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
The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, May 22
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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Christopher
December 11th, 2012 | LINK
I disagree with your theory VEHEMENTLY. It was caused by cod liver oil, dosed to us kids of the 60′s.
Ray
December 11th, 2012 | LINK
Boiled okra.
Priya Lynn
December 11th, 2012 | LINK
There are other plausible explanations as to how gayness can be genetic and still passed on from generation to generation regardless of whether or not gays reproduce.
Ryan
December 11th, 2012 | LINK
Interesting theory, if it pans out. I do love your eternal optimism as always, Timothy. “This could be the end of the ‘choice’ debate”.
We still have people who think the earth is 6000 years old and evolution is “just a theory” and global warming is a hoax. Nothing will ever end the “choice” debate. But it will be interesting for those of us who aren’t anti-science, nonetheless.
Lynn David
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
A hypothesis is that which gets tested and as factual evidence is found backing that hypothesis is then developed into a theory. So to say this is a theory is jumping the gun.
It is a hypothetical model:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/nifm-sfe120612.php
But one which has efficacy based in their work on a model: “In the current study, researchers from the Working Group on Intragenomic Conflict at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) integrated evolutionary theory with recent advances in the molecular regulation of gene expression and androgen-dependent sexual development to produce a biological and mathematical model that delineates the role of epigenetics in homosexuality.”
Nathaniel
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
Distinguishing ‘epi-marks’ from actual genetics is a stretch. I thought we were long past believing in one ‘gay gene’. As PL points out, there is sufficient room for actual genes (alleles of actual genes, to be precise) to play beneficial roles in reproduction and still guide the mind and body towards homosexuality. In fact, given the complexity of reproductive fitness (since it includes traits from one’s physical form and well being, to one’s ability to produce healthy and effective gametes) it makes sense that a great variety of genes could fit such a role, and have an additive effect (that could also explain the variation we see in orientation, i.e. the Kinsey scale). Indeed, it is not uncommon for certain alleles to confer a benefit in one regard while providing a ‘detriment’ in another; it is the weight of benefit to detriment that determines the success of the allele. If all of this is true, it would make sense that epigenetic markers controlling the expression of such genes (or their varying alleles) could play a role in influencing one’s orientation. These ideas are not mutually exclusive, and to suggest otherwise is hardly scientific.
I do, however, feel that this is an effort to find some way of ‘curing’ or preventing gay children from being born. A gene is hard to change, but epigenetic markers can be more easily altered, though not without a great deal of risk. We are fatalistic about our genetic sequences, but we are cool with trying to influence the outcome of, or even change, other, equally deterministic factors that influence our biology. Whatever the causes of homosexuality, hormones, ‘epi-markers’ or genetic sequences (and most likely a combination of all three, as well as other factors), one’s orientation should not matter.
Ryan, may I encourage you to use the term ‘hypothesis’ when discussing ideas like the one above. We allow our opponents to continue their scientific ignorance when we use scientific terminology on their terms. As LD pointed out, hypothesis and theory are distinct, but our culture has confused them, and ‘theory’ has been adopted in our lexicon as a general term for any idea, no matter how scientific or how proven. If we can begin to use these terms properly, I believe we can reclaim scientific debate.
Ryan
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
You’re right, Nathaniel. Obviously there is “scientific theory” and layman’s theory which is just speculation, and the two are very different things. I should have made it clearer when talking about a science-related issue.
Timothy Kincaid
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
Lynn David,
I’m not a scientist, so forgive my terminology errors.
I agree that this is a hypothesis, not a theory. It is a proposed explanation, but it has not been tested or accepted.
However, once a hypothesis has been proposed and is considered for testing, does it not then become a theoretical model? Would not a hypothetical model be the basis on which a hypothesis was worked out and once it was formalized it would then be beyond the hypothetical model?
I’m happy to use the correct language (though I have been known to use “theory” when I meant hypothesis) but I’m not sure about the exact border of “model”. And google and wikipedia are pretty useless for language that is generally misused.
markanthony
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
This might be a really stupid question, but, given the discussion on this blog regarding the difficulties counting the LGB population, i am curious as to how these studies define and find gay persons? Are there brain scans or do they just have people self report?
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