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 2011
June 10th, 2011
It’s been a crazy 24 hours. Sorry for the delay.
TODAY’S AGENDA:
The Sissy Boy Experiment, Wrap-up: CNN. Tonight’s Anderson Cooper 360 will air a wrap-up their series, “The Sissy Boy Experiment: Uncovering the Truth.” The first two parts of this series were the result of several month’s of investigating the truth behind the George Rekers’s treatment of his most famous patient, four-year-old Kirk Murphy, and last night’s installment featured Ryan Kendall, a former patient of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the past president if the National Association for Research and Treatment of Homosexuality (NARTH). AC360 begins at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific on CNN.
If you haven’t done so already, you can read up on Kirk’s treatment by George Rekers in our report, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?” AC360 starts at 10:00 p.m. EDT.
The Reality of Will and Grace: A Refutation of the Ex-Gay Movement: Asheville, NC. Exodus International continues its annual ex-gay conference outside of Asheville, bringing in hundreds of people across America and around the world. A counter-conference, The Reality of Will and Grace continues today with an exhibit at Tressa’s, 28 Broadway, Asheville at 5:30 p.m. Then at 7:00 p.m. at Tressa’s, Mel White, Soulforce founder and former speechwriter for Jerry Falwell, will host a panel of gay-affirming clergy. Given recent revelations, they should have plenty to talk about. The counter-conference runs through Saturday.
Eagle Forum San Diego Convention: San Diego, CA. Phyllis Schlafley’s Eagle Forum will kick off it’s San Diego convention tonight with a keynote speech form Andrew Breitbart. Saturday’s participants include Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and self-styled “Video Journalist.” The convention promises to offer training on “Tea Party tactics, tool, and talking points from the EXPERTS!!!” –with three exclamation points!!!
Pride Celebrations This Week: Albany, NY; Albuquerque, NM; Blackpool, UK; Boston, MA; Brisbane, QLD; Brooklyn, NY; Des Moines, IA; Edmonton, AB; El Paso, TX; Erie, PA; Key West, FL; Long Island, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Milwaukee, WI; Newark-Essex, NJ; Olympia, WA; Oxford, UK; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Rome (Europride); San Antonio, TX; Saskatoon, SK; Shreveport, LA; Spokane, WA; Talin, Estonia (Baltic Pride); Tel Aviv, Israel (Friday); Thunder Bay, ON; Tulsa, OK and Washington, DC.
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
June 9th, 2011
Kathleen Gilbert, writing for LifeSite, an anti-gay advocacy “news” site, has her own spin on the life of Kirk Murphy. Gilbert, already a Certified Cameronite for her distortion and dishonesty, borrows freely from Box Turtle Bulletin to reassemble various snippets into a tale that would not be recognized by anyone in the Murphy family, or anyone who is familiar with what happened at UCLA in 1970.
Relatives say the family was partially prompted to pursue therapy out of concern for how Kirk’s father, Rod, acted colder towards his younger son than to Mark, the elder brother.
“They said he had to go to UCLA because of his relationship with his dad,” said Kirk’s cousin Donna, according to Burroway. “They said it was Rod’s fault because he didn’t love Kirk enough.”
Gender identity therapists have recognized a lack of affection from one’s father as a risk factor for males developing gender identity disorders.
That, of course, is not at all why Kaytee took Kirk to UCLA. It was, rather, an explanation given to a child as recalled from Donna’s childhood. Here is the actual context from which Gilbert ripped her fanciful tale:
Mark clearly remembers a “before” and “after” with Kirk’s treatment. His memory is helped by the fact that they moved to a new house in 1969, just before Kirk entered treatment. And so he recalls with confidence that the family deteriorated noticeably during and following Kirk’s therapy. “I can remember a clear difference with our parents in our first house,” he said. “There was none of the ranting and raving, the fighting and drinking. Boy, that sure came after that.” Rod always drank some — “Those Irish Murphys you know,” Kaytee said, “they liked their beers!” — and so she doesn’t attribute Rod’s worsening drinking to the stresses surrounding Kirk’s therapy. But worsen it did, and that added more friction in the family.
