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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That’s Saddleback pastor Rick Warren’s tweet last Friday referencing a video he made in 2009. I had hoped that it would presage a larger statement. But a whole weekend has passed and we’re well into a new week, and nothing’s been forthcoming since then. I’m glad that Warren’s on board against the bill again in 2012. Sending out a 102-character tweet was the least he could do. And so he did it.
Timothy Kincaid
December 11th, 2012 | LINK
After four days, you and I both put up a commentary about the same tweet within minutes of each other with roughly the same position.
They say that women who live in the same house get on a certain cycle… does that happen to bloggers who write on the same site
Ben in Oakland
December 11th, 2012 | LINK
Well, golly gee, Ricky, creating that 140 character tweet must have used about 40 seconds of your time and1 calorie max.
How about going to Uganda, calling a press conference, and denouncing the thing forthe fascism it is?
Steve
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
That after fostering hatred and intolerance for many years there.
DN
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
In the context of Rick Warren saying that being gay is like incest or paedophilia, then being asked if that was what he really believes… “Oh I do!”
Then he turned around and said that he never said such things…
It takes a *LOT* more than a single, completely unclear, tweet on a subject to make me forgive him. Which part(s) of the bill do you oppose, Rick? Is it the death penalty? Life sentences? Or is it the concept that anyone who sees anything remotely gay and doesn’t report it goes to jail for seven years?
This man has a *long* way to go before I’ll forgive him.
customartist
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
A TWEET!? Wow-eee!
Years of campaigning against the very existence of Gays, culminating with gang-beatings, deaths, and the threat of life-long imprisonment or even Execution, and Rick Warren thinks a Tweet balances his Sins from the Pulpit?
I think not! Warren is a failure as a theologian. His people support hatred.
He can take that tweet and shove it.
HE should be the one jailed for life.
Timothy Kincaid
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
I see a lot of accusations that I do not think have substance.
Robert
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
What would those accusations be, Timothy? Shouldn’t you be specific if you think something is wrong?
Timothy Kincaid
December 12th, 2012 | LINK
In the context of Rick Warren saying that being gay is like incest or paedophilia, then being asked if that was what he really believes… “Oh I do!”
Well… not exactly. Check out the full transcript.
He did compare gay marriage to “having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage” (incest), “an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage” (most of history), and having multiple wives and calling that marriage (what I affectionately refer to as “Biblical marriage”).
But he also said that divorce was a greater threat to the American family (“Haha! That’s a no-brainer. Divorce. There’s no doubt about it.”) So, if we are to be consistent, we have to say that Rick Warren thinks divorce is worse than incest or pedophilia.
And he did say that he supports equal rights. His words were “I don’t believe that we should have unequal rights depending on particular lifestyles or whatever stuff like that. So I fully support equal rights.”
Although it’s not specific, it seems that he means civil unions or domestic partnership or something.
His choice of comparisons was, frankly, really really bad. But his position (I think) was that of the President at the time.
I am not Rick Warren’s champion. But if we are going to pick one line out of an interview while ignore the immediate preceding sentence, that is not a particularly rational way of measuring a person’s position.
We don’t have to like him… but let’s be sure our reasons for not liking him are accurate.
DN
December 13th, 2012 | LINK
Well that was fancy – my comment did not post. Is the site having a hiccup or am I banned?
Anyway, the point of it was that I acknowledge I didn’t take the entire transcript into consideration, but pointed out that a) you had no comment when Rob posted this: (I am not posting the url since that might be what’s blocking my comments, but it was from 28 November this year).
and b) When a person compares being gay to consuming arsenic, please don’t tell me that I’m missing some sort of larger context.
DN
December 13th, 2012 | LINK
The other part of my original comment (that included the url to that btb post) was that you did not address the part where Warren did not clarify what part(s) of the Uganda bill he finds odious…
Does he think it’s wrong to kill gay people for having sex with each other? I don’t know – he didn’t say, but since that’s the well-known part of the bill, I’d say it’s pretty obvious that he does think it’s wrong.
Does he think it’s wrong to make advocating for gay rights illegal? I don’t know – he didn’t say.
Does he think it’s wrong to make it illegal to run AIDS programs? I don’t know – he didn’t say (and before you go accusing me of not looking at the full transcript again, I’m well aware of his church’s charitable work on AIDS so I’ll gladly give him the benefit of the doubt).
Does he think it’s wrong to send straight people to jail for not reporting their loved ones to the police within 24 hours of discovering that they’re gay? I don’t know – he didn’t say.
I grant that 140 characters doesn’t give him a lot of room to flesh out his views on those issues. So write an essay. And send it to Timothy who can make a post about it.
My point here is that saying you oppose a bill with, what, a dozen and a half or so sanctions against even whispering the words “I’m gay,” but is known for its death penalty isn’t enough. If Rick Warren wants to be taken seriously by the gay community, a) he’s got a lot more work to do (and I’ll be very happy to see him grow as a person as he does it), and b) he owes us the intellectual honesty to be more detailed. Even Scott freaking Lively has been more detailed in which parts of the bill he thinks go too far.
And before anyone says that Rick Warren has no obligation to do this, remember – he chose to interject himself into this issue. Nobody did it for him.
Timothy Kincaid
December 13th, 2012 | LINK
DN
In his 140 characters, he included a link to his 2009 video. You can see it here.
That video will answer some of your questions. He also has Q&A type answers to address others
DN
December 13th, 2012 | LINK
“When all is said and done in this saga, there will be a recounting of the heros and villains and their names will be known for generations to come.”
Yep – Jim is right. Timothy, you’re splitting hairs.
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