The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 25
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
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
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Ben in Oakland
July 17th, 2012 | LINK
And yet, and yet…
Their molestation problem continues.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Timothy Kincaid
July 17th, 2012 | LINK
well gosh, who would question the opinions of “professional scout executives and adult volunteers”?
Nathaniel
July 17th, 2012 | LINK
How convenient that, just months after a well-publicized national push to end the anti-gay discrimination, a secret panel finished their two year review, resulting in affirmation of the policy.
chiMaxx
July 17th, 2012 | LINK
My question is simple. Haw can a committee representing “a diversity of perspectives and opinions” on this issue come to a unanimous conclusion?
ezam
July 17th, 2012 | LINK
When is Wayne Perry going to take over and is he actually going to do something to repeal the policy?
Andrew
July 18th, 2012 | LINK
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — the rank and file of the BSA are caught in a lose/lose here.
Parents entrust their kids to Scouts for extended periods — I attended overnight camp for 2 weeks at a stretch, where I cooked my own food on fires I built with wood I gathered and cut, yes with an axe (not all at the same time – we did have a duty roster). It’s hard enough – kids inevitably go home with broken limbs, burns, snakebites, bee-stings, and who knows what else. Not a year went by someone didn’t end up getting driven to the nurse, or maybe to the hospital. Camp was FUN, and the trips throughout the year were some of my best memories.
But Scouts is dependent on the goodwill of parents to “stay in business” — that means that they are subject to the whims, prejudices, misperceptions, stereotypes, irrational fears, and politics of parents — a group notably irrational when dealing with others concerning their kids. Even without sexuality ever being an issue, I saw more ugliness and viciousness initiated by adults during Scouting that I care to remember. That we were mostly kept at arm’s length from it was a testament to the great adult leadership we had.
So. If parents have a stupid notion that gay adults in the woods with their kids is a bad idea and will lead to molestation, Scouting has a problem in changing their policy – they will lose thousands of scouts as stupid parents pull them. Then, with one single controversy or unfortunate situation and you easily have a Penn State situation. Corporate sponsorships will evaporate. Government largess in the form of access to public spaces goes away as politicians duck for cover. It’s a tinderbox.
But, parents who understand that gays are no more likely to be childmolesters than anyone else, and find the gay ban ugly and discriminatory will… pull their kids out of Scouting… by the thousands. Corporate sponsorships evaporate. Scouting is taken to court and sued so that it now must pay full price for spaces it formerly got for a song, or is banned altogether.
It’s a lose / lose situation. Scouting must follow here, because it is entirely dependent on the parents. It cannot lead. Given that sexuality isn’t just peripheral but utterly absent from Scout teaching (other than about one line in the handbook about respecting girls and your body), it would be extremely weird for them to suddenly become the “hey, gays are pretty cool” ambassadors to American families.
It’s not their job.
They’ve been stupid, ham-handed, ignorant, and ugly in their handling of the issue. At the same time, they’d have been stupid, mismanaged, and quixotic if they had embraced gay leaders, especially considering that the original court cases were prior to laws criminalizing gays being struck down by the SCOTUS.
When I was a lad, there were gay scoutmasters — I found out years later I had one. (We also had one of two female assistant scoutmasters in the entire country). But none of that was discussed or made issue of. Adults private lives were off-limits (assuming they weren’t criminals, obviously). Forcing this issue to the front was just terribly damaging.
And, tragically, it’s the boys who suffer. Scouting is an incredible institution and program for teaching self-reliance, teamwork, leading, following, citizenship from town to country to world, and the focus on environmentalism is unmatched. They taught a gay kid like me that, in fact, I’m not only great with a .22, it’s huge fun. They insisted that I learn to swim, thank god. And they draw shy withdrawn kids out of their shells and provide them with peers — something that saves lives. It’s baked in.
How sad that they’ve allowed themselves to remain enmeshed with this issue – known now more for this than for helping old ladies across the street – and have become synonymous with discrimination.
The solution to allow each community to vet adult leaders for themselves would have been appropriate. And it would have side-stepped the “ambassadorial” question. It would be consistent with libertarian values, and allowed parents to remain in control. It’s a huge missed opportunity, and one this leadership should be deeply ashamed of.
But patience, friends. Part of me deeply suspects whether or not a Jewish or African-American scoutmaster would have been well-loved (or allowed) in 1920… they may be following, but they will, ultimately, follow.
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