Rod was clearly under a lot of pressure. While psychologists had placed a great deal of emphasis on the mother’s role in their children’s development, researchers at UCLA (Rekers included) were turning their attention more directly toward fathers in deciding which parent was more at fault in making a child “prehomosexual.” Donna remembered overhearing the adults in the family blaming Rod for Kirk’s “problem.”
“They said he had to go to UCLA because of his relationship with his dad,” she said. “They said it was Rod’s fault because he didn’t love Kirk enough. Kirk wasn’t interested in sports the way Mark was, and he would play sports more with Mark. Kirk was quieter and more interested in music. And I know it was discussed that he didn’t love his son enough. I don’t believe that was true, but there was a discussion that I remember.” Rod remained resistant to taking Kirk to UCLA. “I don’t think he bought into the whole thing,” she said.
But Gilbert selects this recollection to present as support for her fanciful fiction.
After the sessions finished, the Murphys were instructed to continue encouraging normative behavior on a token reinforcement system, using red and blue poker chips to reinforce both gender-related and other habits. Rekers concluded at a three-year follow-up session that the child’s more masculine habits “have become normalized,” and the therapy was deemed a success.
However, according to the family’s recollections, the reinforcement regimen took an ugly turn when brought back home: instead of the “spanking” advised for Kirk’s misbehavior, according to his children and wife Rod Murphy physically abused his son so violently that Kirk’s sister Maris recalls hiding in her room under pillows to avoid hearing Kirk’s screams. Mark Murphy broke down in tears as he recalled how he would try to save his younger brother from his father’s beatings.
Again, Gilbert’s tale has as little to do with Kirk’s life as does Rekers’ fictitious “Kraig” reports. And the motivation is the same.
Like George Rekers, Kathleen Gilbert isn’t interested in the truth. She despises the truth, prefering lies that advance her church’s doctrine, especially that which demeans gay people and enforces civil inequalities. And, sadly, she is more than willing to abuse a family already the victim of those who share her view of the world.
It’s hard to understand just what compels someone like Gilbert to cause needless pain to the Murphy family. How can she hurt others just to advance a political doctrine, and yet consider herself to be an advocate for God? What kind of person would willfully disregard the truth in a quest for heterosexual supremacy and Catholic privilege?
Those who read here will know that there are a few words we use very sparingly. But it is hard for me to think of Kathleen Gilbert and her deliberate abuse of this story in terms other than “evil”.
June 9th, 2011
In her newsletter, Goop, actor-turned-Country Music singer Gwyneth Paltrow shares what I consider to be the very best response, EVER, to concerns about same-sex couple parenting:
When my daughter came home from school one day saying that a classmate had two mommies, my response was, “Two mommies? How lucky is she?!”
A Commentary
June 9th, 2011
The Public Religion Research Institute has released its latest survey, Millennial Generation Committed to Availability, Conflicted about Morality of Abortion. While this poll is focused primarily on opinions about abortion, for comparative purposes it also asked questions about same-sex marriage. Their conclusions are fascinating and probably much more news-worthy than anything they had to say about abortion.
While after reading their report their observations seem obvious, they run counter to what we have become conditioned to believe.
We have, for decades, bought into the idea that opinions about homosexuality and same-sex marriage are part and parcel of the liberal/conservative divide. That growing leniency on “social issues” meantgreater sympathy for immigrants, a greater respect for a woman’s right to choose whether to carry a fetus to term, greater desire for racial inclusion, and greater tolerance for gay people, including their right to full marriage rights. This has been the theory which has driven coalition politics and created alliances between organizations with little in common other than those who opposed their objectives.
