Box Turtle Bulletin

What You Didn’t See On CNN’s “The Sissy Boy Experiment”

Make no mistake about it, CNN’s riveting documentary is well worth watching. And I don’t mean for this post to be a criticism of their excellent coverage. But when you’re dealing with the kind of time constraints that come with television, the story winds up being streamlined and important information goes missing. That’s just the nature of the medium.

For example, Anderson Cooper, as narrator, says this:

Mrs. Murphy says she saw a psychologist on a local TV program talking about behavior like Kirk’s.

and

The psychologist was recruiting young boys for a government-funded program at UCLA…

The psychologist remained unnamed throughout the entire report, but in the Murphy family’s understanding of Kirk’s therapy, that unnamed psychologist, the very prominent and well-respected Dr. Richard Green, was a central figure in their experience. In fact, Kaytee, Kirk’s mother, didn’t even know who George Rekers was when I first mentioned him during our first interview. It was Green she saw on that television program, listing the characteristics that parents should be worried about and recruiting young boys for the federally-funded program. Kaytee thought Kirk’s care was under Green’s direction, and that Rekers was just a “college aide.” She has good reason to believe that; Rekers was only twenty-two years old when Kirk was being treated, having just earned his bachelor’s degree from Westmont College in Santa Barbara just a few months earlier. Was Rekers really given that much freedom over Kirk’s treatment?

This is the kind of information you will find in our full report, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?“. To understand better the question (if not the answer) of who oversaw Kirk’s treatment, check out our epilogue, “Cuius Culpa?”

And don’t forget to tune in tonight for the second installment of CNN’s “The Sissy Boy Experiment,” on Anderson Cooper 360 beginning at 10:00 p.m. EDT.

No that is NOT Kirk in a dress

Maris in her pink dress (Photo courtesy of Maris)

In CNN’s teaser and on the live broadcast last night, when discussing Kirk’s effeminacy, a picture of a child in a frilly dress floated by. London’s Daily Mail presented the picture with the descriptive footer: “His mother says she was concerned about his effeminate behaviour, which included liking girls’ clothes.”

This gave the distinct but false impression that Kirk was the child in the dress. But the picture is not of Kirk; it is of his sister Maris. However this picture is valuable to the family as it illustrates Kirk’s character and selflessness. See the importance of this dress at Maris’ Eulogy

CNN’s Sissy Boy Experiment – Day One

Here is the CNN coverage of Kirk Murphy’s story
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

WE’RE BACK ONLINE

Welcome to those joining us from CNN or from other links. Many of you are here to read the details of our investigation into Kirk Murphy’s life and you can find the report here. We invite you to stay and join the BTB community.

As many of you know, Box Turtle Bulletin has been down for the past several hours. Although moved to a dedicated server, the traffic was in excess of our capabilities. While this has been extremely frustrating to us, it is also testament of the importance of Kirk Murphy’s story.

Thank you for your patience.

Follow-up On Rekers’s Rentboy Scandal and UCLA Therapy Program

Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp, the two Miami New Times reporters who first broke George Rekers’s rent-boy scandal have posted an update on CNN.com, where they are working as freelance reporters on the Kirk Murphy story. I may have missed it, but among the new tidbits that I hadn’t seen before is the contract that Rekers’s allegedly signed with his male escort outlining his duties during that famous European vacation. The first delineated task in the contract does indeed cal on the escort the carry “the suitcases of George Rekers and any other objects when George Rekers request such assistance.” But the fourth item requires the escort tp “provide George Rekers a massage for at least one hour each day of the trip in their shared room, using the same procedures that [redacted] provides to George Rekers in Florida.”

Bullock and Thorp go on to describe how they came to find out about the Murphy family, an account which is very similar to how I found out about them. For my part, it all started with this comment Maris left on BTB right after she found out that Kirk had been the subject of Richard Green’s book and George Rekers’s papers. Bullock and Thorp also want to hear from anyone else who underwent treatment at UCLA or elsewhere:

We now know the fate of Kraig. But what became of the dozens of other children upon whom Rekers conducted his experimental therapy?

What became of “Becky,” a 7-year-old girl with purported tomboy tendencies, who underwent 102 “monitoring” sessions in a lab and a further 96 in her bedroom?

