Arizona group to put marriage back on ballot
Exodus International Issues Apology, Hints At Further Developments Tonight
Ex-Gay Leader Sentenced For Criminal Sexual Assault of Male Clients
Andrew Comiskey Doesn't Believe In Apologies
Murkowski makes three
Massachusetts GOP Senate Candidate goes to Pride
The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, June 19
Another Exodus Conference Is Upon Us. Let's Review.
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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Tara TASW
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
Joseph Nicolosi has also claimed to “treat” children as young as three that he deemed in danger of growing up GLBT.
It’s the perfect con: convince gullible parents to shell out for this nonsense therapy, knowing there’s a 90% chance that any given child will grow up straight and you can claim success. If not, well, you’re long gone with the money anyway.
Bruce Garrett
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
“He was conditioned to say what they wanted to hear”…
They say this is the only thing torture ever really accomplishes…conditioning prisoners simply to tell their torturers what they want to hear…
Theo
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
Jim:
I am just about to dive into your report. However, can you clear something up? Were you working on this in conjunction with CNN or is it coincidental that CNN is coming out with their coverage at the same time that your report is coming out?
If you were working together with CNN, I would hope that they would give you some real credit and airtime.
Anyway, thanks for the amazing work you put into this blog. It is this kind of sharp, original research – along with your in-depth analytical pieces – that make BTB unique in the gay blogosphere. There really is nothing else out there like BTB. You and Tim should be very proud of what you are doing here.
Jim Burroway
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
My investigation and CNN’s investigation were independent efforts. It just so happened that we both learned about this story at about the same time. In December, they came out to interview me in my home. In that process, we shared a little bit of information and provided them copies of Rekers’s papers, but their work is substantially independent from mine and vice versa.
For example, according to the preview, Kaytee admitted that Kirk was effeminate. I was never able to get her to say that to me, and so that particular admission doesn’t appear in my piece. However it’s not at all difficult to read it between the lines. This was a very emotionally draining process for Kaytee and she really deserves a lot of credit for her courage.
In the six months since then, they (and I) developed far more information than what either of us had then. I doubt that I will get any airtime since I am not a principal to the story.
I know the broad outlines of what CNN’s three-part series consists of, but other than that, I am as eager to see it as everyone else. Set your DVR’s….
Ahab
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
Rekers undoubtedly deserves blame for his quackery, but Kirk’s parents deserve blame as well for subjecting the boy to such trauma. CNN described their supposedly “therapeutic” treatment of Kirk in harrowing detail.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/07/sissy.boy.experiment/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1
Ahab
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
This whole situation is tragic. Rekers undoubtedly deserves blame for his quackery, but Kirk’s parents deserve blame as well for subjecting the boy to such trauma. CNN described their supposedly “therapeutic” treatment of Kirk in harrowing detail.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/07/sissy.boy.experiment/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1
ScottLanter
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
I wonder if CNN contacted Rekers’ fellow researcher who is named in the pdf “O. Ivar Lovaas”: http://www.lovaas.com/lovaasnote.php
Also, there is a bizarre element that Anderson is talking about research into sexual orientation and gender identity when he personally insists that for homosexual only, it should remain a private and secretive issue. That is some wacked out cognitive dissonance. Not as creepy as Rekers, but creepy nonethless.
Brian
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
Jim, thanks so much for your research and reporting on this.
Zoe Brain
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
And Dr Kenneth Zucker in Canada is doing much the same thing to “effeminate boys” today. To try to prevent them from becoming transsexual, and accept that they’re gay.
The results appear the same too. Children who have anxiety attacks when they see the colour pink. “Successes” who have attempted suicide before age 20, or dived into pill or booze bottles.
Zucker’s methods are nowhere near as brutal: he’s not the monster Rekers is. But the trauma appears much the same.
Ray
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
Painful story for me to read. It’s not far distant from my own experience and I just can’t articulate the surreal similarities this evokes.
Tone
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
That poor child was mentally and physically abused, horrendously so, and apparently at Rekers’ direction. For him to say that the years of abuse had no negative impact just further illustrates what a cold remorseless monster he is. I’m gratified imagining him burning in the electric chair for what he did to that boy.
Matt
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
@ScottLanter
I am still reading Jim’s report, but I did read that Lovaas died last year.
ScottLanter
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
Your right, Lovaas died – here is the news report: http://www.mynews4.com/story.php?id=24495&n=122
It’s fascinating that the Lovaas patient they interview appears to be a young gay boy. It is also undeniable that Lovaas looks very much like Rekers and raises the question of were they lovers when they performed the original experiments on Kirk.
Jake
June 7th, 2011 | LINK
What the heck? Only 10 minutes for the first part on CNN? I was expecting an hour long special!
eugene
June 10th, 2011 | LINK
Back in the 60′s my parents took me to CalState/Pomona for evaluations and possible treatment. In the first session it was suggested to me that my problems were my fault. I told my mother I hated that guy and would not go willingly again. They tried one more time with a private institute. Their conclusion-your son will most likely be gay. We went home and that was the last time my parents tried get help, I think it scared them that the therapists angered me so much. Thank the Universe it gave the temper from hell;-)
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