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
August 29th, 2012 | LINK
“‘I’m in the closet. Thank you so much for this.’
“People may now realize you can be gay and still be welcome in the GOP party.”
Are those rose colored glasses prescription, or do they only cancel out green contradictions?
TampaZeke
August 29th, 2012 | LINK
I guess being open enough to anonymously and fearfully drop a note in someone’s lap to announce that you don’t know that you’re a closeted gay person is what passes for a gay welcoming environment in the GOP today.
The sad thing is; it’s PROGRESS!
Tor
August 29th, 2012 | LINK
“People may now realize you can be gay and still be welcome in the GOP party.”
By one or two other delegates.
Hyhybt
August 30th, 2012 | LINK
For some reason, I had the impression that 99 leaned Democratic…
Zack
August 30th, 2012 | LINK
I think this is a different Barbara.
DN
August 30th, 2012 | LINK
I often feel ashamed of myself for disliking closeted gays. But in this case, I think it’s entirely warranted. The guy who dropped the note is a convention attendee who lacks the personal conviction to be himself around others.
I know it’s hard. I know everyone’s situation is different. I’m thankful every day for the insanely positive experience I had coming out. And I’m willing to give a pass to the random closeted people who just aren’t ready to come out yet.
But this guy is working for a party with stated policy goals that seek to make him officially a second-class citizen. He’s not quite at the level of a public official, but it’s something close, and I’m not ready to heave a sympathetic sigh.
As the interviewee said, you can be heterosexual and be for gay rights – the note dropper can maintain his facade of heterosexuality and help push back against the anti-gays. But he doesn’t – instead he fearfully drops a note on someone’s lap. Pathetic.
Robert
August 30th, 2012 | LINK
Timothy, I think you should read this article at NPR, seems even the Log Cabin Republicans disagree with you over the attitudes and “behind the scenes” treatment of them and the entire Platform process. Trusting a fluff piece on CNN about the Convention, when they won’t even report who threw stuff at THEIR camera person, it seems, well, a little disengenious.
Here’s a little taste of that article:
“Pick, the Log Cabin’s program director and an evangelical Christian, however, characterized the tone of the party’s discussions about same-sex marriage in meetings of the Constitution subcommittee as largely “hostile.”
“We lost,” she said. “And you could say the social conservatives in our party dropped the hammer harder because we were there.”
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/08/29/160263621/some-gay-republicans-see-platform-setback-as-sign-victory-is-near
Blake
August 30th, 2012 | LINK
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. There was a nice little nugget of just how out of touch the platform committee is with the American public:
Jim Hlavac
August 30th, 2012 | LINK
As a long time Right winger economically I find that gays who lean toward the Republican Party are very welcome within it, even today. It so happens that a fringe of around 10% of the American populace, aka, Fundamentalists, has currently seized the party machinery. They are ludicrously stupid when it comes to gays, of course. Many of them might be found on the left, too – African American preachers come to mind; NY State “kill the gays” Senator Ruben Diaz rings a bell.
It’s also true that throughout the long gestation of Rights for Gays the socialists and communists, and left, of this world, were extremely anti-gay. During the Cold War it was said in Moscow, and Havana, etc, that gays were caused by Christian Capitalism — while in America, and other right-wing places, we were from Godless Communism.
I note too that until the 1990s gays were not welcome in the Democratic Party — no politician of the D-side came out for us. It was Republican John Linday in NYC who ended the bar raids. His predecessor Democrat Robert Wagner increased them.
No, the nation has been evolving. Some faster than others, still others knuckle dragging. Both parties have made fits and starts, and we all know heteros are leery of us — help them evolve, don’t castigate them for a mere beginning.
Meanwhile, it was Barry Goldwater, Mr. Republican, who said, in 1994: “you don’t have to like it, but gay Americans deserve full constitutional rights, including marriage and military service.” He said it when Bill Clinton, “our friend” — was signing DOMA and DADT at 2 AM so he wouldn’t be so obvious.
The whole D is for us, R is against us, is nuts.
And we gays would be better off not supporting one party or the other — for I don’t need one party or the other for me, or against me, but I need 320 million Americans to not give a damn one way or the other. Let the Republicans evolve; we have gone along with Democrats evolving — they both will come in their own time. For God is on our side.
TampaZeke
August 31st, 2012 | LINK
Unfortunately the “invisible” does more harm to the gay community than the “support” does good. Particularly when the invisible is not only unseen but unheard while the people they support politically propose, promote and legislate the most anti-gay agenda ever seen in a party platform.
jerry
August 31st, 2012 | LINK
“People may now realize you can be gay and still be welcome in the GOP party.”
A gay man dropping a note informing this woman that he’s gay and still in the closet gives her confidence that The GOP is welcoming?
Is there somewhere I can apply for a refund on all of the taxes I paid that allegedly went toward education?
Neon Genesis
September 4th, 2012 | LINK
“It’s also true that throughout the long gestation of Rights for Gays the socialists and communists, and left, of this world, were extremely anti-gay. During the Cold War it was said in Moscow, and Havana, etc, that gays were caused by Christian Capitalism — while in America, and other right-wing places, we were from Godless Communism. ”
Funny how you have to go back all the way to the Cold War and the 1980s to find an example of a liberal Democrat that’s just as homophobic as the mainstream GOP party is today, yet I can just do a quick Google search and find tons of articles of mainstream Republicans acting homophobic from just last week.
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