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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Steve
February 20th, 2013 | LINK
And nothing in the first paragraph is actually an argument against same-sex marriage.
Priya Lynn
February 20th, 2013 | LINK
The bigots are rigidly holding on to their assertion that marriage was designed for procreation because its the only way they can create a pseudo justification for denying marriage to gays and lesbians.
There’s no evidence that marriage was ever designed or that it was intended for procreation when it first came about.
There was a time in human history when people didn’t know what caused pregnancy. I think its likely that marriage came to be sometime during this period. Long before people knew what caused pregnancy men and women were forming tight pair bonds out of a desire to be together, not to raise children. Its likely that the small groups they were in at some point chose to commemorate such decisions with some sort of group recognition that would be the beginnings of marriage. Pregnancy and children might happen before marriage, or after but initially marriage was about the joining of two people and any procreation was coincidental to that.
Ben In Oakland
February 20th, 2013 | LINK
Interesting that you shoud write that, Priya.
In the times of Welsh mythology and the Mabinogion– for those who aren’t up on their mythologies, that is the Welsh national epic, like the Kalevala and homer– this was indeed the case. The ancient welsh knew that virgins never gave birth, but they didn’t know that men and women together made babies. It’s right there in the mabinogion, and in fact its the basis for some of the plot lines.
Priya Lynn
February 20th, 2013 | LINK
Thanks for telling me that Ben. I’m going to make note of it.
MattNYC
February 20th, 2013 | LINK
“Gilles Bernheim, author of a new article against same-sex marriage, is the Chief Rabbi of France. That’s impressive.”
What’s impressive is that he thinks this matter to anyone. “Chief Rabbis” have no authority in liberal democracies (alas, in Israel, they have far too much authority over “civil” life). They are usually just the highest level from the Orthodox community (and in some places, there are multiple “chief” rabbis). The non-Orthodox don’t give a sh*t about a “chief” rabbi. Oddly, so many countries around the world have chief rabbis. Thankfully,
It has about as much meaning as Pat Robertson anointing himself “chief Protestant Minister”. And R. Bernheim contributes about as much to society (i.e., less than zero) as Robertson.
Come to think of it, bozos like Bernheim are as illegitimate as our favorite lunatic “Public Advocate of the U.S.”
Donny D.
February 21st, 2013 | LINK
His implicit notion that you hold one or the other of his presented view on marriage is the logical fallacy known as the false dilemma.
And his implicit statement that you must believe one idea about marriage or the other is an example of begging the question, yet another logical fallacy.
Hunter
February 21st, 2013 | LINK
Yes to all of the above, and in addition, his view of marriage is pretty narrow and obviously based on procreation — just as one point, the relationships created by marriage include a lot more than parent-child. But if you’re locked into the Pentateuch, I guess you wouldn’t see that.
Regan DuCasse
February 21st, 2013 | LINK
It’s so hard to deal with anti gay people who in their heads they believe they are being deep, but could only impress people that aren’t.
No wonder they keep repeating the same simplistic, reductive memes over and over again.
Marriage, the rites and rituals are more about IDENTITY, and for knowing who the issue of the loins BELONG to, as much as what the loins themselves do.
I mean seriously, to hear all of the anti gay tell it, MATING is the highest spiritual calling, and heterosexuality is what makes it moral.
It’s VERY hard NOT to laugh at people who keep talking AT gay folks as if gay people think the stork brings babies or gay folks don’t know what man/woman sex IS.
Identity, more than just about anything is what has driven people mad in trying to forcefully maintain identity of all kinds.
That’s why the need for virgin marriage, and artificially enforced gender roles and dress.
And as we speak, the anti gay have NO concern for the extension of the entire of the species or that all children have a mother and a father and marriage be reserved for that.
No, they are retrograding the meaning of clans, and religious hierarchies and the uncharitable attitudes towards children with no identifiable tribes or bloodlines.
The children of gay adults, are the children they want the gov’t to give no value to.
And the children of biological, nuclear married parents, the preferential treatment to.
The only problem with that is, they can’t make those parents marry if they don’t want to.
Unmarried status, will be a way of identifying gay parents and couples.
They won’t be able to claim the title of husbands or wives.
And that’s a means of IDENTITY, that the anti gay are trying to hold on to like pit bulls, even though it’s not only theirs to claim.
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