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 22nd, 2016
This past weekend, anti-gay and anti-abortion activist Flip Benham tried to disrupt Charlotte Pride by ranting into a portable loudspeaker in a Parking lot near the sound stage. Yelling, “stop celebrating sodomy in the streets!” and complaining about men who “puts his penis up another man’s rectum,” Benham sought to present the face of Christ to the gathered sodomites. The Charlotte Observer has more:
Christina Woodruff of Huntersville is only 10 years old, but she learned a very grown-up lesson about bigotry this weekend at the Charlotte Pride Festival and Parade in uptown.
“I was just standing there and a man told me that I was a child of the Devil,” said Christina, who is parented by a same sex couple. “I wanted to punch him, but my mom stopped me. I cried instead.”
Conservative religious groups have long provided sideline heckling at Charlotte’s annual gay pride celebration, including a group this year that tried to drown out Mayor Jennifer Roberts during the opening ceremony Saturday.
Fortunately, this wound up being little more than a side show. Charlotte Pride officials estimate that about 200,000 people showed up for the festival and parade, up from 120,000 people last year. The parade saw about 3,500 marchers, about ten of 135 contingents representing faith groups, which represents another record. Event organizers believe the record turnout is a show of support for the LGBT community in the face of North Carolina’s HB2.
Update: Charlotte Pride has issued a press release urging caution with the 200,000 attendance figure:
Final attendance estimates have not been released. We are confident that we met or exceeded last year’s attendance, which stood at 120,000 visitors over the course of the weekend. Parade participation jumped to over 140 parade entries, with 3,500 individual marchers in the parade, but full spectator and attendee numbers for the 2016 events are not yet available. We’ll be looking at all the numbers and doing some analysis in the coming days.
Several media outlets are reporting that organizers “expected 200,000” people or are reporting that organizers estimated attendance matched that number. This is incorrect, and has not been released by our organization.
Please note that official attendance estimates will be publicized solely from Charlotte Pride’s media spokesperson, Matt Comer, via press release or media advisory
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:
SharonB
August 22nd, 2016
And they wonder why church attendance is dealing.
Joyce Miller
August 23rd, 2016
On the other hand, SharonB, there were more church groups than ever before marching in support at Pride.
Leave A Comment