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 lobbyPosts for December, 2011
December 1st, 2011
That, in a nutshell, was Michele Bachmann’s answer to a high school student’s question asking why gay couples can’t get married:
Maybe she wouldn’t mind then if I were to marry her daughter.
Oh wait, what am I thinking? Just look at her husband.
Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post has a field day with this: “This is the sound of a thousand heads hitting a thousand desks.”
December 1st, 2011
Nigeria’s Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights (CDSR) has issued a call to action against the Same Gender Marriage Bill, which passed the Nigerian Senate on Monday. The original bill was ostensibly relatively narrow in scope, imposing prison terms for those enter into any form of same-sex union, and fines for those who solemnize or witness it. But the broad wording for the definition of “Same Gender Marriage” which also included “other purposes of same sexual relationship” worried advocates that the bill would criminalize anyone living together.
As bad as that was, what emerged on Monday was far worse. The Senate’s Committee on Human Rights and Judicial Matters upped the penalties to fourteen years imprisonment for anyone entering into what they broadly defined as a “same gender marriage,” as well as ten years in prison for witnesses or “anyone who helps couples marry.” It also added new penalties making it illegal to register gay clubs or organizations, and criminalized the “public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly.” Those who violate those provisions would face 10 years imprisonment. The CDSR says that those penalties were added as retaliation for the appearance of human rights advocates at the committee meeting to criticize the bill:
We are extremely concerned and disappointed with the conduct of the public hearing by the Senate Committee on Human Rights and Judicial Matters on the Same Gender Marriage Prohibition Bill 2011, which was held on Monday 31st, October 2011. A number of delegates from the US and EU countries missions in Nigeria attended the public hearing and noted the biased nature of the public hearing, which included name calling and profiling for civil society organizations and individuals activists opposing the bill.
… We fear that not only the Senate did not listen to the civil society expressing their contrariety to the bill, but in an unprecedented decision, it decided to punish the presence of civil society that was against the bill during the public hearing.
The group says that the new bill “brings us back to the most draconian version of the bill proposed in 2006.” (Some background on the 2006 bill can be found here. You can download the Senate version of the 2006 bill from the Nigerian Senate’s web site here (PDF: 144KB/3 pages). ) CDSR also warns that the bill “tries to criminalize homosexuality and any form of LGBT advocacy, seriously affecting freedom of speech, freedom of expression and association with severe criminal provisions,” and calls on the international community to mobilize as they did against the 2006 bill:
We call on ministers of foreign affairs, foreign missions accredited to Nigeria, international organizations and civil society to send formal letters and statements to the Nigerian president, to the presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives asking them to:
- Withdraw the bill due to its implications on health, HIV/AIDS and protection of human right.
- Call on the Nigerian President and the Presidents of the Senate and the House of Assembly to guarantee safety and protection for all human rights defenders and all individuals irrespective of their sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or religion.
- Call on the Nigerian government and parliament to respect international human rights law, particularly their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- Call on the Nigerian Government to remove discriminatory laws that criminalize sexuality, gender identity and expression in the federal and other parallel legal systems followed in the country.
We call on heads of governments, ministers of foreign affairs and other relevant officials, foreign missions accredited to Nigeria, presidents of Parliamentary Assemblies to raise their concern in public and in private with their Nigerian counterparts in any possible circumstance, making it clear that if this bill were to be approved Nigeria would place itself outside the community of democratic nations, in a moment in which the country is facing serious internal and external anti-democratic threats.
December 1st, 2011
TODAY’S AGENDA:
World AIDS Day: Everywhere. Today is the day set aside to increase awareness, fight prejudice, and improve education about HIV/AIDS. Worldwide, it is estimated that about 35 million people are are living with HIV/AIDS. The good news is that the rate of new HIV infections worldwide are declining, as have AIDS-related deaths. Where access to antiretroviral (ARV) medications is available, AIDS changed from being a fatal disease to a chronic one, albeit a very serious one. Those who are on ARVs can now expect a near–normal lifespan. The bad news is that men who have sex with men (MSM) made up 61% of all new HIV infections in 2009. Alarmingly, African-American men make up about 42% of that category. The epidemic has also shifted from the major Northeastern, Midwestern and West Coast cities of the 1990s to becoming an increasing problem in rural and urban areas of the Southeast. While ARV’s have proven to be a literal lifesaver, access remains difficult. Treatment in the U.S. still costs about $10,000 per year per person, while 12 states currently maintain ADAP waiting lists with 6,411 who qualify not receiving treatment. That’s of the numbers that we know of. Of those who have been identified as HIV-positive, only about half are receiving treatment. All told, an estimated 75% of people with HIV do not have their virus under control because about quarter of all people with HIV don’t even know they have it. Do you know your status? Find out today.
Click to enlarge. You know you want to.
And hey, not to be too maudlin about it, another purpose for World AIDS Day is to raise funds for research, treatment, and education. And so let’s take some time to show our appreciation for British rugby start Sacha Harding, who generously agreed to bare it all for a photo shoot for the U.K. magazine Gay Times to support Elton John’s AIDS foundation. All together now: “Thank you, Sacha!”
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Manilla, The Philippines.
Also This Weekend: Gay Days at Disney, Hong Kong, China.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Connecticut Passes It’s First Sodomy Law: 1642. “If any man lyeth with mankind as hee lyeth with woman, both of them shave committed abomination, they both shall surely be put to death. — Levit. 21. 13.” If it’s any consolation, the same penalty also applied to adultery.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Matthew Shepard: 1976. If he had not been beaten and left to die on a cold rural Wyoming fence, he would have turned 35 today. Instead, he is forever 21 and still much too young to die.
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).
As always, please consider this your open thread for the day.
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.
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