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
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Bexar County (San Antonio) Democratic Party Chair and yesterday’s LaBarbera Award winner Dan Ramos held a news conference this morning to announce that he was not resigning over comments he made last week likening gay people to “the “f*cking Nazi Party.” Not only that, but Ramos doubled down:
patrick
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
He is from Texas. Nuf said.
Timothy Kincaid
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
Wow… this guy really sees everything through the prism of his ethic identity, doesn’t he. He thinks blacks are citizens (begrudgingly) and “white” is an insult.
Erin
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
He seems to think gay people are only white. Hmm.
enough already
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
This is the face of our enemy.
We must not permit the Democratic party to get away with this.
For too long, they have treated us like dirt because they thought we were only 3% of the population and thus not worth fighting for.
Now that we have some inertia behind us, now that we have hard statistics behind us (8-11% of the voting population, never mind our parents and loved ones, one-third of us voted rethuglican or teabagger or sat on our hands in protest in 2010) it is time to hit the Democrats and to hit them hard.
Stand for us or lose us. They need us. Without us, they can’t win in 2012. Time to push them and push them hard to fight for our civil and human rights.
Andrew
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
Umm, enough, we are not now nor have we ever been 8-11% of the voting population. Unless you can point me to some new research I missed. In most cases, the 10% number appears to be plain wrong and the result of errant science reporting.
enough already
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
Um, Andrew, I am making one assumption – I am assuming that gays, lesbians and the transgender over the age of 17 vote.
Now, what you are really asking is how I should return to the percentage which Americans used to recognize and which most of the civilized world still recognizes.
Fair question.
I won’t vouch for this website, but their data summaries are accurate:
http://www.avert.org/gay-people.htm
Now, obviously, I could point to the ancient Kinsey studies and say 37%, or the later studies and cut that by 2/3, or the current French studies cited in Wikipedia (which has a strong anti-gay bias) and admit 4.7% or the christian studies of Conservapedia which suggest less than 1/10 of 1%…
But I’ll go with the average of the current western studies which is roughly 10%, counting gays, lesbians and the transgender. I leave bisexuals out. Were we to include them, it would be more.
Are you asking out of genuine doubt or curiosity? If you are under 40, you probably grew up with the long since discredited 3% studies.
Why don’t you provide some data backing up your doubts?
Kevin
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
I don’t want to equivocate, because the differences on gay issues between the Dems and GOP are huge…and much to the favor of the Dems, BUT if a Repub had said this, he would have been hounded out of the party forthwith. Where is the outrage?
mike
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
#1 that data is only those who REPORT as having gay contact nothing more
#2 it does NOT include all of the voters who do support our cause that are straight or celebate
#3 “The 2000 census” is the data they site under their number of homosexuals in America section
#4 “So, if we accept that the data presented by the Human Rights Commission is indeed indicative of the real numbers, then it shows that the census data is only showing up a small percentage of the actual number of gay people living in America.” meaning since 2000 a REAL study has YET to be conducted and until then every time 10%-13% is the same scientifically as claiming the HIV doesn’t directly lead to AIDS.
Kevin
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
I think Dan’s a bit sensitive, because “Dan Ramos” is an anagram of “A man’s rod!”
enough already
March 17th, 2011 | LINK
Kevin,
That explains a lot – he is quite short.
Just sayin’…
John
March 18th, 2011 | LINK
Isn’t there a way to fire him or vote him out of his position? He mostly certainly does not express Democrat ideals or positions. He’s worse than a Blue Dog Democrat. It’s like he’s a Tea Party Democrat. Even if he is Texan, that doesn’t excuse him. Texas has had some really good Democrats, ie former Gov. Richardson.
Timothy Kincaid
March 18th, 2011 | LINK
enough already,
The three ways to quantify sexual orientation are to look at those who identify as being gay, those who predominantly experience same-sex attraction, or those who engage in same-sex behavior. Interestingly, the best data shows that these three methods generally overlap to such an extent that the numbers come out pretty closely the same.
So I am comfortable in saying that the percentage of gay and bisexual Americans is roughly 4% of the population. This is a slightly conservative estimate, but it does not serve our purposes to claim the closet as part of our community’s voting influence (the opposite is more likely).
My analysis was in the context of identifying the rate of gay male HIV infection (12%) and was based on the Centers for Disease Control’s extensive study. You can read it here.
Interestingly, the CDC has finally come up with a number and they are also using 4%. They also came to roughly the same conclusions on infection rate (11.8%).
But as for the question as to what percentage we are of the voting population, we need not estimate, speculate, or guess. CNN exit polls report that the percentage of voters who identify as gay (and for the purposes of political clout this is the relevant number) have pretty consistently been 3 to 4 percent of voters.
Mark F.
March 23rd, 2011 | LINK
Yes, 4% seems about right, more or less.
F Young
April 6th, 2011 | LINK
“But as for the question as to what percentage we are of the voting population, we need not estimate, speculate, or guess. CNN exit polls report that the percentage of voters who identify as gay (and for the purposes of political clout this is the relevant number) have pretty consistently been 3 to 4 percent of voters.”
I disagree. I think the exit polls are actually proof that gays are MORE than 3 – 4 % of the voting public. The 3 – 4 % are those who are out to complete strangers who interview them in a public space. They exclude closeted gays.
The 3 – 4 % CAN ONLY BE THE TRUE if closeted gays never vote, or their vote doesn’t count.
I don’t think it is safe to assume that closeted gays, such as those that now serve in the US military, vote more like straights than they vote like open gays. Admittedly, that is a hard thing to prove.
F Young
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