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The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, May 21
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Straight From The Source: What the “Dutch Study” Really Says About Gay Couples
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Review: The Gay Report
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News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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GreenEyedLilo
April 6th, 2011 | LINK
How cool! To think, some modern people’s attitudes on gender and sexuality have apparently de-volved since caveman days. I apologize to our Neanderthal ancestors for every time I took their name in vain regarding anti-LGBT people.
Hyhybt
April 6th, 2011 | LINK
“…exceptions to very rigid gender rules suggest a knowledge of divergence and perhaps even an acceptance.”—-Perhaps… or perhaps it was done as a final insult, simply calling the deceased a woman.
Donny D.
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
That’s assuming that neolithic group would have considered it an insult to say a man was like a woman. As far as I know, it can’t be assumed that people back then operated according to the femiphobic male supremacism that we’re saddled with now.
jutta
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
Commentators at Joe.my.god have rightly remarked that “caveman” it not a correct description of a person living in late neolithic or early bronze age. People started to settle and live on agriculture in that period. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corded_ware
jutta
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
PS: I love your term “gender challenging” and I’m thinking hard to find a German term that translates the idea.
dave
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
They were probably accepted then because there was no ORGANIZED RELIGION, GOD to perverse peoples thinking on reality.
Graham
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
Fred and Barney would be such a cute couple.
enough already
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
Jutta,
wie wär’s mit:
Geschlechterrollen ohne gesellschäftlicher Zwang um- und neudefinieren?
Just a thought – I suspect the pre-those Christians who hate us world tended to judge a person’s value on other criteria than their gender or sexuality.
Scott
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
being gay: so easy, even a caveman can do it!
Timothy Kincaid
April 7th, 2011 | LINK
jutta,
Thanks for the correction about “caveman”.
But… I suspect there was organized religion of some sort; that does appear to be a constant across culture and time. And cultures with rigid burial customs tend to have some beliefs about afterlife.
Hyhybt makes a good point that this could have been insult instead of acceptance. However, were that so, it would be more likely that the ‘mockery’ aspect of the burial would not have included the respectful placing of pots or they would have been misshaped or broken. Of course we are both speculating.
Hunter
April 8th, 2011 | LINK
From what we know of early religions outside the Middle East, I doubt very much we’re talking about “organized” religion as we understand the term. There was probably a priest or shaman or some member of the community who interceded with the spirit world on behalf of his or her fellows, but we’re not going to find an organized priesthood or much in the way of dogma or doctrine. Aside from the communal seasonal festivals that would mark an agricultural society, religious practice seems to have been pretty much ad hoc.
The idea that this burial marks an “insult” is also an outlier. From what we know of the berdache of North America and similar institutions in other cultures, the possibilities range from matter-of-fact acceptance to a special and respected role for the gender-ambivalent in the community. I think calling this an insult reveals more about our own attitudes than anything prevalent in the culture this man came from.
Hyhybt
April 8th, 2011 | LINK
Lately, for some reason, whenever I say something *might be*, somebody always seems to want to read that as saying that it *is.* I didn’t call it an insult, only raised the possibility that it *could* have been one.
Ana
April 10th, 2011 | LINK
LOL so easy a cave man an do it LOL..
Now however i think the misogyny is profound in the comments. Really a INSULT to be a Woman ? Seriously ? Ojeeze boys enough of the penis worship..
This Society View of this person who’s gender is assumed to be male , no chromosomal testing has been done to show it was a man. Many women and inter sexed individuals have narrow hips its only a general observation that narrow hips = males its not absolute..
But this society who had strict burial guidelines they adhered to ..
‘VIEWED THIS PERSON AS FEMALE BY HONORING THEM AS THEY WERE OR PRESENTED TO THE SOCIETY AS FEMALE.’ And to claim this person as gay as evidence of gay being since time began when it is obvious they were T at the very least if not a natal born female with narrow pelvis bones..
If you wont give the person the credit you should atleast see what the society imparted with the burial .. and to conjecture that it was a punish to be buried a woman is well BS
enough already
April 11th, 2011 | LINK
Ana,
Every single one of us is limited by his or her cultural perspectives.
As a gay man, I am, of course, overjoyed as my first impulse to see “evidence” that we weren’t always persecuted for who we are.
Your arguments have validity. I don’t know that this person was cis- or transgender or intersexed. I don’t know whether this person was gay or straight. I don’t know whether they considered themselves to have been male or female both or neither.
It will be interesting to learn more.
I don’t usually waste one nanosecond on political correctness. The goal is not to lesson unfairness but to attack using a weapon which is acceptable. In this case, however, I see your point. I wouldn’t have called everything stated misogyny. The assumption that being called a woman has been an insult forever in our species is, however, deeply misogynist.
Hyhybt
April 11th, 2011 | LINK
It’s also generally insulting to call a woman “manly.” Does that mean men are inferior?
enough already
April 11th, 2011 | LINK
Hyhybt,
Same class of insult, just not as nasty at first glance.
It, of course, makes no reference to us men as inferior, rather it means a woman has been so uppity as to put on masculine airs.
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