ records of The Mormon Church? Don´t be silly, they´re just doing their silence=pressure=intimidation=fear=hate litany surface outcasting demonstrating not-so-saintly behavior…it would take an ACT OF GOD for Matt R. Salmon, ¨the Gay one¨ to escape the far-reaching behind the scenes clutches on his Soul…Gay or no Gay the Mormons have ¨plans¨ for him in the afterlife of it all no matter what the smug/void-of-real-love father and sister has to say!
GRANDSTANDING, and cowardly, Hypocrites all!
Ben Mathis
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Cute couple, shame they are log cabin republicans though.
Ben in Oakland
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Right on, David C.
As I said to my own parents 30 years ago: your beliefs aobut homosexuality and what it means to be gay are clearly far more important to you than your relationship with your son, and certainly more important that truth, fairness, compassion, or justice.
Timothy Kincaid
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Hmmm, lots of hate on here this morning. That’s unfortunate.
Here’s how I see it:
Those who read all six pages will know that already they’ve seen change in their families. Siblings are coming around and slowly backing away from their first response.
These boys have a rare opportunity – a duty, even – to present to a rather closed community an image of what gay people really are like. Decent, loving, committed gay people no different from their siblings.
Running away and shutting their parents and siblings out of their lives may be a great big “well, I’ll show you, you big ol’ bigot” but it would only hurt these young men, their families, and even our community.
The Flake and Salmon families will continue to be involved in Republican politics. They will continue to be influential in the LDS Church. But now they will do so with the full knowledge that someone they love and value – someone in their lives – is gay.
And, even more importantly, they will have as part of their lives a living example to refute the anti-gay activists whom they are used to hearing. When the Bishop comes calling with “gays don’t have real relationships”, there are Matt and Kent to show that to be a lie. When party leadership says that gays are all a bunch of radical leftists, there is Matt proving them wrong. When anti-gay initiatives are presented to them, it’s their children who are impacted.
Nothing – nothing at all – is more effective at changing attitudes and presumptions than personal relationship with gay people.
Yes it may be difficult. And some folks might take the easy way out and choose drama over hard work, but Matt and Kent seem like strong young men. I wish them all the best success.
TampaZeke
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Yeah Timothy, that’s worked really well with the LaHaye’s, Schafly’s, Keyes’ and Diaz Sr.’s.
Emily K
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Tim, it sounds like by staying IN the family they’re choosing drama. Exiting would simply sever the relationship. No relationship, no drama.
darkmoonman
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
“A lot of things were said in the beginning that caused contention. It’s really important to me that people know there’s no hatred there.”
Uh huh, and my butt chews bubblegum.
“It was just such a shock, because Kent seemed to change so quickly. He was different from the brother I knew for 25 years. We felt like we’d lost our brother, in a sense, and Matt got some of the blame.
No, dearie, he stopped pretending to be what you and your oppressive family demanded that he be, and became his true self.
Lucrece
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Tim, I agree that just storming off like a teenager might not be the best strategy.
But would you stand around someone who would call your boy a “fag” or “pedophile”? I know I’d deck them without hesitance and refuse to be a punching bag until they get around.
There are ways to maintain a relationship without needing to let others trample your dignity.
And the article still mentioned that none of the siblings added him back to Facebook. In fact, I was shocked even his SISTERS were so venomous. Brothers, wouldn’t shock me much. But coming from sisters, it really surprises me.
Todd
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Timothy,
I agree with your assessment, I went through much of the same responses from my Mormon family when I came out. It would be easy for me to just cut them off, but I feel a responsibility to let them see that I really haven’t changed and if anything, I am so much happier now.
It is hard to go to family functions, and one of my brothers said much the same thing about not wanting me around his kids. He hasn’t spoken to me in over two years, but I will persist and will not be the reason I no longer have contact with my family. If they end contact I will accept it, but until then I will stay in involved as I can.
Cal
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
So, the world is still listening to a chosen few grey haired, impotent, non-sexual old Mormon Elders, passing lifetime and forever judgement on their boys. “When will they ever learn, oh when will they ever…learn?”