And those who daily strive to return America to some Golden Age of Heterosexual Supremacy have also labored under the same assumptions. Labeling themselves as “pro-family”, they broke society into two camps: liberals who wanted unfettered abortion, polygamy, perversion, and the destruction of Western Civilization by means of gay marriage; and conservatives who love America, family, and God. (This mindset even explains GOProud, the very tiny organization of gays who oppose gay rights because they perceive that opposing equality is part of being “conservative”).
But it seems that we all were wrong. It seems that for at least the two issues of abortion and marriage equality, Americans (and especially younger Americans) see these as distinct and separate issues not irrevocably linked by a sense of liberal or conservative identity.
In recent election cycles the so-called “values voter” agenda has often been distilled to abortion and same-sex marriage. Yet these two controversial topics are no longer necessarily linked in the minds of Americans. The gap is particularly notable among the Millennial generation, who support rights for gay and lesbian Americans at rates much higher than their parents but whose generally supportive views on the legality of abortion do not deviate significantly from their parents or the general public.
[Our investigation of Rekers’ “Kraig” and the story of his alterego Kirk Murphy resulted in a significant increase in traffic. The resulting required change in servers has us a little in-between, and consequently we can’t upload new images. There are some informative graphics in the report, starting on Page 8. Please view them there, as I cannot yet provide them here. Thanks, Timothy]
It also appears that the disconnect between abortion and marriage as identity-driven social issues is highly dependent on age. This disparity is likely to increase over time as Millennials (those born in the 80’s) and younger enter society and take their place in politics. While abortion positions do not waver significantly by age, younger Americans are dramatically more supportive of same-sex marriage than are older Americans.
This will prove a challenge to many in our community and its political leadership. Those who view the gay community as a subset of the Democratic Party and a coalition partner in a progressive political alliance may come to find that this approach hinders their abilities in approaching the growing number of conservative, religious, or Republican gay allies.
If they are unable or unwilling to change to meet the new realities, others will rise up who will.
June 9th, 2011
When non-Californian’s think of the state, the great San Joaquin Valley is generally not what comes to mind. This southern half of the Central Valley is vast, rural, and green. There are no trolley cars or movies stars. Just mile after mile of grape vines, pistachio orchards, cotton fields and lettuces of various kinds, providing a 250 mile drive of mind numbing sameness from Bakersfield to Sacramento.
The San Joaquin valley is also politically very conservative, especially on gay issues. Although Orange County is notorious for sending anti-gay activists to Washington (Dannemeyer, Dornan), it is in the valley that anti-gay animus is planted, tended, and watered. While Orange County voted for Proposition 8 with a 57.8% approval, none of the eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley had an affirmative vote lower than 65% and five of them were in the 70’s.
And this conservatism can be found in the churches that dot the landscape, even the generally-supportive Episcopal Church. The ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson, a gay man living in a long-term relationship, did not sit well with the San Joaquin Diocese. And after much rumbling and threat, the rather effeminate Bishop John-David Schofield (a “cured homosexual”) led a revolt that pulled his diocese from the Episcopal Church and aligned it with first a church in Argentina and then with the Anglican Church of North America, a denomination which draws its distinction based on its rejection of gay people.
The Episcopal Church did not recognize Bishop Schofield’s right to defection and there is an ongoing legal battle over the assets of the church. Faithful congregations retained affiliation and other Episcopalians who sought to remain within the fold left their houses of worship to join together and build new congregations within the dioceses.
But any hope of reuniting now appears even more unlikely. After a temporary shepherding by a retired bishop, in March Rt. Rev. Chester Talton became the Episcopal Bishop of the San Joaquin Diocese. And today he issued a letter to his pastors that solidifies the distinction between the two groups:
Effective on Pentecost, June 12, 2011, clergy in the Diocese of San Joaquin may perform blessings of same gender civil marriages, domestic partnerships, and relationships which are lifelong committed relationships characterized by “fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God.” Said relationships shall be called “Sacred Unions” for purposes of the blessing and recognition of these relationships. A liturgy authorized for use within the Diocese will be published separately.
