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 lobbyAugust 2nd, 2013
If that lame “Ex-gay Pride” demonstration looked more like this, maybe more people would pay attention.
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:
Gene in L.A.
August 2nd, 2013
I have to say that for certain reasons I do deplore the placing of a married gay couple’s names on a child’s birth certificate. This is a legal document, used for many purposes, not least of which is assisting in genealogy. It would be frustrating indeed to trace an ancestor back to a male or female couple, not know which was the birth parent, not know who the other birth parent was. I hope you see the problem. DNA solves it partially by tracing your heritage back to the area of origin of your haplotype, but can’t help in determining the connection to a 10-time great grandparent.
This also creates another barrier to the child’s eventual wondering about and searching for her birth parents. We should be trying to make it easier for her, not harder.
Jay
August 2nd, 2013
Just the French version of Hitler youth exuding health and wholesomeness and fascism all mixed together along with a soupcon of homoeroticism.
iDavid
August 2nd, 2013
Now that you mention this, I cannot recollect any gay bashing ex gay un gay or non gay homosexual, with whatever un real label-of-the-day they happen to be flailing about in, to be good looking, virile, masculine or attractive. Seemingly over-wrought with unusually high estrogen levels, they all seem to place at about a 1 to 4 on the male human hotness scale.
Now if they were fully Nsync within all aspects of their authenticity, like these fab looking Frenchmen, those numbers could possibly change.
The ex-gays need to hire truly hot gay guys who own all aspects of themselves to stand in for them on media takes; let real men do the job.
Oh, woops, that’s right. No self respecting self owned real man would partake.
Too bad. You lose. Again. X-ies.
Now if you X-ies stopped your inner and outer gay bashing ….. oh yeah, you have to hate yourself to like yourself, so that’s not an option. Geesh. You just can’t catch a break. Well that sucks.
Spiritual tip: Own yourself, and to thine own self be true; life will then be grand.
(…..and the sitting dog moans and stares, offering a distinctly cocked head-tilt to the left.)
iDavid
August 2nd, 2013
Gene, You have something there. A simple place for the bio parent(s)to be identified on the birth cert would suffice. I am assuming you have done your research and that the docs do not address the bio parent(s). Have you thought of maybe make changes in this area? It is truly worth the time for everyone’s sake.
Jim Burroway
August 2nd, 2013
From a genealogy standpoint, I don’t think it’s relevant. My paternal grandmother was adopted as a very young child (2 years old) and while we know her name before she was adopted, we know nothing about her parents. She wasn’t much interested in finding out. Family was very important to her, and as far as she was concerned, her mom and dad — the ones who adopted her — were her parents. So when I did our family’s genealogy, I went up the Laizure line and didn’t bother with trying to find out her “bio” family, since they were never really a family and, aside from DNA, which is just so technical, has nothing to do with any of the important things which gets passed down through the generations.
Regan DuCasse
August 2nd, 2013
Hi Jim, in your grandmother’s time, organ donations and match typing medical interventions and so on weren’t possible.
If not for the sake of genealogy, identity of bio parents is necessary for gene mapping for medical purposes in identifying disease and disorders.
Both of my parents died prematurely before I was fifteen.
Now it turns out that I have an immune disorder, that manifests in siblings as infertility issues. Which occurred in my sister.
Our younger brother has an immune disorder that’s common in Jewish people.
We all have no biological children. And because of the gene, our sister lost her first baby when it was a nearly six month old fetus.
I’ve done research about these auto immune disorders, and would have liked to do more familial tracing.
At any rate, there is something to that identity for that reason and sometimes it can make the difference in deciding to have children, or if they are possible at all.
jerry
August 2nd, 2013
Concern for health related issues could be easily addressed on a birth certificate with a DNA analysis of the birth parents filed with a state’s medical records office or one created for that reason with limited access to the file and no reason for just anyone having a look at it.
When I was born just over 75 years ago, all adoptions were sealed with neither the birth parents knowing where the child was going or the adoptive parents knowing where the child came from.
Since I have had a long and relatively disease free life, I have not had any concern for health reasons.
When I was a teen my mother discovered a mistake in the adoption papers. I never knew why she had looked at them carefully, but she had discovered that the lawyer had included my birth parents name. She asked me if I wanted to meet them and I said I wasn’t interested. I don’t even remember the name now, but at the time I found out that I had an older sister who had been a senior in high school the year I was a freshman. I had no interest then about them and still don’t. My parents were the man and woman who took me into their lives when I was 2 weeks old. I still love them for over thirty years after they have died.
Steve
August 2nd, 2013
@Gene in L.A.
A birth certificate is really more of a parenting certificate than a document that shows one’s biological parents.
For example during an adoption, the original birth certificate is sealed and a new one is created showing the adoptive parents. That’s because the way is used, you often need a birth certificate to show that you are currently raising the child.
So if you are serious then you need to campaign to introduce a “certificate of parenting” in addition to the birth certificate.
Chris McCoy
August 2nd, 2013
Gene in L.A. said:
Laws vary by State, but for the majority of states when a child is Adopted, the original birth certificate including birth parents names and any other Personally Identifying Information, is sealed; and can only be accessed by the Adopted child (even when they become an adult), or Adopting parents, with a Court Order, which in most States, can only be granted in the event of a medical emergency that would require blood or tissue donors from blood relatives.
“I’m curious about my genealogy” is not a sufficient reason to violate the Privacy of the Birth parents.
Birth Parents of adopted children can voluntarily participate in a Mutual Consent Registry, but if they choose not to, maintaining their privacy is more important than your curiosity.
So, since such protocols are already in place with respect to adoptions, designating same-sex parents on a birth certificate in place of one or the other biological parent is effectively analogous to one of the parents adopting the child.
Gene in L.A.
August 3rd, 2013
Thanks everyone, for the comments. I continue to think adopted kids should be able to discover their biological parents; thus, my point about making it easier rather than harder.
Timothy Kincaid
August 3rd, 2013
Gene, as we are learning more about hereditary disease, your comments are worth consideration. After learning that I have pigmentary glaucoma and that it has a hereditary component, I contacted my brother so that he and his kids can be aware of the increased risk.
Jay
August 5th, 2013
It seems to me that both Gene and Steve above are right. Children do need access to biological information and parents do need documents that prove that they are indeed parents. There is no reason that children created through sperm donation and surrogacy should not be treated the way adopted children are treated. A “social” birth certificate can be issued that includes the name of the parents who are rearing the child and who are the legal parents of the child. A sealed birth certificate could be created that includes the names of the biological parents. The sealed birth certificate could be made available to the child at age 18 (or earlier if there were some reason, such as a need for medical information).
Leave A Comment