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 lobbyDecember 7th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
US Supreme Court To Consider Hearing Multiple Marriage Cases: Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Justices will gather once again this morning for a private conference to decide which of the many marriage-related cases they will hear for this term. Those cases which have been appealed to the Supreme Court include an appeal of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which declared California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional; a slew of challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act; and Brewer v. Diaz, which challenges Arizona’s move to strip its state employees of their domestic parntnership benefits. The Court last considered hearing those cases during a Conference session last Friday, but no decision was reached.
If the Court decides to accept one of the cases, we may hear about it later this afternoon, but its more likely that no announcements will be made until Monday. If the court has decided to reject a case, then that announcement would typically be made Monday. But rejecting the Prop 8 case, hhich would pave the way for the resumption of same-sex marriages in california, would be so momentous that the justices may need to wait on that announcement until a dissenting opinion is written since its hard to imagine that a decision to reject wouldn’t draw one of those classic Scalia rants that we’ve all come to know so well.
Check out this post for a rundown on some of the complexities that the court faces simply in deciding which case to take. If the Court doesn’t reach a decision this time, we will have to wait until the next Conference, scheduled for January 4.
Click to enlarge.
International Human Rights Rally: Springfield, MA. A small-ish western-Massachusetts city might seem like an odd place to hold an International Human Rights Rally, but Springfield isn’t jsut a typical New England burb. It’s home to Scott Lively, who has done more to set the stage for Uganda’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill than any other single American. He’s so proud of his March 2009 conference that he bragged that it was his “nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.” He says he’s against the bill’s death penalty — although he didn’t sound all that convincing when he was asked about it. Just two weeks ago, Lively called the bill’s possibly imminent passage a “huge blessing for Uganda and for me personally.”
Frank Mugisha, Executive Directof of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award honoree, will join the Stop the Hate and Homophobia in Springfield Coalition for a rally, followed by a potluck dinner and conversation. The rally will take place from 3:00 to 4:0o p.m. at the Springfield Federal Courthouse, where SMUG and the Center for Constitutional Rights is suing Lively for his role in “the decade-long campaign he has waged, in coordination with his Ugandan counterparts, to persecute persons on the basis of their gender and/or sexual orientation and gender identity.” The putluck will take place at the Out Now office at 32 Hampden St. starting at 5:00 p.m. If you have any questions, you can contact Holly at outnow@comcast.net
Events This Weekend: Mad Bear, Madrid, Spain; Pride Manila, Manila, Philippines.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Pennsylvania Colony Enacts New Sodomy Law: 1682. Sodomy laws seemed to come and go in Pennsylvania. The colony had originally included Sodomy in a long list of offenses which were considered capital crimes, but the first assembly in 1676 held under the proprietorship of William Penn codified Quaker leniency in its law reform when it limited the death penalty to murder. This effectively left Pennsylvania without a sodomy law for the next six years, when the colony instituted this new law:
…if any person shall be Legally Convicted of the unnatural sin of Sodomy or joining with beasts, Such person shall be whipped, and forfeit one third of his or her estate, and work six months in the house of Correction, at hard labour, and for the Second offence, imprisonment, as aforesaid, during life.
This law would remain in effect until 1693, when William Penn fell out of power and was replaced with a Royal governor who repealed most of Penn’s legislation, including the non-capital sodomy law. No new law would be enacted until 1700 (see November 27).
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).
As always, please consider this your open thread for the day.
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:
Kithpine
December 7th, 2012
Unless this is wrong, the courts will hear two cases. Prop 8 and one the DOMA case on inheritance. Sorry don’t know there names and the report doesn’t state them.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324640104578165363433361742.html
Leave A Comment