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
The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, May 22
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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Scott
September 28th, 2011 | LINK
The Senator references a book by Turek, “Correct, Not Politically Correct,” which I have purchased and read. The book purports to create a dispassionate, logical argument against gay marriage.
You may oppose gay marriage. But do yourself a favor and make sure you read this book before quoting it. Regardless of which side of the debate you happen to be on, you should recognize that the “science” presented in Turek’s book consists of limited facts, plucked from context, and strung together with surprisingly poor logic. The Senator is a physician — a scientist — and I’m surprised that someone with his educational background could fail to recognize the serious methodological and logical flaws that run through almost every point addressed in the book he quotes.
The book masquerades as a logical argument, adorned with foot notes to give the appearance of academic writing. BUT LOOK UP THE REFERENCES (in the days of Google, there’s just no excuse not to.) The author gives equal weight in his argument to “facts” from valid studies, badly outdated studies that have been widely debunked, and even local news stories and opinion columns, as though they were all equally valid and reliable sources of information!
Senator, you could be correct about gay marriage. (I don’t think you are, but that’s not my point here.) But your position is not well-supported by this book. It doesn’t surprise me that the average-Joe American might find Turek’s book compelling. But I demand more from a legislator. That you are also a physician, trained in scientific thought, and have still failed to recognize the problem with citing this book as a reference for anything is deeply troubling.
Andrew
September 28th, 2011 | LINK
I have to give Forrester credit for staying on the phone. Signorile tore him apart, called him out, and didn’t stop where most reporters do (by assuming that the listener knows what it means when a legislator doesn’t know what they’re talking about) and went on to lambaste him for being irresponsible, and to talk about why not having those facts matters. It amazes me how often reporters get the gotcha moment and then politely frame the question without stating the obvious.
Sadly, the fact that he stayed on the call so long means that his ears are closed – he can’t see Signorile’s logic, and he doesn’t have the good decency to have the “aha” moment and discover shame. If he did, he’d be off that call like a shot. He just sees it all as common sense.
Jim Hlavac
September 28th, 2011 | LINK
You know, every time I think of this claim that we die 20 years younger than our hetero counterparts, I wonder how such a study could even be figured out? — people die at all ages; even kids die, many of them murdered by their parents even. The FRC has this figure of “gays die at 41″ in their mush — and I’m 53, does this mean I’m 12 years beyond my expiration date? And then I think of the 89 year old gay guy I tend. I think too of the wrinkle rooms, those gay bars filled with the over 60 set. I think also of the newly springing up gay retirement homes. It’s a bizarre claim. No one keeps track of “gay” deaths. Not every gay death results in an obit in the gay press; I have never seen an obit in the regular news that listed “gay” or something. So where could they get any numbers? That they cling ferociously to the fiction shows how strange they are.
Priya Lynn
September 28th, 2011 | LINK
Andrew said “Sadly, the fact that he stayed on the call so long means that his ears are closed – he can’t see Signorile’s logic, and he doesn’t have the good decency to have the “aha” moment and discover shame. If he did, he’d be off that call like a shot. He just sees it all as common sense.”.
Right Andrew. I think to someone like Forrestor it goes without saying that he’s right and Signorile is just being mean by making it sound as though Forrestor is wrong. Forrestor can’t say why Signorile’s logic is wrong, he just thinks its unfair to be questioned on the rationale behind his bigotry – Signorile should just passively accept whatever position Forrestor puts forward.
Regan DuCasse
September 28th, 2011 | LINK
That a doctor should think that life expectancy or health status is rightful as a means of marriage discrimination is a disgrace.
That’s he’s factually wrong and cannot put context to his statements, means he’s fairly incompetent as a doctor when it comes to public health and a serious discussion on it.
I’m sick and tired of the anti gay trying to change up standards of marriage that don’t apply or aren’t legal ANYWHERE for anyone.
And trying to play as if gay people don’t meet the already well established standards set forth as well.
And they are literally making a federal case out of such non existent or un Constitutional laws.
They don’t even want to see how, if carried to the full extent of their arguments, just how many heteros would be qualified for the same discrimination.
Which is why it clearly only follows that the discrimination has to be as equal as the rights and protections must be.
Obviously us smarter folks have figured that out, and the anti gay hate it that we have and we won’t shut up about it.
As we’ve seen with courts of law, or in public forums they don’t control, the anti gay feel put upon if their lack of facts, logic or legal realities is revealed.
They see themselves victimized, rather than for having the bigoted arguments they support.
It’s satisfying to see such irrationality cornered, but the response to it is to punish gay people, rather than temper their intellectual dishonesty, with honesty and reason.
This doctor IS a lawmaker after all, however cowardly, he has the means to be very spiteful.
And in fact, look what DID happen.
I’m not saying any one of us shouldn’t stop spotlighting such bigotry and cowardice for what it is, but it sure angers me that this shit heel can get away with it.
Other Fred in the UK
September 28th, 2011 | LINK
That interview is a brilliant demonstration of the hollowness of the arguments for banning same-sex marriage. It does however have one fatal flaw, its nearly a quarter of an hour long. How do you persuade people to watch it in today’s sound-bite culture?
Priya Lynn
September 28th, 2011 | LINK
It didn’t seem long to me, other Fred.
tiqueboy
September 29th, 2011 | LINK
This is the excact reason that the proponents of prop 8 do not want the tapes released. they can not say how ssm affects “traditional” marriage. What a tool!
Andrew
September 29th, 2011 | LINK
@Priya – it’s quite sad – underneath it is an assumption that what he’s saying is as true and obvious as “the sky is blue”. He doesn’t even see it as bigotry and never will — and in that sense it almost isn’t… bigotry in my mind usually requires an element of choice on the part of the person holding the idea. This guy doesn’t hate gay people. He can’t get that far. He’s so far out of the loop that he’s not even conscious of it. It’s like discussing snow with someone who’s never seen winter. He has his beliefs and is not longer open to new input. And, frankly, he’s not very bright.
Priya Lynn
September 29th, 2011 | LINK
Yes, I think that’s exactly it, Andrew.
Andrew
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
Hot damn, Priya, I love it when we agree !!
JFE
October 1st, 2011 | LINK
Just to be clear here, the “gays die 20 years earlier” complete nonsense comes from a Paul Cameron “study” where he looked at obituaries in gay newspapers during the height of the AIDS crisis and averaged out the ages to get 41. In response, we should do a study of the next 7 days of CNN reports of people’s deaths, average out the ages, and report those as the dastardly life expectancy of heterosexuals.
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