As yet Canon Law (and California civil law) do not allow for the official solemnization of marriage, but this step in recognizing and blessing same-sex relationships signifies that the Episcopal Church has placed the mission of grace ahead of any reconciliation based on potential concessions to the breakaway group.
June 9th, 2011
… you might get a chance to see me stumble over my words and become generally incoherent as soon as the red light comes on.
AC360 begins tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Pacific.
Update: But then again, maybe you won’t. They’re putting me off until tomorrow.
June 9th, 2011
In this episode, CNN tracks down George Rekers, the therapist who treated four-year-old Kirk Murphy and turned him into Rekers’s poster boy for ex-gay therapy. Here we see Rekers learning about Kirk’s suicide at the age of 38. He responds by saying that there is no evidence that Kirk’s suicide was the result of Kirk’s treatment. He also tries to exonerate himself by saying:
Two independent psychologists of me had evaluated him and said he was better adjusted after treatment. So it wasn’t my opinion.
According to Rekers’s writings, two psychologists followed up with Kirk when Kirk was fifteen. As I wrote in our newest epilogue, The Doctor’s Word:
Buried in a footnote, Rekers wrote, “I express my appreciation to Drs. Larry N. Ferguson and Alexander C. Rosen for their independent evaluations.” By 1979, Ferguson was working as a research psychologist at Logos Research Institute, a conservative religious-based think tank that Rekers had founded in 1975. With Rekers as his employer, Ferguson’s participation in such an evaluation could not be seen as independent. As for Rosen, he had been Rekers’s longstanding colleague at UCLA: the two of them co-wrote at least fourteen papers — including three defending the kind of treatment Kirk received at UCLA against growing criticism. Rosen may not have been as personally invested in Kirk’s reported outcome as Rekers, but he was certainly invested in UCLA’s reputation.
Rosen has since passed away. Ferguson told CNN that the family was well-adjusted and he didn’t see any “red flags” with Kirk. But when Kirk was fifteen, the family was falling apart, with Kirk’s father was drinking heavily and leaving the family — hardly the picture of a well-adjusted family. As for not seeing any red flags with Kirk, his sister Maris had a ready answer: “He was conditioned to say what he thought they wanted to hear.”
But there was one set of independent evaluations that Rekers wasn’t a part of. Those occurred when Dr. Richard Green interviewed Kirk at the age of seventeen and eighteen for his 1987 book, The Sissy Boy Syndrome. That’s where we learn that at Kirk was still attracted to men, was deeply conflicted over those attractions, had engaged in an anonymous sexual encounter with a man, and tried to commit suicide because of it. For the remainder of Rekers’s career, he would never acknowledge what was uncovered in the The Sissy Boy Syndrome interviews. As far as Rekers was concerned, those interviews never happened and “Kraig”, his pseudonym for Kirk, remained a success story.
You can learn more about those so-called independent reviews and the perils of accepting a researcher’s writings at face value in our newest epilogue, The Doctor’s Word, the latest addition to our investigative report, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?”
June 9th, 2011
Today’s Daily Agenda is abbreviated due to yesterday’s outage.
TODAY’S AGENDA:
The Sissy Boy Experiment: CNN. Tonight’s Anderson Cooper 360 will air the final part of their three-part series, “The Sissy Boy Experiment: Uncovering the Truth.” The first two parts of this series were the result of several month’s of investigating the truth behind the George Rekers’s treatment of his most famous patient, four-year-old Kirk Murphy. Tonight’s installment shifts to another former ex-gay patient, except this one is a survivor. Ryan Kendall is a former patient of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the past president if the National Association for Research and Treatment of Homosexuality (NARTH). Kendall testified at the Prop 8 trial that Nicolosi had Kendall meet his perfect patient “named Kelly, who (when the doctor left the room) told me that he was going to a gay bar that night and was pretending success in conversion for his family.” Since Anderson Cooper said that they will have Kendall’s therapist on tonight, this will definitely be a must-see.
