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 lobbyMarch 10th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Alan Chambers Talks About Not Being Gay Anymore: Temecula, CA. According to a notice posted on Exodus International’s web site:
For all those living in southern California, Exodus International president, Alan Chambers, will be speaking at all weekend services at Rancho Community Church March 10th and 11th. Check their website for times. All our welcome. Below is a brief article written by one of the Rancho leaders.
Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, will deliver speeches at Rancho Community Church.
Chambers, who was once gay, will speak March 10-11, the church announced. He will discuss the church’s role in compassionately ministering to gay people and their families. The March 10 session is at 5 p.m. The March 11 installment will feature speeches at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. [Emphasis mine]
Ahem.
Community Events This Weekend: Cape Town Pride, Cape Town, SA; AIDS Walk, Houston, TX.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Court-Martial of Lt. Frederick Gotthold Enslin: 1778. Gen. George Washington’s general orders for March 14, 1776 at Valley Forge, PA., included the following description of a court martial that occurred on the 10th:
At a General Court Martial whereof Colo Tupper was President (10th March 1778) Lieutt. Enslin of Colo. Malcom’s Regiment tried for attempting to commit sodomy, with John Monhort a soldier; Secondly For Perjury in swearing to false Accounts, found guilty of the charges exhibited against him being breaches of 5th. Article 18th. Section of the Articles of War and do sentence him to be dismiss’d the service with Infamy. His Excellency the Commander in Chief approves the sentence and with Abhorrence and Detestation of such Infamous Crimes orders Lieutt. Enslin to be drummed out of Camp tomorrow morning [March 15] by all the Drummers and Fifers in the Army never to return; the Drummer and Fifers to attend on the Grand Parade at Guard mounting for that Purpose.
This case began in late February with the court-martial of Ensign Anthony Maxwell, who was charged with “propagating a scandalous report prejudicial to the character of Lieut. Enslin.” Maxwell, who had accused Enslin of “attempted sodomy with a private,” was acquitted. Whatever he said, the court-martial found that it wasn’t “prejudicial to the Character of Lieutt. Enslin further than the strict lien of his duty required.” If Maxwell didn’t slander Enslin as the court found, then that evidently meant that Enslin was guilty. Enslin was quickly court-martialed, and is believed to be the first person to be forced out of the forerunner of the U.S. Army on charges of homosexual behavior.
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).
And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
Latest Posts
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.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Timothy Kincaid
March 10th, 2012
Anti-gays use this story as an example of how our Holy Founding Fathers never intended homosexuals to blah blah blah.
But others say that this could probably be better seen as an illustration of Washington’s tolerance as it was a punishment far more lenient than was customary. I don’t know enough to say which is more accurate.
Soren456
March 10th, 2012
The lenience strikes me, too. I’m not familiar with punishments common to the revolutionary army, but I’d have expected lashes, or jail time, or hard labor.
For what it’s worth, Gore Vidal believes that Washington was, at least, enamored of Alexander Hamilton. When the war began, Hamilton was in his early 20s, extremely handsome and, apparently, somewhat cocky. Vidal notes Hamilton’s quick rise within Washington’s staff, and cites several occasions on which Washington, a military professional, exercised great and unexpected lenience with Hamilton’s behavior. These include backtalk and lateness for appointments and meetings.
I can’t quickly find where in Vidal’s essays I read this, but I recall that he made a good case for his observation.
iDavid
March 10th, 2012
Though Temecula is not a major city in Cali, it does have a lot of surrounding smaller cities that would be more attracted to the velvet dagger likes of Exodus. I hope more people can pull out of the claw-like clutches by hearing him speak more than not. In a short time his rhetoric in the U.S. will become perfectly profane, even to the most sexually sick, where Chambers chooses to wallow.
Leave A Comment