Must be the Mormons spend an inordinate amount of their time, discussing, dissecting, rationalizing, particulating, judging, and supposing on the behavior of their youth. Don’t you bigots have anything better to do? Say, like deciding to keep your fingers out of the till to pay for influencing votes about Prop 8 in California, and the inevitable fall out of your SINS to Man. Remember, Mormons are NOT Christians.
Richard Rush
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Todd said, “It is hard to go to family functions, and one of my brothers said much the same thing about not wanting me around his kids.”
Every time I hear about this kind of reaction (“don’t get near my kids”), I wonder if the speaker is really so ignorant that they believe their kids will catch the gay the same way they may catch a cold, and/or if they think that a gay person is much more likely to molest their kids than a straight person. OR, is it just said as a way of hurting the gay person?
Mihangel apYrs
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Timothy K
you seem willing to sacrifice these boys’ future together to try and educate the straights. Be certain: the strain of their families’ homophobia could tear them apart; why risk that to make a point?
You wait for THEM to crawl back, you don’t accommodate their prejudices in case you alienate the very persin you want them to welcome: life is a one-off deal, few second chances
CLS
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Some clarity in this piece would help. Flake is the cousin of Congressman Jeff Flake. Since how he is related is not mentioned it is easily assumed, as I originally did, that he is the son of the congressman. It took reading the original to make his relationship clear.
Timothy Kincaid
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Todd,
I commend you for your hard work. Even if your family fails you, remember you have nephews and nieces and your example will go a long way to refuting whatever it is that their parents are telling them.
Of course only you can decide how much is too much, but for now, thank you for making my future a more tolerant place.
Other Fred in the UK
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
To those who suggest that Salmon and Flake cut themselves off from their families, I would simply remind you that blood is thicker than water.
DN
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
The article reads like my ex-boyfriend’s life in a lot of ways. He was raised Jehovah’s Witness, and a few months into our relationship, his sister got married. He was allowed to attend a the ceremony, but only one part of it, and in the back of the Hall, *and* was not invited to the reception at all. It took place a couple hours out of town and the drive there and back felt more like a funeral than a wedding.
And despite the damage his family did to him, my ex still loves them and is still waiting for them to come back to him. Today, as ten years ago, I am not that strong a person. I was lucky to have never faced any antagonism from my immediate family, but there are aunts and uncles that I have chopped right out of my life and I don’t give a fat, flying eff if they ever come around. These guys are a model for how to behave when your family shuns you.
Regan DuCasse
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Well, whatev.
If they are up for adoption, they could do worse than this tall, broad shouldered big mouthed black woman.
Richard Rush, I think it’s all three brother. The way I’m seeing the anti gay work, they cover ALL the bases of ways to hurt, dehumanize, demoralize, humiliate confound and cynically in any and every way they can.
Then stand back and point a finger if you dare to, you know, show that hurt, dehumanization, demoralization, humiliation, and so on.
People like this are the biggest cowards I’ve ever seen. No spine at all.
Not even CURIOUS that they might not know all that there is. And the opportunity to really know is right there in front of them.
I wish this young couple luck.
Jim Burroway
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Really? Timothy is not deciding what Kent and Matt ought to do, it’s Kent and Matt doing it. Timothy’s just defending their decision.
In fact, we all have had to decide how to deal with our families. And as each of us know our own family members better than anyone on an internet discussion list, and each of us know better our own capacity to deal with adversity from different family members, we all make decisions, adjustments, accomodations, and/or cut off contact accordingly. These are deeply personal decisions that we all make, revisit, and make again, often continually. No one has the right to second guess them. One size doesn’t fit all.
Best wishes to Matt and Kent. I’m glad they decided to make their stories public.
MIhangel apYrs
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
Jim Burroway,
Timothy wrote:
“These boys have a rare opportunity – a duty, even – to present to a rather closed community an image of what gay people really are like. Decent, loving, committed gay people no different from their siblings.”
The operative words “a duty”. That suggests that Timothy thinks these two young men have an obligation to put up with shit to educate their families on behalf of the rest of us.
I neither see, nor expect, such sacrifice
MIhangel apYrs
September 16th, 2010 | LINK
that should have been
“I neither see the need for, nor expect…
Leave A Comment