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 lobbyOctober 13th, 2007
Soulforce and Atticus Circle’s Seven Straight Nights campaign wraps up this weekend and I’ll be attending the vigil in Denver this evening. (Update: See my photos from the vigil here.)
Since it’s the weekend take some time and enjoy news coverage of Seven Straight Night events earlier this week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyEKoMy3uic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhQYmBbKGNEOctober 11th, 2007
A friend who actually works at TV Week brought this to my attention. For those of you who don’t know pop culture personality Tila Tequila is the star of a new reality dating show on MTV. The catch, Tila is bisexual and thus half the contestants vying for her attention are men and half are women.
October 9th, 2007
This ad should, but won’t be seen by people in the most backwards cities in California:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5696750115924165098&hl=en
Via the Sac [Town] Bee:
Frustrated in efforts to legalize same-sex marriage through legislation or litigation, proponents will launch a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign this week to “open hearts and minds” in Sacramento and other major cities.
The 60-second ads will run in the capital, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs as part of a monthslong campaign to prod families to openly discuss same-sex marriage.
“The long-term goal is to have the majority of Californians support the freedom to marry — to change the climate here,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, which is coordinating the campaign.
If CA EQ is interested in changing the climate in my home state why in the world are they only targeting areas which already have the most favorable attitudes towards marriage equality? It’s in the socially backwards central valley cities like Fresno [where Mike Ensley hails from] , Bakersfield, Stockton and Modesto where the most change needs to occur and I’m inclined to believe CA EQ’s ads would receive the most attention.
CA EQ’s website on the Let California Ring campaign gives no explanation.
October 5th, 2007
I am now a licensed architect in the State of Colorado.
Any celebration this weekend will be tempered by the fact I have hours of footage for my next video project I’m still sorting through. I’m not ready to say what it’s on just yet but Jim will very soon be a star.
October 3rd, 2007
I’ll be honest, I’m unsure about the feasibility of passing an inclusive ENDA. The purpose of this post is not to discuss that. The purpose of this post is to highlight how specifically HRC has betrayed a commitment made less than a month ago by president Joe Solmonese to the trans community.
“We absolutely do not support and in fact oppose any legislation that is not absolutely inclusive.”
Which of course we have video of: (hat tip Mike Rogers for pointing this to me in a discussion last night)
Here’s some of former HRC board member Donna Rose’s resignation statement:
In 2004 the HRC Board voted to support only fully-inclusive Federal legislation. That decision paved the way to my participation with the organization, and was a significant step in the healing process. [snip] Less than a month ago HRC President Joe Solmonese stood before almost 900 transgender people at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta to pledge ongoing support and solidarity. In his keynote address he indicated that not only would HRC support only a fully inclusive ENDA, but that it would actively oppose anything less. That single pledge changed hearts and minds that day, and the ripple affect throughout the transgender community was that we finally were one single GLBT community working together. Sadly, recent events indicate that those promises were hollow.
[snip]
I hereby submit my resignation from my post on the Board of the Human Rights Campaign effective Monday Oct. 8, 2007. I call on other like-minded board members, steering committee leaders, donors, corporate sponsors, and volunteers to think long and hard about whether this organization still stands for your values and to take decisive action as well. More than simply a question of organization policy, this is a test of principle and integrity and although it pains me greatly to see what has happened it is clear to me that there can only be one path. Character is not for compromise. I cannot align myself with an organization that I can’t trust to stand-up for all of us. More than that, I cannot give half-hearted support to an organization that has now chosen to forsake the tenets that have guided my efforts from day one.
October 2nd, 2007
The debate among gay activists on ENDA has on occasion come somewhat unhinged with things said like “no ENDA is better than an ENDA that excludes trans protections” while one blog went so far as to accuse dissenters of “abandoning” our trans allies.
One could argue, were transgenders “abandoned” in California, Hawaii, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Washington DC which all passed sexual orientation protections before gender identity?
Information and adapted graphic from the Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
September 30th, 2007
Entrepreneur.com recently listed “gay bars” as one of ten business types facing extinction in ten years citing (but failing to link to) a recent Orlando Sentinel article.
