The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 25
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
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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Robert
September 10th, 2011 | LINK
Don’t fall for this manipulative fallacy from the Washington Post, all you young Christians. Neither God nor truly saved Christians hate homosexuals…we hate the sin of homosexuality. Nobody is born gay, it is a choice. And those who call themselves evangelicals, yet approve of gay marriage, you’re confused. Evangelicals, put simply, spread the everlasting, perfect Word of God’s Bible. If you do not believe God’s Word is perfect, you are not an evangelical Christian or a saved Believer. That is a fact whether you like it or not. Seek Jesus Christ for your answers, and accept his Holy Spirit as belief in his death for your sins. That’s your only ticket to both the Truth in this life…and entry to God’s Kingdom of Heaven in the next. My prayer for you is Truth…not the lies this world tries to deceive you with. God bless you
Ezam
September 10th, 2011 | LINK
Robert, the fact of the matter is that homosexuality is NOT a choice, and that the Bible was written thousands of years ago by primitive men who knew nothing about nature or science. As soon as you understand that, you’ll see why young Christians are changing their minds.
Priya Lynn
September 10th, 2011 | LINK
Robert, our sexual orientation is a core feature of who we are. If you hate gayness then you also hate gays, you cannot seperate the two. You can no more “love the sinner and hate the sin” than you can love the water and hate the wetness.
F Young
September 10th, 2011 | LINK
@Robert
“Nobody is born gay, it is a choice.”
So, how come only gays have a choice, never heterosexuals? I’ve never heard of any heterosexual expain how, one day when he was 13 perhaps, it was his time to choose and he talked it over with his friends and family, weighed the pros and cons and finally chose heterosexuality. You’d think heterosexuals would reminisce about that fateful day all the time. Gays too.
What about you, did you have a choice? When did you decide? What factors did you consider? Did you do any research?
What, it just happened? You were just horny as hell and had wet dreams and you couldn’t help yourself? You didn’t choose heterosexuality; it chose you?
So, why does God give gays a choice that he doesn’t give heterosexuals? Why does He privilege gays that way? What did heterosexuals do to be denied this grace? Doesn’t God trust heterosexuals?
And, if he gave gays a choice, wouldn’t it be ungrateful and contrary to God’s manifest will for gays to refuse their God-given choice and instead act as if they were heterosexual and had no choice?
Frankly, Robert, like all born heterosexuals, you were born completely ignorant of homosexuality. The only people who can teach heterosexuals about homosexuality are homosexual. Listen to them. They ALL say homosexuality wasn’t a choice.
Blair Martin
September 10th, 2011 | LINK
Robert: your assertion about what evangelism is, is the problem I have as a Christian (church goer, bible reader, daily pray-er and all that jazz) with accepting the need to “evangelize” the world. You pervert this wonderful Greek word to mean something akin to unthinking dogmatic idiom. The Bible is not the infallible word of God. The Bible is full of contradictions and misinterpretations (even Jesus of Nazareth preached on the contradiction and misinterpretation found in the opening lines of Psalm 110)which is used by successive believers to judge, demonize and condemn others who do not accept that literal view as expounded by those doing the expounding. Finally, may I direct you to Romans 14:13 and ask you to reflect…
Oh and what they said too – my sexuality isn’t a choice anymore than you can choose to breathe or not breathe instinctively.
Timothy Kincaid
September 12th, 2011 | LINK
Robert,
Thank you for illustrating my rule of thumb: those who capitalize “truth” have none to share.
When you speak of “Truth”, it is the “I believe it and don’t care if it is factual” variety. The “my religion says it so I can declare it to be Truth” sort of nonsense that has to value or sway.
It matters not one whit to you that sexual orientation is significantly (though perhaps not entirely) biologically based. It does not matter that sexual non-conformity as observed in very young children is strongly correlated with homosexual or bisexual orientation.
In order for your church’s anti-gay political activism to be anything other than monstrous and evil, you have to believe that you are not persecuting your neighbor but his “choice” instead. So you declare that to be the “Truth.”
It matters not a whit to you that the actions taken and words spoken by you and those who share your version of Christianity are directed to hurt, punish, humiliate, and deprive living breathing gay people. It is of no concern that any unbiased observer would see such behavior as hateful and cruel. Your church wishes to continue in such actions and so simply declares that you are hating your neighbor’s “sin” but – contradictory to every evidence – you actually love the neighbor whom you are treating so poorly.
And as you cannot really in your heart of hearts believe such a thing, you tell yourself – and us – that it it “Truth.” Unable to deal with truth, you replace it with a lie and in order to avoid even considering the subject, you capitalize the word, declare it to be the equivalent of God, and put faith in the lie. The “Truth” is your idol, which you dare not look at too closely.
Sorry, Robert, but God has a higher standard than that. You can’t just go on “my church says so” as evidence when you stand before Him and justify your bigotry, arrogance, and malice. You can’t tell God that it’s “Truth” no matter what he says.
You see, Robert, God has no use for mindless robotic adherence to The Law, absent of any understanding (or desire for understanding) of his grace and love.
If you want to know what God thinks of your “Truth”, read Matthew 25.
Timothy Kincaid
September 12th, 2011 | LINK
And a final thought…
The gospel was good news because… the news was good. No longer was man subject to the Law And Punishment paradigm but instead are to base their lives in love, charity, forgiveness, kindness, and decency towards others.
And, you see, to a Christian (the kind you think aren’t saved believers) that sounds pretty good. That’s news that we can believe in.
But ask yourself, Robert, what exactly is good about the news you bring? Is it that if I don’t worship your deity the way that you say he wants to be worshiped and if I don’t follow his rules then he will torment me for eternity? Is it that your deity demands that I live a life absent of love or romance, never having a first kiss, a walk on the beach, candlelit dinners, falling in love, committing to that relationship, experiencing the ecstasy of physical expression of that love, growing old together, and looking back on a life of fulfillment, joy, and love?
Is it that I get to choose between celibacy and Hell? Is that supposed to be good news?
Because frankly, brother, your deity really sounds like an asshole.
Timothy Kincaid
September 12th, 2011 | LINK
I’m not sure I see confirmation of significant ethnic division. These numbers – while 12 points apart – are within the margin of error.
And the poll may not be comparing like things. Hispanic Catholics are predominantly located in specific geographies – often places where other Catholics are also more liberal.
So it would be relevant to look at Hispanic Catholics in Los Angeles v. non-Hispanic White Catholics in Los Angeles. Or at the Hispanic/non-Hispanic Catholics in Wichita.
But a sample that finds Hispanic Catholics in Los Angeles are more likely to support marriage equality than non-Hispanic Catholics in Wichita (for example), may be seeing something other than significant ethnic division.
T.J.
September 17th, 2011 | LINK
Sixty-nine percent of young people believe that the church is alienating people of their generation with its antigay positions. I’ve been saying this for some time now. Evangelicals are going to rue the day that they refused to listen and reconsider the Biblical teaching on this and drove away a whole generation of people from the church. I am no longer an evangelical, not only for this reason, but also for doctrinal reasons, but having been raised in that type of church I can say that they do a lot of things well and so it’s a shame that they are alienating people who could find help in some of their other programming because of their obstinate refusal to reconsider their position. As Robert illustrates, there continues to be this confusion between what “God says” and what “I interpret God to be saying.” If one simply recognizes that difference, his or her tone on this issue, even if an evangelical, would be quite different.
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