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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Rob
June 17th, 2011 | LINK
I absolutely love the acronym for Public Opinion Strategies. POS is pretty accurate. (And I’m not referring to “Point Of Sale.”)
Ben In Oakland
June 17th, 2011 | LINK
They are beyond embarassment.
Or irony.
Tom O\'Connor
June 17th, 2011 | LINK
Gays themselves aren’t interested in marriage. In the places where they can do it, very few do.
PJB863
June 17th, 2011 | LINK
When you’re dealing with mainstream publications, Tim, you’re absolutely right. However, when you take that detour off into lunatic-fringeland, these things do get noticed. This was on the website of our local hate group (as certified by the SPLC), the Illinois Family Institute as of today: http://illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=35314. Groups like IFI and others tend to exist in an alternative reality, where hard facts and metholodigies are a very minor consideration. It’s the conclusion that counts, no matter how convoluted the logic used to arrive at it.
Now that IFI has published this on its website, LaBarbera will likely pick up on this, because he’s a buddy of theirs. Also, the new group, the Illinois Defense of Marriage Initiative will also pick up and parrot this “survey,” as they try to place an advisory marriage referendum on a statewide ballot.
Sooner or later, a reporter working at one of the mainstream publications will neglect to do his/her homework, and publish the results of this survey without checking the facts as you have done. It may not happen for weeks or even months, but it will happen and suddenly, the ADF survey will gain some measure of credibility by being cited by the Chicago Tribune or the Sun-Times or some other publication.
enough already
June 17th, 2011 | LINK
Good point, PJB863.
Everytime I look at that absurd literature review out of California which is now cited everywhere to show that we are only 3.5% of the population (or was it 2% or was it 4% or was it???) I am reminded of just how few people actually understand anything about statistical analysis.
When I read about such bald-faced lies, I am reminded of the following:
Prov 14:5
5 A faithful witness will not lie, But a false witness speaks lies.
Guess that doesn’t apply when you are fighting for “Christian” values.
Timothy Kincaid
June 17th, 2011 | LINK
Tom,
Not all gay people are interested in marriage. Some are, some aren’t.
But we don’t base civil rights on the number of people who will utilize them.
We don’t look at the buses to see whether black folk are riding in the front or the back. We don’t quiz Jews on just how many are wearing yarmelkes. We don’t ask how many women really want to be corporate executives. Rather we remove barriers to freedom and allow people to live how they see fit.
Or, rather, that’s what lovers of freedom and equality do. Folks who hate freedom and equality look for excuses to deny it to people.
Regan DuCasse
June 17th, 2011 | LINK
I remember how Lou Sheldon and his daughter would grumble at what they thought were tax payer funded research and studies on gay people.
Then they challenged the veracity of privately funded research of the same.
Then they asserted that THEIR studies were the most accurate and truthful ones. Which actually weren’t contemporary, comparative studies or research of a broad or lengthy sampling, but in fact selective cut and paste jobs on research that had been done decades ago on a sampling that consisted of gay men who’d been institutionalized.
Because they, in no way, would want to fund any comprehensive studies at all.
The TVC AND FoTF however, took these suspect findings and reported them very differently and out of context to the subject.
Similar to how this poll is reported by ADF, there is no breakdown of subjects they asked by gender or age or ethnicity. Nor a list of the questions they asked.
I think considering that the ADF AND TVC have been resentful of whatever expense has been utilized for research into how discrimination impacts gay lives, or how gay people live DESPITE discrimination.
The ADF likes to think of themselves as impacted and victimized negatively by gay people.
It would be pretty difficult to manufacture evidence of that, where there is none. Hence, lying would have to substitute.
But they wouldn’t want to spend the money, and invest the time in the sorts of effective research or polling that would come closer to more accurate results.
Priya Lynn
June 18th, 2011 | LINK
Tom said “Gays themselves aren’t interested in marriage. In the places where they can do it, very few do.”.
Not true. In the few months gays were allowed to marry over 18000 couples did so.
As is typical of anti-gays you make up whatever story supports your viewpoint and pretend its the truth.
Kate
June 19th, 2011 | LINK
PJB863, thanks for the link to those lovely folks at the IFI…what a red white and blue bunch of bullshit that was!
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