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
House of Commons officially passes marriage equality
British Commons Approves Marriage Equality Bill
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.
revchicoucc
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
For the record, before I say anything else, Mr. Lee’s arguments are loathesome. To disapprove of them on the basis of facts is to misunderstand them. He’s not uninformed factually. He’s making a theological case.
His argument is based on “sanctity of life” theology, the same basis for the anti-abortion movement. Any sexual practice that does not have the potential of resulting in an unborn child should be “decreased.” If pressed, this man would oppose the use of any form of contraception, too. Two men having sex cannot become pregnant and, therefore, are not “sanctifying life.” At least lesbian or bisexual women have the potential of becoming pregnant, so they are not attacked.
Perhaps one way for Exodus and similar groups to rebrand is to tie themselves to “sanctity of life” arguments. “Don’t you really WANT to be a father, the natural way, by impregnating a woman yourself, and having the honor of bringing a child to life?” There’s money in the anti-abortion movement.
I wonder when they will try to make condoms available only by prescription.
Priya Lynn
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
“But what Lee fails to understand is that AIDS is the result of unprotected sex — whether that sex is gay or straight. It is not the product of being gay.”.
I find it so exasperating that the anti-gays still perpetuate this lie and I think they must know its a lie.
Timothy Kincaid
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
Alan, step one: disavow this clown and disassociate his “ministry”. Your ongoing willingness to tolerate this sort of vileness is a sin against my community.
Nathan
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
“But what Lee fails to understand is that AIDS is the result of unprotected sex — whether that sex is gay or straight. It is not the product of being gay.”
Mr. Lee believes in a beneficent, loving God Who does not allow evil to befall His chosen ones. If (when!) evil does befall them, the cause is insufficient piety, because only then would God lift His loving hand.
It’s not an error of logic; it’s a condition of worldview.
Richard Rush
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
Because AIDS is “a predominantly heterosexual disease worldwide,” I’m wondering if people in any areas are campaigning to stamp out heterosexuality – you know, the way U.S. anti-gays use AIDS to help justify their campaign against homosexuality.
And on a related note, isn’t it interesting how God has allowed medical science to rapidly develop drugs so that HIV, a relatively recent discovery, is no longer a death sentence, whereas many diseases that have been around much longer, and affect the general population everywhere, are still death sentences after many more years of research.
I agree with the Christianists that GOD is the Gay Obsessed Deity, but what they don’t realize is that His obsession is with finally improving our lives. The more the Christianists cry out to God in desperation, the more we keep winning.
RWG
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
God wanted us to have AIDS, otherwise he wouldn’t have made chimpanzees so tasty. If you want to blame anyone for AIDS, start with the butchers of the bush meat markets of central Africa.
Personally, I think the blame game is a waste of time and the anti-gay Christianists are only using it as a cover for their own prejudices. They should just be honest and state the obvious…they don’t like people fucking unless they’re married and making a baby. The same applies to their anti-abortion stance. They couldn’t care less for the life of an infant(witness their support of cuts to all forms of family assistance, health care and education), they just don’t want people having sex for fun.
Jerry
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
The organization should die rather than continue to pay people to keep telling lies. Alan Chambers is probably to lazy to get an honest job, or incompetent to make his current salary in an honest job.
Timothy Kincaid
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
Richard,
Exactly. If we use Lee’s logic, you could say that God noticed gay folks a few decades ago, bopped to a disco beat for a decade, and then remembered that he was supposed to smite these people. But after the smiting, He missed them. So he blessed them with highly effective medication to ease the smite, and political support to reach for equality, and declared them to be the arbiters of fashion and taste on his favorite means of communicating his will, television.
And he’s getting annoyed at those nutty folk who are opposing his new favorite tribe. He keeps throwing scandals in their way, but they keep babbling on. Maybe he’ll have to pull out the lightning bolts.
Richard Rush
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
Imagine, another guy with an anti-gay ministry: Phillip Lee is just one more dumb ASS (American Sanctimonious Simpleton)
And by the way, that photo of him set of my gaydar alarm.
Ben In Oakland
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
As we used to say in the ’70′s, when mustasches on castro clones were all the rage:
You know why gay men have mustasches?
Erin
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
Ignorance and the closet killed your supposed friends, you tool: The very same crap you continue to sling.
TomTallis
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
Bakersfield is where mother nature breaks wind. Take it from a fourth generation Californian, I know…
TomTallis
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
This guy is so deep in the closet he has a Narnian passport…
Greg
December 6th, 2011 | LINK
I was in the 4th grade in the early 80′s when I first became aware of AIDS. I understood it as something that grew out of gay sex. By 6th grade I knew better… this guy should as well.
Hunter
December 7th, 2011 | LINK
“But what Lee fails to understand is that AIDS is the result of unprotected sex — whether that sex is gay or straight. It is not the product of being gay.”
He understands it perfectly well. He doesn’t care — factual accuracy would get in the way of his ideology.
Leave A Comment