The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, May 21
Connecticut Scouts simply announce that they are accepting gay scout leaders
Church of Scotland allows ministers in relationship
Last Minute Bid to Sink Marriage Bill Fails in British Commons
Will Illinois Be #13?
The Daily Agenda for Monday, May 20
Gay Man Shot To Death In NYC Hate Crime
The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 19
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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David in Houston
August 26th, 2012 | LINK
Not only do they make a good argument why children being raised by gay parents should be able to marry, but in their attempt to demonize gay couples they do exactly the same thing to ALL opposite-sex families that aren’t headed by a biological mother and father. So single-parent families are spat upon, step-parents are less than, and adoptive parents make horrible parents by comparison. Yet, oddly enough, all of those heterosexual groups are allowed to marry, even if their situation isn’t as optimal as those utopian biological parents. But Kalley didn’t mention that. I wonder why?
mikenola
August 26th, 2012 | LINK
ROB, sad to say but the fly in your logic is that in their hate filled minds SSM is not a marriage even if reality and law says it is.
They and their supporters will never see the hilarity in this and certainly never see the source of their statement for its vital lack…information about gay parents/families.
Richard Rush
August 26th, 2012 | LINK
The unspoken implication is always that those married moms and dads are the idyllic perfect parents raising beautiful perfect children.
They never mention, hoping no one will think about, all the children’s lives made miserable by married moms and dads who are often woefully ill-equiped to be parents, and/or who may end up divorced leaving the children to shuttle between households – assuming that both parents even want to see the children. And then there is all the rampant irresponsible breeding to exacerbate the problem.
But the real threat to children is having gay parents.
Truthspew
August 26th, 2012 | LINK
I usually enjoy taking down The MN Marriage Minute videos. But this one, yeah they’re coming off the rails!
esurience
August 26th, 2012 | LINK
Their ad would be a great counter-argument to someone who wants to do away with the institution of marriage entirely.
I know they believe that allowing gay and lesbian people to marry will either undermine the institution of marriage or lead to its collapse entirely, but what they seem to forget to do is actually argue that case.
Instead, they give us an argument about how great marriage is. But that’s not the part that (most of us) disagree with!
Unfortunately, I’m sure they have evidence from focus groups and the like that this tactic works.
People seem to think that the conclusion “same-sex marriage must be banned” follows from the premise that “heterosexual marriage is good” — but of course it doesn’t, and they’ve never mustered an explicit, compelling argument connecting those two dots. They very rarely even bother to try.
Bose in St. Peter MN
August 27th, 2012 | LINK
The thing that grabbed me is M4M’s use of (less than 25% of) Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam in the background to reinforce that God Created Marriage.
The piece is about breathing the spark of life into Adam, not marriage.
To use it, they had to crop out (fully or mostly) the faces of several childlike angels, and of course, any below-the-waist angel anatomy.
Most amazingly, the entire existence of Adam had to be excised before it could be of value to M4M. Using their portion of the piece, God could be using his finger as a magic wand: Abracadabra, There Shalt Be Marriage! Or, God wagging a finger: There shall be marriage, but only one kind, and no other, forever and ever, Amen!
But, the focus of the piece wasn’t God’s command to the Earth, it was the hand of God reaching out to touch one man, reaching not from distant heavens to strike like a lightning bolt, but making eye contact, and the gentle touch of one finger to another.
Oh yeah, and Adam wasn’t a meek and trembling wisp of a guy, hiding from God, Michelangelo saw him as a beautifully muscled creation of God, well equipped to take on the physical challenges of the new world.
Since Adam was naked, though, maybe M4M found it unthinkable to include his hand or forearm… unconscionable that some see a loving connection between two masculine figures… and yet, Michelangelo’s homoerotic poetry, sculpture, and paintings weren’t enough to prevent M4M from making political hay by misrepresenting his work.
See the Creation of Adam, in full, here.
Ben in Oakland
August 27th, 2012 | LINK
And this is why I object to nearly every ad I,ve seen for our side.
If I were running our campaign, I would have a gay family with children in it, explaining why marriage is important and matters to them. Then I would say, “we agree with the Minnesota Hate the Gays campaign ( though of course we would n’t say that,) marriage is important for the stability of families. We want that stability for OUR children, and they are every bit as important as yours. ”
But no. We’ll just show Gram and Gramps talking about their gay child whom they can’t actually acknowledge by showing them.
jerry
August 28th, 2012 | LINK
None of these anti-gay groups who want to deny civil rights for gays seem to notice that there are a lot of children of heterosexual parents in child protective services because those heterosexual parents weren’t all that good. So far no one has mentioned that there don’t seem to be any instances of a child taken away from a gay parent for any other reason than the parent is gay and is most often the result of a nasty divorce.
I know there must be poor gay parents but if any gay parent had been charged with child endangerment or abuse, these groups like NOM and FRC would be trumpeting it to high heaven.
Ken
August 28th, 2012 | LINK
I agree with Rick Santorum: if we let a man marry a woman, a man is going to want to marry two women, and that will lead us to polygamy.
My point is that the anti-gay arguments are so stupid they can be turned around constructively.
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