The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, May 22
House of Commons officially passes marriage equality
British Commons Approves Marriage Equality Bill
Email address of Attorney General prosecuting 18 year old Florida lesbian
Gay Man's Murder Sparks Massive Rally
The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, May 21
Connecticut Scouts simply announce that they are accepting gay scout leaders
Church of Scotland allows ministers in relationship
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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Laura
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
Funny. One could make the same argument for the existence of god.
Donny D.
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
I don’t know why the pushers of ex-gay ideology think they’ll get any kind of significant cultural buy-in from the average joe or jane. I’d say the overwhelming majority of conservatives and homophobes (overlapping but not synonymous groups) believe that people are homosexual by essential nature, and can’t change. In fact that belief is a part of the homophobia of a great many people.
The idea that “there are no homosexuals, just heterosexuals with a homosexual problem” just doesn’t seem like it would have any legs beyond the fundamentalist milieu and a few of the more reactionary Catholic and gay-obssessed Mormons.
Richard Rush
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
It’s almost funny listening to a fundamentalist Christian talking about what exists and what doesn’t.
The fact is that no one is born a Christian. All humans are born as atheists. Christians are simply atheists suffering from an indoctrination problem. Therefore, Christians don’t really exist.
Unlike Christians, a certain percentage of humans will be gay without any indoctrination whatsoever. I should know, because I am one of them.
Lindoro Almaviva
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
you know what? who has this woman’s email address? I think we should send her some emails letting her know that we do exist; nothing insulting, it could just read like this:
Ms. Harvey:
It recently came to my attention that you believe that there are not gay/lesbian/bisexual or transgerder people in the world. Well, i am writing to you to make sure that you do know I exist. Yes, I am gay and very proud of it.
Just thought you should know we do exist and now you know someone who it.
Best wishes,
xxxxxxxx
Laura
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
The only contact info I could find on their website (except for the mailing address for donations of course) is: webmaster@missionamerica.com
Candace
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
She looks mad. And miserable. She’d feel a lot better if she’d quit using up so much energy by hating people.
Ben in Atlanta
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
Cogito ergo sum, bitch!
BlackDog
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
Hell, I would even cite MYSELF as proof that LGBT people exist…considering my mother is an LGBT person (Bisexual) and I have been aware of this since well before anyone thought it was cool. Obviously, My mom exists, or I wouldn’t.
Christopher
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
I repeat: WHAT DO YOU AMERICANS LEARN IN SCHOOL?????
I am a frankly baffled Canadian who is not trying to be smug – but for the sake of Pete, WHY do these wingnuts appear so frequently as part of the American societal milieu, and in positions of power and media exposure, yet???
jc
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
well dang, she should have been around when i was in fifth grade and knew i had an unusual attraction to other boys….if only i had known there was no such thing as a gay child…..now look at me!
Rebecca Ashling
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
So there’s no such thing as me. Major existential problem or what?
Priya Lynn
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
Christopher, its different cultures, I think its because religion has less influence in Canada.
Theo
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
It is worth noting that Linda Harvey’s program was not focused on gay issues. Rather, it was supposed to be a 2011 update on all issues of concern to Mission America members. But 80% of the show was spent on gays. Maybe 20% was spent on sex ed. Unemployment, the debt ceiling, Iraq, Afghanistan, the recession’s impact on youth crime, domestic abuse, and drug/alcohol abuse – all merited not a word of discussion.
A pretty good example of the obsession with gays on full display. How do these people manage to hold the interest of their followers year after year harping on gay issues, which are peripheral for the vast majority of people, including evangelicals?
Emelye Waldherr
August 27th, 2011 | LINK
I have no proof that Linda Harvey exists either, except for some picture of a miserable looking lady and a blog post that says she exists. Perhaps she needs to meet us all before she believes? Pretty cynical for a person who believes in a religion that has no concrete evidence behind it.
WMDKitty
August 28th, 2011 | LINK
I’m bi. I’m human. I exist. Linda Harvey can sod off.
Shofixti
August 28th, 2011 | LINK
There, I fixed it.
John
August 28th, 2011 | LINK
Just another version that being gay is a choice. It is true that there is no definitive DNA evidence, no gay gene. But then there is no evidence of a heterosexual gene, either. So, one could say that being heterosexual is a choice.
Jerry
August 28th, 2011 | LINK
I found it interesting that I couldn’t find any information on this woman’s educational background. What amazes me is that with her lack of critical thinking she has managed to live as long as she has. I would have thought she would have stepped off a curb in front of a bus years ago.
I guess she found peddling crack pot religion more lucrative then being a tennis pro.
David C.
August 28th, 2011 | LINK
Linda Harvey is cut from the same material all anti-gay hacks are. Her fundamental belief is that homosexuality must not be normalized. That normalization can be anything she finds contrary to her narrow interpretations of religious thought but that is where she goes badly wrong, even to the point of creating an unhealthy environment for children by working against direct discussion of anti-gay bullying and age-appropriate sex education for adolescents that would protect their health and reduce teen pregnancy.
Linda Harvey has no legitimate claim to any expertise in the formulation of public policy, is without question devoid of any moral authority, and has no credentials whatsoever that would even remotely qualify her as a social scientist or mental health professional.
There is no evidence for the existence of the God Linda worships nor a rational basis for the specific variety of morality she ascribes to that God—her religion and its practices are a choice, she was not born believing in mythology, superstition nor angels. It is impossible for a person that has not developed from childhood to adulthood as a gay person to know when and how the awareness of one’s sexuality manifests.
Linda Harvey is reduced to nullification of all sexuality except the one she imagines to exist. Taken to its logical conclusion, her position is that there is no such thing as gay or straight, only sexual beings that choose to manifest their urges to mutually agreeing others with compatible drives. Were she to stop there, her character would be redeemed. As it is, she is adrift in an ocean of ignorance and unreasoning bigotry.
Timothy Kincaid
August 29th, 2011 | LINK
Linda Harvey is not saying that you don’t exist. Rather, she’s saying that there is no proof that your are inherently and immutibly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Because according to Linda’s worldview, one is only what does. And as you could choose to live in the closet (and resist urges to discuss basketball or the view), then you are not really gay.
Interestingly, this is unidirectional.
If you identify as gay (or bi or lesbian or trans), your claim is dismissed as having no proof. However, if you as heterosexual then that is what you are – even if it needs suspension of disbelief (and a medical condition requiring a luggage lifter).
Jimmy
August 29th, 2011 | LINK
But then, they can’t prove that we are not born this way (as if proof would matter to them anyway).
Roa
August 30th, 2011 | LINK
There’s no proof that anyone loves chocolate… you just have to be one of those who do love chocolate to understand that yes, people do love chocolate. There is no “proof” that a sane Linda Harvey exists.
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