Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbySeptember 25th, 2011
THE AGENDA:
Ugandan LGBT-Affirming Bishop To Speak: Washington, VA. Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a former Anglican bishop in Uganda, will deliver the sermon at All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church (2300 Cathedral Ave., N.W.) in Washington Sunday at the church’s 11:00 a.m. High Mass. A reception will be held in the fellowship hall with a discussion forum at 12:30 following the service. It’s open and free to the public. Senyonjo, who’s straight and retired in 1998, is on what he’s dubbing the “Compass to Compassion Tour” in the U.S. in which he’s attempting to educate Americans about the persecution of LGBT Ugandans and gays in 75 other countries that face persecution and even death simply for being LGBT. You can read my interview with Bishop Senyonjo in three parts here, here, and here.
Joint Symposium on Transgender Health and Community: Atlanta, GA. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s biennial symposium, the Southern Comfort Conference, and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association annual conference are all taking place this weekend in Atlanta, and organizers of all three events have chosen today come together for a remarkable joint session, “Transgender Beyond Disorder: Identity, Community, and Health.” The day-long event takes place this morning at the Emory University Conference Center beginning at 9:00 a.m. and continues through 7:15 p.m. with a closing wine and cheese reception.
Reception for ALL Military Families: Arlington, VA. The Military Partners and Families Coalition will conduct a “Beyond 61” reception to celebrate all military families at the Women in Military Service Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. “Beyond 61” refers to the sixty-first day after the Pentagon certified the end of preparations for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which began a sixty-day countdown to the September 20 repeal. “Beyond 61” celebrates the silent partners and children who are the lifeline for LGBT servicemembers who can now step out from the shadows. The reception takes place from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. EDT.
AIDS Walks Today: Brampton, ON; Calgary, AB; Corner Brook, NL; Dryden, ON; Halifax, NS; Louisville, KY; Oklahoma City, OK; Peterborough, ON; Regina, SK; San Diego, CA; St. John, NB; Thunder Bay, ON; Traverse City, MI; Windsor, ON and Winnipeg, MB.
Pride Celebrations Today: Peterborough, ON; St. Cloud, MN; Sunderland, UK.
Also This Weekend: Folsom Street Fair, San Francisco, CA.
J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson, together on vacation at the Del Mar Turf Club in Southern California in 1947.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
J. Edgar Hoover’s Personal Interest in Gay Movements Revealed: 1984. An earlier cache of secret files detailing FBI surveillance on gay people had been released two years earlier (see September 9), but that release offered only a small glimpse of the magnitude of governmental spying. It would take an ACLU lawsuit on behalf of the International Gay and Lesbian Archives (now the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives) for the more important cache to be released under the Freedom of Information Act. That later release consisted of more than 5,800 papers, most of it very boring details of gay pride picnics and parades, and photocopies of magazines that were publicly sold on newsstands. Most documents focused on the Mattachine Society and ONE Magazine, the first openly gay magazine in America.
But one interesting set of papers revealed J. Edgar Hoover’s interest in the gay movement. According to a memo dated January 26, 1956, the Los Angeles field office had been asked to check on the November 1955 issue of ONE, which talked about gay people who worked for Time and The New Yorker. The LA field office concluded that the articles statement was “baseless” and recommended that “no reply be made.”
But scrawled in handwriting below the typewritten recommendation was the sentence, “I think we should take this crowd and make them ‘put up or shut up’.” Markings indicated that the handwritten statement was made by Hoover’s chief aide and lifelong special “friend” Clyde Tolson. Hoover and Tolson worked closely together in the day, ate all their meals together in the evening, were seen socializing in nightclubs, and took vacations together. When Hoover died in 1971, Tolson inherited Hoover’s estate, and accepted the flag that draped Hoover’s coffin. Tolson’s grave is just a few discrete yards away from Hoover’s in Congressional Cemetery.
Hoover weighed in on the 1956 memo. Next to Tolson’s recommendation to keep the case files open and continue investigating was another inscription. “I concur,” it read, with the single letter “H” underneath. The next day, a telegram went to the Los Angeles office. “You are instructed to have two mature and experienced agents contact Freeman (the pseudonym for the article’s author), in the immediate future and tell him the bureau will not countenance such baseless charges appearing in this magazine, and for him to either ‘put up or shut up’.” It was signed, simply, “Hoover.”
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
F Young
September 25th, 2011
“…and tell him the bureau will not countenance such baseless charges appearing in this magazine, and for him to either ‘put up or shut up’.†It was signed, simply, “Hoover.â€
Interesting. I wasn’t aware of this.
One possible interpretation of this would be that Hoover and Tolson wanted to protect closeted gays. If that were true, then Hoover wasn’t as evil as I thought.
Of course, it could be argued that by protecting closeted gays he would ultimately also be protecting himself as well.
David Ehrenstein
September 25th, 2011
Gore Vidal pointed out that when LBJ right-hand man Walter Jenkins was caught in a tea room bust Hoover sent him flowers in the hospital.
Very much looking forward to Clint’s movie with a Dustin Lance Black script, Leonardo as Hoover and the yummy Armie Hammer as Clyde. In the trailer the two can be seen holding hands during a limo ride.
Leave A Comment