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For Our Opponents: Talking to Your Kids About Same-Sex Marriage
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South Africa Teen’s Death Shows It’s Time to Ban Ex-gay Therapy Everywhere
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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When the Iowa-based Family Leader began asking GOP presidential candidates to sign its anti-gay “Marriage Vow,” it originally contained this statement in the pledge’s preamble:
curtis
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
This troll with a bad hair day knew what she was endorsing if she where in that period of time she would have a camp full of slaves peeling grapes for her and a few male sex slaves for her “husband”.
TheraP
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
What people need to hammer on is the fact that a lady who doesn’t read carefully wants to be president!
Lindoro Almaviva
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
I’m sorry but it just makes me giddy to think that she might have kissed her hopes of being president good by months before the caucuses. This is not going to leave her and i hope her opponents, both republican and democrats will not allow her to forget that her bigotry was stronger than her common sense.
John
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
If Bachmann believes that economic slavery is horrible, why does she support actions designed to bring it about?
Mark F.
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
I’d like to know who kept statistics on slave families in 1860.
BlackDog
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
What the hell is with Fundamentalist Christians acting as apologists for slavery in the last few years??
My dad was a Civil War buff (and re-enactor) I was educated in Christian schools until the 8th Grade. I’M a history nut myself. I served in the military, and counter-acting at least some of that…I was a moderately conservative Christian for a lot of my life…
…and I STILL pretty much understood that the general consensus was that racism is wrong and Slavery was basically the Original Sin of this country and that many people (including Abraham Lincoln himself) believed that the Civil War was God’s punishment for it.
It disgusts me (and I’m no longer a Christian for other reasons) that “conservative” and “Fundamentalist” Christianity seem to be the last refuge for bigotry of ALL kinds these days.
This kind of crap is NOT what I was taught!
Mark F.
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
In defense of Bachmann, she was not defending slavery, just claiming that black families were more intact under slavery (a dubious claim, probably pulled out of her butt).
It would not be defending slavery to point out that some slaves were well fed by their owners and not beaten, which is a fact.
BlackDog
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
I think most of the claims Michelle Bachmann makes are pulled out of her butt, she has enough of a history of not knowing what she is talking about that I’m surprised she didn’t get laughed out of the presidential race straight up.
Also, I’ve heard she claims to “submit” to her husband. Has anyone on the Republican side possibly considered if by some off chance she were to win the nomination they would be having to contend with an un-chosen, un-voted-for co-presidential cantidate??
I honestly don’t think she’d have a prayer of getting elected, or even winning the nomination. However, I’m rather concerned about the proliferation of radical nuts (religious and otherwise) and the just plain stupid on the Republican side and I think the Republican leadership would do well to be worried too.
Shofixti
July 11th, 2011 | LINK
I agree, Mark – where are the statistics from?
Still, I don’t find this to be a terrible statement. It’s insensitive but it’s not pro-slavery. Personally I would prefer to have two active parents rather than one.
Gay people can be for the idea that families should seek to be of a quality and purpose that nurtures and is productive and intact.
Neil H
July 12th, 2011 | LINK
I think this is more evidence of fumbling attempts by white Evangelical Fundamentalists to try and win over black Christian voters through appealing to their social conservatism. The goal is to try to convince black people that the current liberal policies towards black people are just as damaging if not more so than slavery. There are more than a few white social conservatives who actually believe this. One of them was on the advisory board of NARTH before he shot his mouth off, wasn’t he?
See also: an anti-abortion ad campaign a while back stating something to the effect of “the most dangerous place for a black child in America today is is in the womb”, trying to make abortion into a racial issue.
Theo
July 12th, 2011 | LINK
“In no uncertain terms, Congresswoman Bachmann believes that slavery was horrible and economic enslavement is also horrible.”
Am I the only one to notice that Bachmann feels the need to offset her condemnation of slavery with a separate condemnation of “economic enslavement”? It reminds me of when some homophobe condemns anti-gay violence but feels the need to balance that with a condemnation of sinful lifestyles, or when in 2001 left wingers condemned the 9-11 attacks but felt the need to tack on some further condemnation of US policy. It’s as if a straight-forward denunciation would be ideologically suspect without the balancing language.
What does she mean by “economic enslavement”? My guess, based on the theme of her campaign, is that she is referring to high taxes and/or the mandate in the health care reform law. If that is what she means, then her explanation is just as dumb and offensive as the pledge she originally signed.
Virginia Stephenson
July 14th, 2011 | LINK
Jim said: “Totally understandable when you think about it. I bet almost none of our founding fathers like John Quincy Adams paid much attention to the Preamble to the Constitution before they signed it either.”
Your sarcasm here is so totally justified that I actually shouted out load when I read it. Thank you
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