If you haven’t done so already, you can read up on Kirk’s treatment by George Rekers in our report, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?” AC360 starts at 10:00 p.m. EDT.
The Reality of Will and Grace: A Refutation of the Ex-Gay Movement: Asheville, NC. Out in the woods outside of Asheville, Exodus International is holding its annual ex-gay conference, bringing in hundreds of people across America and around the world. A counter-conference, The Reality of Will and Grace continues today with an exhibit at Tressa’s, 28 Broadway, Asheville at 5:30 p.m. Then at 7:00 p.m. at Tressa’s, Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen joins a panel of ex-gay survivors for a discussion of their experiences in the ex-gay movement. Given recent revelations, they should have plenty to talk about. The counter-conference runs through Saturday.
Hate Crimes Forum: Shreveport, LA. The U.S. Department of Justice will present a hate crime forum this evening at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road in Shreveport beginning at 6:30 p.m. Participants at the forum include members of the FBI, Shreveport Mayor’s Office, Shreveport Police Department, and local educational and religious leaders. The forum is sponsored by P.A.C.E. (People Acting for Change and Equality), and the Forum for Equality.
EQCA Town Hall: Online. Equality California will host its final “Back to the Ballot?” Town hall meeting, this time to be held via a telephone conference call. if you want to participate, please register in advance. Upon registration, you will be sent the call-in number. The meeting takes place from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Pride Celebrations This Week: Albany, NY; Albuquerque, NM; Blackpool, UK; Boston, MA; Brisbane, QLD; Brooklyn, NY; Des Moines, IA; Edmonton, AB; El Paso, TX; Erie, PA; Key West, FL; Long Island, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Milwaukee, WI; Newark-Essex, NJ; Olympia, WA; Oxford, UK; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Rome (Europride); San Antonio, TX; Saskatoon, SK; Shreveport, LA; Spokane, WA; Talin, Estonia (Baltic Pride); Tel Aviv, Israel (Friday); Thunder Bay, ON; Tulsa, OK and Washington, DC.
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
June 8th, 2011
Make no mistake about it, CNN’s riveting documentary is well worth watching. And I don’t mean for this post to be a criticism of their excellent coverage. But when you’re dealing with the kind of time constraints that come with television, the story winds up being streamlined and important information goes missing. That’s just the nature of the medium.
For example, Anderson Cooper, as narrator, says this:
Mrs. Murphy says she saw a psychologist on a local TV program talking about behavior like Kirk’s.
and
The psychologist was recruiting young boys for a government-funded program at UCLA…
The psychologist remained unnamed throughout the entire report, but in the Murphy family’s understanding of Kirk’s therapy, that unnamed psychologist, the very prominent and well-respected Dr. Richard Green, was a central figure in their experience. In fact, Kaytee, Kirk’s mother, didn’t even know who George Rekers was when I first mentioned him during our first interview. It was Green she saw on that television program, listing the characteristics that parents should be worried about and recruiting young boys for the federally-funded program. Kaytee thought Kirk’s care was under Green’s direction, and that Rekers was just a “college aide.” She has good reason to believe that; Rekers was only twenty-two years old when Kirk was being treated, having just earned his bachelor’s degree from Westmont College in Santa Barbara just a few months earlier. Was Rekers really given that much freedom over Kirk’s treatment?
This is the kind of information you will find in our full report, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?“. To understand better the question (if not the answer) of who oversaw Kirk’s treatment, check out our epilogue, “Cuius Culpa?”
And don’t forget to tune in tonight for the second installment of CNN’s “The Sissy Boy Experiment,” on Anderson Cooper 360 beginning at 10:00 p.m. EDT.
June 8th, 2011
Maris in her pink dress (Photo courtesy of Maris)
In CNN’s teaser and on the live broadcast last night, when discussing Kirk’s effeminacy, a picture of a child in a frilly dress floated by. London’s Daily Mail presented the picture with the descriptive footer: “His mother says she was concerned about his effeminate behaviour, which included liking girls’ clothes.”
