The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 24
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
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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Ben In Oakland
January 5th, 2012 | LINK
Celibacy is a charisma, literally a gift fromn god. you can’t be a priest unless god has given you this gift.
So god didn’t give the gift to a man who was certified by the church as hgaving it. And the church just assumes that god iwll give it to some random gay person if only he/she attends a church program.
somneone isn’t reading their own rulebooks.
mike/
January 5th, 2012 | LINK
the only ones ‘hurting’ are those who have been forced to swallow the RC, Courage, etc. lies
Regan DuCasse
January 5th, 2012 | LINK
Priests and nuns don’t procreate, either…OOPS!
Mark F.
January 5th, 2012 | LINK
“you can’t be a priest unless god has given you this gift.”
Yes, you can. Exceptions are sometimes made for married men and Eastern Rite priests always could be married. However, no priest can become married after ordination. But if you are single when you are ordained, you are expected to remain single and celibate.
Patrick Hogan
January 5th, 2012 | LINK
I am neither a eunuch nor straight, and nothing the church has said has convinced me to pretend otherwise.
Crash2Parties
January 5th, 2012 | LINK
Apparently the Church has forgotten how the practice of celibacy originally became part of their tradition and culture. The really basic story is that Biblical eunuchs were granted a special place in Heaven despite not being able to pass on their name to heirs. Well, around 300-400 CE the Church had a problem. There was a sudden trend of castration when someone apparently rediscovered the Biblical secret back door into Heaven. In a knee-jerk response the Church created …virtual eunuchs (i.e., the Vow of Celebacy). The Church at that time also created the idea of isolated monasteries, where handfuls of men could better assist each other in their struggle to avoid sex with women. Inherent in all this change this was a new, highly hierarchical structure whereupon each level would “give of themselves as a bride to her groom”.
Qwerty
January 6th, 2012 | LINK
Well, the abstinence meme certainly has worked out well in sex education, hasn’t it?
Adrienne Critcher
January 6th, 2012 | LINK
I’m still waiting for the Catholic church’s celibacy program for divorced people. According to Mark 10:11-12, divorced people commit adultery if they remarry, so they need to remain celibate for the rest of their lives rather than enter a permanent state of adultery. This of course goes for Southern Baptists and all other denominations and religions that cherry-pick their Bibles.
Janelle
January 6th, 2012 | LINK
Gee that sounds like the same way unmarried Christians are to live there lives as well. Marriage is the gift of God for God’s plan of creation for humans to continue.
It’s funny how mankind changes things around to suit there fancy. Only thing is that the consequences for our misbehavior can last a lifetime and beyond. It is up to us how we apply our lives in God’s plan of salvation as well.
bobinW...
January 6th, 2012 | LINK
Previous post on Courage founder Father John Harvey.
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2010/12/30/28778
EXCERPT
“In 1980, New York’s Archbishop Cooke invited Father John Harvey to develop a ministry to Catholics with same-sex attractions.”
http://badgercatholic.blogspot.com/2011/07/big-names-at-this-years-courage.html
EXCERPT
“I am pleased to send you the brochure for this year’s annual conference, returning to Mundelein on August 4-7. We will dedicate our time together to the memory of Fr. John Harvey, OSFS, in gratitude for his spiritual fatherhood. I have asked several of our speakers to share their reflections on Fr. Harvey’s influence in their lives and his role in leading Courage and EnCourage for almost three decades.”
EXCERPT
“Fr. Benedict Groeschel and Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons will also be with us.”
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/courage-continues-mission-of-its-founder-father-harvey/
EXCERPT
“CHICAGO — Courage, a Church apostolate ministering to people with same-sex attraction, held its 23rd annual conference this summer in Chicago. Members of Courage and EnCourage, the support group for their loved ones, were joined by Church leaders, including Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura at the Vatican, the Holy See’s highest court; Father Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who helped to found Courage in 1981; and Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist with extensive experience counseling people with same-sex attraction.”
EXCERPT
“Father Groeschel told me that when he helped found Courage in 1980 it encountered pushback because some falsely believed that it promoted tolerance of homosexuality, if not outright acceptance. That misunderstanding was swiftly corrected, he said, saying that the real pushback has come from those within the Church who disagree with Courage’s moral orthodoxy: the sort of pushback Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons said exists within the mainstream medical and academic establishment when it comes to considering homosexuality. Is Courage still running into brick walls?”
http://patrickjwall.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/church-crisis-intervention-teams-and-the-men-who-help-them/
EXCERPT
“Father Harvey wrote in 1986, “for several years I have been engaged in what is best described as crisis intervention, working with clinical psychologist John F. Kinnane, of Catholic University, Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons of Philadelphia, and with treatment centers in the rehabilitation of clerics and religious who had become emotionally and sexually involved with boys or adolescent males… we have been able to share our perception with them and to help fourteen clerics get some measure of control over their lives.” (The Homosexual Person, page 226, Ignatius Press)”
Priya Lynn
January 6th, 2012 | LINK
Janelle said “It’s funny how mankind changes things around to suit there fancy.”.
Its funny how mankind pretending to be a god wrote the bible to suit their fancy.
Jerry Sloan
January 6th, 2012 | LINK
The RC requirement of cebilacy for its priests is certainly unscriptual as Paul wrote in Timothy a bishop (pastor) should be the husband of one wife.
g_whiz
January 7th, 2012 | LINK
If celebicy was such a “gift” why is it so much of a social problem with the Church’s priests trying to give theirs away in inappropriate settings?
William
January 7th, 2012 | LINK
As far as I’m concerned, celibacy is perfectly legitimate as a choice – provided that it is an entirely free and unpressured one – but totally improper as a demand.
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