Rekers deemed Becky cured when she became “enamored with the (adult) male examiner and wanted to give him her phone number so that he could call her ‘every night and every day.’ ”

And what of “Carl,” an 8-year-old treated at UCLA for 15 months, whose “sex-role development” was thought to have been “normalized” when he declared that he “used to be a queer, but not any more.”

iReport: Did you participate in similar research?

The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, June 8

TODAY’S AGENDA:
The Sissy Boy Experiment: CNN. Tonight’s Anderson Cooper 360 will air the second part of their three-part series, “The Sissy Boy Experiment: Uncovering the Truth.” This series is the result of several month’s of investigating the truth behind the UCLA program to turn effeminate boys into straight men. (For full disclosure, I was interviewed by CNN as part of their investigation, although I doubt that my interview will make it on air.) If you haven’t done so already, you can read up about it in our report, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?” AC360 starts at 10:00 p.m. EDT. The timing of this special investigative report is perfect because…

Exodus International “Freedom Conference”: Ridgecrest, NC. That’s right. As the world learns the true story behind ex-gay therapist George Rekers’s most famous patient, North America’s largest ex-gay ministry kicks off the gayest event in the greater Asheville area today. This year’s theme, “The Reality of Grace,” is puzzling, considering the true reality of what comes out of the ex-gay experience for so many people. This annual conference is Exodus International’s flagship event of the year, and it draws hundreds of participants from all across North American and other parts of the world. But Exodus won’t have the last word in North Carolina because…

The Reality of Will and Grace: A Refutation of the Ex-Gay Movement: Asheville, NC. This counter-conference begins today with the opening of an exhibit at Tressa’s, 28 Broadway, Asheville at 5:30 p.m. Then at 7:00 p.m. at Tressa’s, Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen joins Asheville city councilman and congressional candidate Cecil Bothwellon for a discussion of the religious right and the ex-gay movement. Given recent revelations, they should have plenty to talk about. The counter-conference runs through Saturday.

Premiere of “OUT In America”: PBS. Emmy award-winning director Andrew Goldberg, in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting, will premiere the new PBS special, OUT in America. It features interviews with Armistead Maupin, Chely Wright, Andy Cohen, Kate Clinton, Rev. Peter Gomes, among many others as they explore the many ways of being gay and/or transgender today and in the past. Not all PBS stations are carrying this special, so check your local listings.

EQCA Town Hall: Sacramento, CA. Equality California will host a “Back to the Ballot?” Town hall meetingin Sacramento discuss whether we should wait for the courts to restore the freedom to marry — a decision which could have a nationwide impact — or whether Californians should try to overturn Prop. 8 through a ballot measure in 2012. The town hall will take place this evening at the Sierra 2 Center for the Arts and Community, 2791 24th Street, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

UNAIDS 2011 High Level Meeting: New York. Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, and 10 years since the landmark UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, the world will come together to review progress and chart the future course of the global AIDS response at the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS. Member States are expected to adopt a new Declaration that will reaffirm current commitments and commit to actions to guide and sustain the global AIDS response.

Pride Celebrations This Week: Albany, NY; Albuquerque, NM; Blackpool, UK; Boston, MA; Brisbane, QLD; Brooklyn, NY; Des Moines, IA; Edmonton, AB; El Paso, TX; Erie, PA; Key West, FL; Long Island, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Milwaukee, WI; Newark-Essex, NJ; Olympia, WA; Oxford, UK; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Rome (Europride); San Antonio, TX; Saskatoon, SK; Shreveport, LA; Spokane, WA; Talin, Estonia (Baltic Pride); Tel Aviv, Israel (Friday); Thunder Bay, ON; Tulsa, OK and Washington, DC.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Florida Bans Gay Marriage and Adoption: 1977. Florida’s gay community took a triple whammy today. On the very day after Miami voters overwhelmingly sided with Anita Bryant to rescind that county’s anti-discrimination ordinance, Florida governor Reubin Askew signed into law two anti-gay measures. The first one banned same-sex marriage and the second one banned gay adults from adopting. State Sen. Curtis Peterson, (D-Eaton Park) sponsored the measures, and said that the new laws tell homosexuals “We are tired of you and wish you would go back in the closet.” He continued, “The problem in Florida is that homosexuals are surfacing to such an extent that they are infringing on average, normal people who have a few rights, too.” The bills sailed through the legislature with little opposition and became effective immediately upon Askew’s signing.

In 2008, Florida voters made same-sex marriage even more illegaler when they passed Amendment 2. In 2010,  a Florida appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found the adoption ban unconstitutional.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).