This gave the distinct but false impression that Kirk was the child in the dress. But the picture is not of Kirk; it is of his sister Maris. However this picture is valuable to the family as it illustrates Kirk’s character and selflessness. See the importance of this dress at Maris’ Eulogy
June 8th, 2011
Here is the CNN coverage of Kirk Murphy’s story
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
June 8th, 2011
Welcome to those joining us from CNN or from other links. Many of you are here to read the details of our investigation into Kirk Murphy’s life and you can find the report here. We invite you to stay and join the BTB community.
As many of you know, Box Turtle Bulletin has been down for the past several hours. Although moved to a dedicated server, the traffic was in excess of our capabilities. While this has been extremely frustrating to us, it is also testament of the importance of Kirk Murphy’s story.
Thank you for your patience.
June 8th, 2011
Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp, the two Miami New Times reporters who first broke George Rekers’s rent-boy scandal have posted an update on CNN.com, where they are working as freelance reporters on the Kirk Murphy story. I may have missed it, but among the new tidbits that I hadn’t seen before is the contract that Rekers’s allegedly signed with his male escort outlining his duties during that famous European vacation. The first delineated task in the contract does indeed cal on the escort the carry “the suitcases of George Rekers and any other objects when George Rekers request such assistance.” But the fourth item requires the escort tp “provide George Rekers a massage for at least one hour each day of the trip in their shared room, using the same procedures that [redacted] provides to George Rekers in Florida.”
Bullock and Thorp go on to describe how they came to find out about the Murphy family, an account which is very similar to how I found out about them. For my part, it all started with this comment Maris left on BTB right after she found out that Kirk had been the subject of Richard Green’s book and George Rekers’s papers. Bullock and Thorp also want to hear from anyone else who underwent treatment at UCLA or elsewhere:
We now know the fate of Kraig. But what became of the dozens of other children upon whom Rekers conducted his experimental therapy?
What became of “Becky,” a 7-year-old girl with purported tomboy tendencies, who underwent 102 “monitoring” sessions in a lab and a further 96 in her bedroom?
Rekers deemed Becky cured when she became “enamored with the (adult) male examiner and wanted to give him her phone number so that he could call her ‘every night and every day.’ ”
And what of “Carl,” an 8-year-old treated at UCLA for 15 months, whose “sex-role development” was thought to have been “normalized” when he declared that he “used to be a queer, but not any more.”
June 8th, 2011
TODAY’S AGENDA:
The Sissy Boy Experiment: CNN. Tonight’s Anderson Cooper 360 will air the second part of their three-part series, “The Sissy Boy Experiment: Uncovering the Truth.” This series is the result of several month’s of investigating the truth behind the UCLA program to turn effeminate boys into straight men. (For full disclosure, I was interviewed by CNN as part of their investigation, although I doubt that my interview will make it on air.) If you haven’t done so already, you can read up about it in our report, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?” AC360 starts at 10:00 p.m. EDT. The timing of this special investigative report is perfect because…
Exodus International “Freedom Conference”: Ridgecrest, NC. That’s right. As the world learns the true story behind ex-gay therapist George Rekers’s most famous patient, North America’s largest ex-gay ministry kicks off the gayest event in the greater Asheville area today. This year’s theme, “The Reality of Grace,” is puzzling, considering the true reality of what comes out of the ex-gay experience for so many people. This annual conference is Exodus International’s flagship event of the year, and it draws hundreds of participants from all across North American and other parts of the world. But Exodus won’t have the last word in North Carolina because…
The Reality of Will and Grace: A Refutation of the Ex-Gay Movement: Asheville, NC. This counter-conference begins today with the opening of an exhibit at Tressa’s, 28 Broadway, Asheville at 5:30 p.m. Then at 7:00 p.m. at Tressa’s, Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen joins Asheville city councilman and congressional candidate Cecil Bothwellon for a discussion of the religious right and the ex-gay movement. Given recent revelations, they should have plenty to talk about. The counter-conference runs through Saturday.
