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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New York statesman and freshman state Senator Mark Grisanti ( (R-Erie and Niagara Co), who eloquently described why he supported that state’s marriage quality law even though he campaigned against in in 2010, is taking withering flack –his local hometown paper describes them as “withering body blows” –from conservatives and fellow members of the Republican party:
TampaZeke
June 28th, 2011 | LINK
He may be a statesman and a good guy on the marriage vote but he doesn’t seem to have a consistent and reliable moral compass. He seems to change positions every time the wind blows. Democrat? Republican? Pro-equality? Anti-Equality? Which way is the wind blowing?
David Roberts
June 28th, 2011 | LINK
The acceleration of the debasement of the GOP is just incredible. I’m amazed that I was ever a member. There really is nothing left to redeem them.
Jim Burroway
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
I guess some people would rather others remain predictably and reliably rooted in ignorance rather than being allowed to become “wiser today than yesterday,” as he put it:
Growth and change is what we celebrate everyone someone recognizes they were wrong. It utterly baffles me to no end to see people do what we want them to do — to change their mind — and condemn them for it.
There used to be a place in the GOP for people with conviction and moderate views — remember Lowell Weicker? Could Ronald Reagan even get elected in today’s Republican Party primaries? After all, he did raise taxes when he saw the deficit begin to spin out of control in 1983. In the bigger picture, maybe it’s the GOP being blown by the winds, not Grisanti.
Mark Cross
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Spellcheck headline…
David C.
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Diaz, a Democrat and stridently against marriage equality, could trade parties with Grisanti and it would be a wash. It would also better align both of them ideologically.
TampaZeke
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Very snarky and insulting comment Jim. You know good and damned well that I wouldn’t “rather others remain predictably and reliably rooted in ignorance”. I’m reasonably concerned about if he has ANY kind of roots at all. That was my point. This flip-flopping of parties and willingness to sell his soul to the Republican platform to get elected and then, thankfully, reneging on his “unalterable” campaign promise, and then considering switching parties again to save his seat, doesn’t give me much faith that he’s a man of principles but rather a man of opportunity. I would say the same thing about any politician who such a record regardless of whether I agreed with their current position or not.
You may not see it quite the same way as I do but there’s no call to pull out an insulting straw man argument and attribute it to me. I fully support growth and change of heart and mind. I didn’t condemn that in any way. I questioned his commitment based on his history.
TampaZeke
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
And may I point out that, by his own words, he DIDN’T have a change of heart and mind. He made it clear that in his heart and mind he always knew that marriage equality was the right thing to do but it was POLITICAL CALCULATIONS that drove his vote. HE said that, not me. So, knowing that, it seems absurd for you to defend him as if his change of vote was based on a new found understanding of gay people or the Constitution rather than a new found understanding that his job is to make laws that support and protect Constitutional guarantees of justice and equality instead of protecting his political career.
And AGAIN, I salute him and appreciate his growth in that important realization. I just hope that he has really learned that lesson and that his future actions better demonstrate it than his past actions.
Amicus
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Jim, thanks for covering this. Grisanti deserves our ongoing support. It’s not a one-shot deal. Our opponents can bring a lot of social pressure on people, still, and be petty.
The worst thing that could happen to him is to “flop” back.
TampaZeke
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Regardless of his flips or flops we have no choice really but to support his re-election; whichever party he runs under. It’s crucial that we get the marriage supporters re-elected; PARTICULARLY the Republicans, in order to show the state of New York and politicians in the other 49 states that voting for equality is a winning proposition and to show that our side is a greater force to reckon with than NOM, the Catholic and Mormon Churches and other anti-gay organizations. If NOM is successful in defeating the 4 pro-equality Republicans it will be devastating to our cause nationally.
Priya Lynn
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Tampazeke said “He may be a statesman and a good guy on the marriage vote but he doesn’t seem to have a consistent and reliable moral compass. He seems to change positions every time the wind blows.”.
Doing that was much more moral than remaining an anti-gay Republican would have been.
I’m with Jim, if you didn’t want him to “remain predictably and reliably rooted in ignorance” then it was pointless to criticize his flipflopping.
Kevin
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
I concur. We gays sometimes do not have the back of our supporters. I still lament how 4 Supreme Court justices in IA were voted out of office. NOM was exacting revenge. We had our sights on other goals. Let’s make sure that does not happen again.
cd
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Gay marriage has been a very hard sell west of the Hudson Valley. Buffalo is in a culturally different part of the country from Albany and NYC.
If Grisanti gets defeated, chances are the winner would be the previous state Senator, Antoine Thompson. Who previously voted for gay marriage legalization. And arguably paid the price for it while everyone’s in a big hurry to reward Grisanti.
Timothy Kincaid
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Zeke, you have your politicians confused. Grisanti did the research and changed his position accordingly. I think you are perhaps thinking of Kruger.
Curtis
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
I hope he follows his heart and leaves the BIGOT party in the trash where it belongs.
TampaZeke
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
Timothy, I understand that Kruger and Asanti said similar things but Grisanti said, in an interview with WGRZ explaining his vote, “I would say three years ago, it was probably, with that letter and how strong it was, was probably more political than actually conscience.”
So I believe my previous comment was accurate.
And thanks for bringing up Kruger. If Jim is going to heap praise on Asanti and accuse me of not graciously accepting a change of position, then why did he write the post putting down Kruger instead of simply praising him as well. Instead he complained that one was a statesman and the other was a politician. I content that they are BOTH politicians. And in SPITE of that I’m thankful for both of their votes. And as I said in another post, I believe that we MUST support Grisanti in his re-election bid no matter what party he runs under.
Priya, if you had read my post you would have been aware that I supported his flipping. I’m just concerned that, with his record, if the wind changes he may flop again.
TampaZeke
June 29th, 2011 | LINK
“Asanti” should be “Alesi”
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