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 lobbyJune 14th, 2013
TODAY’S AGENDA:
“God Loves Uganda” Documentary Screening: Sheffield, UK. The film documentary God Loves Uganda tells the story that longtime BTB readers know very well: “the role of the American evangelical movement in Uganda, where American missionaries have been credited with both creating schools and hospitals and promoting dangerous religious bigotry. The film follows evangelical leaders in America and Uganda along with politicians and missionaries as they attempt the task of eliminating “sexual sin” and converting Ugandans to fundamentalist Christianity.” I’m very honored to have been able to provide some very small technical assistance to the film makers (as you can see in the film’s credits). Director/Producer Roger Ross Williams had a very personal motivation to tell this particular story:
I grew up in the black church. My father was a religious leader in the community and my sister is a pastor. I went to church every Sunday and sang in the choir. But for all that the church gave me, for all that it represented belonging, love and community, it also shut its doors to me as a gay person. That experience left me with the lifelong desire to explore the power of religion to transform lives or destroy them. Tt desire took a new form when I visited Africa to make my film Music by Prudence. I was struck by how intensely religious and socially conservative Africans were. There was literally a church on every corner. People were praying in the fields. It was like the American evangelical Christianity I had known – but magnified by Africa’s intensity.
David Courier of the Sundance Film Festival said God Loves Uganda “may be the most terrifying film of the year.” It will screen tonight and tomorrow night at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival. Tickets and information is available here. More screenings are scheduled in the next two weeks in Washington, D.C.; Silver Spring, MD; Provincetown, MA; and Brooklyn and Tonawanda, NY.
“Call Me Kuchu” Screening: New York, NY. “Kuchu” is the word LGBT Ugandans use to call themselves, although some think it is derogatory. Sort of like “queer” elsewhere. And as with “queer,” “kuchu” is an all-encompassing term which embraces all of the Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts, and everything in between. Hence the title of the documentary which will open in US theaters today in New York. Call Me Kuchu “explores a community that is at once persecuted and consoled by the Christian faith, and examines the astounding courage and determination required not only to battle an oppressive government, but also to maintain religious conviction in the face of the contradicting rhetoric of a powerful national church.”
The film follows veteran LGBT advocate David Kato as he works to prevent Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill from becoming law. The film shows his own struggles against a vicious public vigilante campaign marking him for death, and a rare legal victory for gay Ugandans against that campaign — just three weeks before Kato’s brutal murder in his home. Call Me Kuchu opens today at the Quad Theaters, with showings at 7:20 and 9:30, with additional screenings through next week. The film will also open in Los Angeles on June 21 at Laemmle Music Hall. Additional showings are scheduled this month for Seoul, South Korea; Zaragosa, Spain; Cambridge, UK; and Montevideo, Uruguay. Check here for more details.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Anchorage, AK; Baltimore, MD; Baton Rouge, LA; Bisbee, AZ; Boise, ID; Butte, MT; Chemnitz, Germany; Denver, CO; Edinburgh, UK; Erie, PA; Flagstaff, AZ; Iowa City, IA; Kalamazoo, MI; Lancaster, PA; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Louisville, KY; Luleå, Sweden; Lyon, France; Memphis, TN (Black Pride); Münster, Germany; Nantes, France; Nashville, TN; Oldenburg, Germany; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; Portland, ME; Providence, RI; Rome, Italy; Sacramento, CA; Saskatoon, SK; Sitges, Spain; Spencer, IN; Strasbourg, France; Syracuse, NY; Thessaloniki, Greece; Thunder Bay, ON; Toulouse, France; Venice, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Warsaw, Poland; Zagreb, Croatia.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: London, UK.
Other Events This Weekend: Lesbian and Gay Stadtfest, Berlin, Germany; Seoul LGBT Film Festival, Seoul, South Korea; Out In the Vineyard Gay Wine Weekend: Sonoma, CA; Tel Aviv LGBT International Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel; Bush Garden Gay Days, Williamsburg, VA.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Boy George: 1961. George O’Dowd’s first stage name was Lieutenant Lush when he performed with Bow Wow Wow. That tenure was short lived: he was booed off the stage. He then joined up with drummer (and regular boyfriend) Jon Moss (previously of The Damned and Adam and the Ants), bassist Mikey Craig and guitarist/keyboardist Roy Hay. They called their group In Praise of Lemmings and then Sex Gang Children. When they finally realized that they had a androgynous Irish singer, a black bassist, a Jewish drummer and an English keyboardist, they decided to call themselves Culture Club, with Boy George as the frontman. Their debut album Kissing to be Clever was released in 1982, and their single “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” became an international hit. “Time (Clock of Heart)” and “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya,” gave them the distinction of being the first group since the Beatles to have three Top 10 hits in the U.S. from a debut album. Their next album Colour By Numbers, did almost as well, with “Church of the Poison Mind” and “Miss Me Blind” hitting the Top Ten in the U.S. and “Karma Chameleon” holding the #1 spot for three weeks (and for six weeks in the U.K.).
By the late 1980s, Boy George left Culture Club behind when his relationship with Moss soured and he began descending into a nasty heroin addiction. After rehab, he had a few modest hits as a solo artist, including the title song from the movie The Crying Game in 1992. He wrote the musical score for the London musical Taboo, which was based on his life. It earned him a Tony Award for Best Musical Score. But his troubles continued to follow him. In 2005, he was arrested in New York for cocaine possession and filing a false burglary report. The drug charge was dropped and he pleaded guilty to the false report. He was sentenced to five days of community service, fined $1,000 and ordered into drug rehab. In 2008, he was arrested and charged with assault and false imprisonment. He was convicted and sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment. He was released after four months and was placed under home detention. His latest album, Ordinary Alien, was released in 2010 after a more than ten year hiatus.
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).
And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
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:
MattNYC
June 14th, 2013
For another take on Uganda, a movie is opening this weekend at the Quad Theater in NYC:
CALL ME KUCHU: In Uganda, a new bill threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death. David Kato, Uganda’s first openly gay man, and retired Anglican Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, work against the clock to defeat state-sanctioned homophobia while combating vicious persecution in their daily lives. But no one is prepared for the brutal murder that shakes their movement to its core and sends shock waves around the world.
From 6/14 – 17 there will be some featured speakers afterwards for discussion and Q&A after certain showings.
http://www.quadcinema.com/
Lindoro Almaviva
June 14th, 2013
I think we need to also point out that BG reinvented himself as a highly sought after DJ with gigs in some of the most important clubs and parties all over Europe.
revchicoucc
June 14th, 2013
“God Loves Uganda” will be screened this fall at a film festival in my community, Chico, CA. Yesterday, one of the organizers asked me — liberal openly gay Christian pastor guy — to be on a panel discussing and responding to the film. I said yes. I was willing to say yes because I read BTB and knew about this issue. Thank you, Jim. I plan to re-read all your work to prep.
MattNYC
June 14th, 2013
ARGH. I really need to read the WHOLE page before posting…
Sorry.
Charles
June 14th, 2013
I must admit that I have never liked Boy George. He is a troubled soul, but aren’t we all.
Leave A Comment