Premiere of “OUT In America”: PBS. Emmy award-winning director Andrew Goldberg, in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting, will premiere the new PBS special, OUT in America. It features interviews with Armistead Maupin, Chely Wright, Andy Cohen, Kate Clinton, Rev. Peter Gomes, among many others as they explore the many ways of being gay and/or transgender today and in the past. Not all PBS stations are carrying this special, so check your local listings.
EQCA Town Hall: Sacramento, CA. Equality California will host a “Back to the Ballot?” Town hall meetingin Sacramento discuss whether we should wait for the courts to restore the freedom to marry — a decision which could have a nationwide impact — or whether Californians should try to overturn Prop. 8 through a ballot measure in 2012. The town hall will take place this evening at the Sierra 2 Center for the Arts and Community, 2791 24th Street, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
UNAIDS 2011 High Level Meeting: New York. Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, and 10 years since the landmark UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, the world will come together to review progress and chart the future course of the global AIDS response at the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS. Member States are expected to adopt a new Declaration that will reaffirm current commitments and commit to actions to guide and sustain the global AIDS response.
Pride Celebrations This Week: Albany, NY; Albuquerque, NM; Blackpool, UK; Boston, MA; Brisbane, QLD; Brooklyn, NY; Des Moines, IA; Edmonton, AB; El Paso, TX; Erie, PA; Key West, FL; Long Island, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Milwaukee, WI; Newark-Essex, NJ; Olympia, WA; Oxford, UK; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Rome (Europride); San Antonio, TX; Saskatoon, SK; Shreveport, LA; Spokane, WA; Talin, Estonia (Baltic Pride); Tel Aviv, Israel (Friday); Thunder Bay, ON; Tulsa, OK and Washington, DC.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Florida Bans Gay Marriage and Adoption: 1977. Florida’s gay community took a triple whammy today. On the very day after Miami voters overwhelmingly sided with Anita Bryant to rescind that county’s anti-discrimination ordinance, Florida governor Reubin Askew signed into law two anti-gay measures. The first one banned same-sex marriage and the second one banned gay adults from adopting. State Sen. Curtis Peterson, (D-Eaton Park) sponsored the measures, and said that the new laws tell homosexuals “We are tired of you and wish you would go back in the closet.” He continued, “The problem in Florida is that homosexuals are surfacing to such an extent that they are infringing on average, normal people who have a few rights, too.” The bills sailed through the legislature with little opposition and became effective immediately upon Askew’s signing.
In 2008, Florida voters made same-sex marriage even more illegaler when they passed Amendment 2. In 2010, a Florida appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found the adoption ban unconstitutional.
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
June 7th, 2011
Kirk, in 2003 (Photo courtesy of Tim Lee)
This was a story full of surprises, beginning with the first one: this comment that Kirk’s sister, Maris, left on BTB last October. That was the comment that started it all. And as I interviewed the family and researched the story, I had several other surprises along the way:
Surprise #1: Who’s In Charge?
When I interviewed Kirk’s mother, Kaytee, for the first time and I asked her about George Rekers, she had no idea who I was talking about. She had taken Kirk to UCLA after seeing Dr. Richard Green, a noted expert on childhood gender development, on a local Los Angeles talk show. For all of these years, she beleived it was Green who was in charge of Kirk’s therapy. (The last time I talked to her, she still believes it, and has good reasons behind her belief.) Kaytee remembers Rekers as just a “college assistant.” In fact, Rekers was a grad student who had just earned his Bachelor’s degree a few months before treating Kirk. It’s hard to believe that Rekers was solely responsible for Kirk’s therapy, but getting to the bottom of the riddle proved much harder than I would have guessed.