Although gay bars no longer serve the same purpose as in decades past I highly doubt they’re going away anytime soon. Frankly it’s human nature to want to socialize with people we share things in common with. Although I enjoy going to gay-friendly and mixed venues I don’t believe anything can take the place of a bar where I don’t have to look at someone and wonder if they’re gay or not. In the next ten years I believe many more places will become gay-friendly or mixed and more straight people will continue to visit traditionally gay bars but I find it absurd to suggest gay bars are going extinct.
Hat tip Faggoty Ass Faggot (gotta love that name)
September 24th, 2007
Maumoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at Columbia stated
“We don’t have homosexuals… I don’t know who told you we had it.”
Ahmadinejad’s statements were met with laughter and boos after each translation.
September 20th, 2007
Says the AP:
James Dobson, one of the nation’s most politically influential evangelical Christians, made it clear in a message to friends this week that he will not support Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson.
James Dobson, one of the nation’s most politically influential evangelical Christians, made it clear in a message to friends this week that he will not support Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson.
Focus was unable to comment for the AP story because again, Dobson was speaking as a private citizen (even though Dobson makes what I do in my bedroom his own public business).
Gary Schneeberger, a Focus on the Family spokesman, confirmed that Dobson wrote the e-mail. Schneeberger declined to comment further, saying it would be inappropriate because Dobson’s comments about presidential candidates are made as an individual and not as a representative of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization restricted from partisan politics.
September 20th, 2007
Friend of BTB Pam Spaulding has been posting recently on the Jena 6 protest set to take place today. Since this is not an issue of sexuality but primarily an issue of race, not something I generally follow, I was preiously unaware of the series of events leading up to today’s protest. However, NPR’s Morning Edition lead off with an excelent report on the background and current developments.
September 13th, 2007
Thanks to GoodAsYou for getting it up so quick, in two parts.
September 11th, 2007
Says the Colorado Springs Gazette:
Focus on the Family announced Monday that it is laying off 30 employees and reassigning 15 others.
It also announced that founder James Dobson had been cleared of accusations that he jeopardized the group’s nonprofit status by endorsing Republican candidates.
Most of the layoffs are in the organization’s Constituent Response Services department that answers mail and telephone requests.
A drop in projected revenue played a part in the layoffs, and the growth of e-mail and Internet-based communications is behind the reassignments, said Gary Schneeberger, vice president of communications.
Farther down in the article the IRS’s ruling is explained:
The IRS ruled that Dobson was acting as an individual and not on behalf of Focus in his endorsement of political candidates.
Hat tip Newspeak
September 4th, 2007
What 365gay.com calls the longest running gay club in the country closed last night. The Boom Boom Room was the last gay nightspot in Laguna Beach, the final victim in a wildly out of control gentrification process the gay community helped start there. If I still lived in So Cal I would have been there.
Can we acknowledge cities are dynamic entities, stop pretending Laguna is the gay center of Orange County now and maybe get to work building a new community someplace viable?
I’m sure there are other natives reading this site who will want to discuss.
September 1st, 2007
I’d previously posted on PFOX’s rather hysterical claims a homosexual activist assaulted an ex-gay at the Arlington County Fair. At the time I noted only suspect websites catering to the religious right were reporting on the supposed incident.
Bravo to editor Dave Roberts at Ex-Gay Watch for undertaking an investigation. Roberts contacted the only gay organization with a booth at the fair, the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance. He also contacted the fair’s event manager and the Arlington County Police Department and strangely no one had heard of such an incident. Roberts wrote:
We contacted the Arlington PD and ended up speaking with John Lisle of the Media Relations/Legislative Affairs Office. He had no initial knowledge of such an incident. After checking briefly, he again said that no one was aware of such an incident. So we sent a copy of the PFOX statement to him at which time he agreed to check more thoroughly. After over two days of research, there was nothing he could add to his statement; no report exists and no one recalls such an incident.
This graphic in GoodAsYou‘s typical sense of humor seems to sum things up best.
August 31st, 2007
Predictably from James Dobson:
Once again, we see an activist judge handing liberal activists what they have not been able to achieve legislatively or at the ballot box…
Dobson again conveniently ignores an extensive body of political philosphy on which our government is based from Plato to Thomas Jefferson stating one of the judiciary’s primary purposes is to protect the rights of unpopular minorities from a tyranny of the majority.
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: