The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, May 21
Connecticut Scouts simply announce that they are accepting gay scout leaders
Church of Scotland allows ministers in relationship
Last Minute Bid to Sink Marriage Bill Fails in British Commons
Will Illinois Be #13?
The Daily Agenda for Monday, May 20
Gay Man Shot To Death In NYC Hate Crime
The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 19
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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The Colorado Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate, Ken Buck, said in an interview on Meet the Press Sunday that he thought being gay was a “choice”:
Paul
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
It sounds as if both Ken Buck and Jeff Johnston have a choice in their own sexual preference. Perhaps they would be happier and less likely to attack others if they went along with their gay-er side.
David in Houston
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
So based on Mr. Buck’s logic, he could just as easily choose to be attracted to another man and fall in love with him. But (naturally) he has chosen not to do so. That would also make everyone a bisexual, if sexual orientation is simply a choice.
It took me 15 seconds to destroy his theory. Yet ignorant people like him (and Focus on The Family) are incapable of using reason, while clinging to their Bible to validate their homophobia. Pathetic.
lurker
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
THIS is what galls me:
“Buck married his Princeton girlfriend in 1984, a marriage that was to end in divorce a decade later.”
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Buck
His political positions are -purportedly- driven by his Christianity. The New Testament speaks out against divorce much more clearly and strongly than anything it says about homosexuality.
If he promised to love this woman in front of God, why couldn’t he just CHOOSE to continue to love her and stay married to her? After all, “you can choose who your partner is.”
lurker
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
Oh, and this too:
“Buck supported a state constitutional amendment that would give rights to unborn fetuses, but then later withdrew his support reportedly after he found out that the measure would have restricted certain fertility and contraception procedures.”
What a hypocrite. Just because a policy is inconvenient for some of the *right* people (wink, wink) shouldn’t change a strongly-held moral position for which you’d severely restrict the rights of the *wrong* people (like those shameless unwed hussies).
Rob San Diego
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
So that’s why I find I need to be drunk to have sex with another guy. That would also explain why I need to be high to have sex with my dog or dead relative. It all makes sense now.
Bernie
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
Such ignorance!
I’m voting for Bennet here in Colorado. I’m also aprising everyone I know of this man’s ignorance, and advising them to vote for Bennet as well.
Regan DuCasse
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
What IS it about straight people, that, with a straight face, will debate gay people about choosing or not?
How do they get to think they can argue or decide or declare what a gay person thinks, feels, intends or can, regardless of what the gay folks have to say about it however honestly and factually?
A person with no medical training,nor experience as a surgeon, would argue with one, can’t argue that they know more about surgery than said doctor.
So how can a person, with NO experience or understanding or in depth relationships with gay people, keep talking as if more knowledgeable about what being gay is?
Or that it’s a choice?
This is the most mind boggling and STUPIDEST thing I keep seeing over and over again.
I never tell a man what it’s like to have testicles and a man would look like an idiot lecturing me that he knows more about cramps than I do.
And yes, I tell straight people they DO look like idiots arguing in this way, for the aforementioned reasons I give.
Steve
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
This is just more of the “gay is behavior” meme, this time with a proviso that is supposed to cut the sting out of any biological basis for SSA.
They’re not saying that SSA is a choice. They acknowledged that, like alcoholism, some people may be born with a predisposition towards SSA (not him, of course). But if you have “it”, you don’t have to act on “it”…the same way you don’t have to act on your alcoholism. This is secular “love the sinner, hate the sin” sort of stuff.
Apparently, he tried to explain himself to reporters news, “I am not a biologist and I haven’t studied the issue, but that’s my opinion,” Buck said. “I wasn’t talking about being gay as a disease. I don’t think that at all and I hope that no one would be that insensitive to try to draw that…I certainly didn’t mean it that way.”
But how else can you possibly construe it? If it’s not a disease, then you’re saying it’s certainly wrong, right? And if it’s a predisposition you’re born with but shouldn’t act on, then why should “it” have civil rights protections.
And by spinning the debate this way, the Wingnuts are able to talk out every orifice of their body. “Ex-gay” is simply not doing gay stuff…you can have gay thoughts…you can even fantasize about Brad Pitt while you have your twice yearly sex with your wife…as long as you do do your wife.
Steve from Colorado
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
I sent an email to Mr. Buck asking him to provide me with the date on which he chose to be straight and why he made this all important, life changing decision at that particular time. So far no response.
Ben M
October 19th, 2010 | LINK
“as long as you do do your wife.”
Or your mistress, or luggage lifter, etc. It’s not WHO you have sex with, it is that you have a wife. And if you happen to happen to have it with a dude, make sure you still have a wife.
mikeksf
October 20th, 2010 | LINK
When I’ve had this discussion I always like the “tell me about your choice and how you made it” inquiry. It always provokes the best responses.
I’d also like to know if there’s a hetro reparative group for those who want to experience their true gay self. The counterpart of Exodus, except more fabulous and fun and liberating.
Timothy (TRiG)
October 20th, 2010 | LINK
mikeksf, Tim Minchin was looking for a group like that.
TRiG.
Richard Rush
October 20th, 2010 | LINK
mikeksf wrote,
I suspect there have been some people who, after signing up with Exodus, take one look at Randy, and say, “Oh my, I didn’t realize this was a hetero reparative group.”
Steve from Colorado
October 21st, 2010 | LINK
Ken Buck has so far refused to back down on his statements suggesting that being gay is a choice and that homosexuality is in some way akin to an addiction like alcoholism.
He is betting that his tough man stance and his unwillingness to back away from controversial statements will make him stand out among other office seekers. I believe he hopes that this type of offensive speech will portray him as a true individualist who will bring change to Washington.
He very well may appeal to many of the rednecks who inhabit Colorado. Unfortunately, there are many in this state who are afraid to voice his thoughts but fully support his point of view.
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