Surprise #2: How Important Kirk’s Case Really Was
I was surprised at how often Rekers wrote about Kirk’s case and how important it was to behavioral therapists who were trying to change their clients’ sexual orientation. The 1974 paper which broke the case very nearly became a “classic” in the professional literature and was cited more than a hundred times by other journals, books, and even college textbooks. “Kraig’s” case — Rekers’s pseudonym for Kirk, was cited specifically by numerous researchers, and he became the subject of intense debate over the ethics and efficacy of behavioral therapy to change sexual orientation. Yet all the while, the Murphy family new nothing about it. (I’ll have more on that tomorrow and Thursday).
The last time George Rekers wrote about Kirk was in 2009, nearly six years after Kirk committed suicide. Rekers contributed a chapter to Dr. Julie Harren Hamilton’s Handbook of Therapy for Unwanted Homosexual Attractions. Hamilton is the president of NARTH, and the book is available through NARTH’s online bookstore. It has also been sold at various ex-gay gatherings and conventions. In the book’s final chapter, Rekers wrote:
Follow-up psychological evaluations three years after treatment indicates that Craig’s gender behaviors became normalized. An independent clinical psychologist evaluated Craig and found that post-treatment he had a normal male identity. Using intrasubject replication designs, this published case was the first experimentally demonstrated reversal of a cross-gender identity with psychological treatment, and the journal article on this case was among the top 12 cited articles in clinical psychology in the 1970s.
Surprise #3: The Lack of Independent Verification
Given how important Kirk’s case was in behavioral therapy, I was very surprised at how easy it was for someone to publish a paper and see everyone else accept the report at face value. Peer review is supposed to be the gold standard in science, but this case reveals that peer review has very little ability to guarantee the facts in a case. Rekers claimed that there were independent follow-ups, but his evidence for that is very scant at best. I’ll have more on that tomorrow morning, but suffice it to say, once independent evidence finally came available, it revealed — or at least should have revealed — that Rekers’s assurances that Kirk remained “normal” on follow-up were suspect, to say the least.
Surprise #4: How Kirk’s Therapy Affected Others In The Family
As a gay man myself, it was easy to identify with Kirk’s suffering. What surprised me though was how the therapy he underwent affected the whole family. Especially poignant is Mark’s story. He saw how abusive the therapy was for Kirk, so he moved some of Kirk’s red chips into his own pile and took the beatings for his younger brother. When he told me that over the phone, it took him a long time to work his way through it. It was a very emotional conversation, and he has been carrying that emotion with him for forty years.
Also, while I think it is easy to look at Kirk’s parents as villains in the story, I think I have much greater sympathy for Kaytee and Rod than I thought I would. Sympathy for Kaytee was relatively easy; she did what most mothers in 1970 would have done, and she is horrified at the results. But I am surprised at my sympathy for Rod (he has since passed away), given the fact that he was the one who delivered the beatings. No, I don’t condone the physical abuse at all. He clearly went over the line. But the context is interesting. First, Rod didn’t want to be a part of the therapy to begin with. But also remember, he was being blamed for Kirk’s “condition” according to the theories that UCLA communicated with the family. (and I’ll have more on that Friday). According to Rekers, it was absent or distant fathers that made their sons gay, and it remains one of the main theories behind the ex-gay movement today. Fathers are still the fall guys for their sons’ sexuality.
Surprise #5: How Kirk Managed To Stay Alive For So Long
That’s a paraphrase of Maris’s observation as she came to understand the magnitude of what happened to her brother. The fact that he did survive as long as he did is a testament to the good friends he made along the way, particularly his ex-wife Debbie and his roommate Tim. Getting into the Air Force after high school was probably the best thing that could have happened to him, not only for the self-confidence he must have gotten over becoming a successful linguist, but more importantly for meeting Tim and Debbie. It just goes to show how important close friends can be.
Those were the biggest surprises so far for me. I’m still learning. I wonder what you found surprising. Please let me know in the comments.
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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