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
House of Commons officially passes marriage equality
British Commons Approves Marriage Equality Bill
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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daftpunkydavid
January 29th, 2013 | LINK
i think their argument would have a bit more weight if italy treated its gay citizens the same way it does its straight ones. same goes for germany, who also criticized russia (and rightly so, imho).
i know there is a difference between oppression (russia) and tolerance/recognition-lite (italy, germany). but they have a lot of work to do themselves.
Steve
January 29th, 2013 | LINK
@daftpunkydavid
Marriage equality isn’t everything. Yeah, Germany lacks behind the US in family law (though it has second parent adoption nation wide) and there are severe disparities in tax law (as is the case in the US), but it does have extensive non-discrimination laws at the federal level. And no crap like DOMA, so immigration isn’t an issue for gay couples for example.
TampaZeke
January 29th, 2013 | LINK
“…there are severe disparities in tax law (as is the case in the US), but it does have extensive non-discrimination laws…”
All in the same sentence. I’ve never understood that.
daftpunkydavid
January 30th, 2013 | LINK
@ steve… if your point is that being gay in germany isn’t that bad, especially compared to russia or arguably the usa in some cases, your point is well taken.
however, the point i am making, is that they would have more standing to criticize russia for its anti-gay policies when they, too, put an end to their discriminatory treatment of gay people.
Lucrece
January 30th, 2013 | LINK
Don’t punch the queers! We’ve agreed that slaps are more appropriate!
It never ceases to amuse me when countries who routinely pass judgement on the worth of gay people take suddenly jump at the opportunity to get indignant over political opponents’ anti-gay transgressions.
Had it been — I don’t know, the US or Netherlands — who had passed such laws, I am inclined to think they would have stayed mum.
MCB
January 30th, 2013 | LINK
How a sister city relationship functions tends to depend according to the city. For many, it’s pretty meaningless, but where I lived before coming to work in Japan (Lawrence, KS) has a sister-city relationship with three other cities in Germany, Greece, and Japan, and every year sends a delegation to visit its sister cities. For Japan, we actually swap groups of students, with 20 middle- and high-schoolers from each nation visiting the other over the summer.
The upshot of this is that I wound up showing a group of Japanese teenagers around an American high school and had to explain to them what a Gay Straight Alliance was. They were completely stunned and rather impressed that Americans would ever feel safe to come out in high school. (“Amerika, sugoi!” were their exact words, I believe)
So don’t discount the worth of a sister city; it can bring unexpected blessings.
USBear2013
January 30th, 2013 | LINK
What? You couldn’t find an actual picture of Venice? You had to attach one of a hotel in the Nevada desert?
Jim Burroway
January 30th, 2013 | LINK
USBear2013 is right. The photo is of the Venician Hotel in Vegas.
As for Sister Cities, that program had a life-changing influence on me. My home town, Portsmouth, Ohio, was a sister city to Orizaba, Ver, Mexico. And it was through that program that I was able to spend the summer before my senior year in high school on their exchange program with a family in Orizaba, while my family played host to a Orizaba teen. The following year, my brother went to Orizaba and our family hosted another teen.
(Also, when Orizaba suffered a massive earthquake in 1973, a delegation from Portsmouth provided some of the earliest relief efforts. When I was there in 1978, there was still a great deal of visible damage.)
If you’ve never spent time — real time — in another country, there is so much you will always miss in life. That was/is the whole idea behind Sister Cities, a kind of people-to-people exchange which was intended to transcend borders, politics, cultures, etc. Which I think makes Venice’s decision kinda contrary to what the Sister Cities program is all about. But then, Portsmouth never had Venice’s prestige.
Timothy Kincaid
January 30th, 2013 | LINK
he he… i wondered who would catch that (I did give a hint in naming the picture)
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