Box Turtle Bulletin

Folsom Street Fair Organizers Make Questionable Claim Against Americans For Truth

Daniel Gonzales

September 22nd, 2008

Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth and I may disagree on pretty much everything related to sexuality but something we both share is the fact we’re activists who rely on “fair-use” to expose and analyze things in the world we find objectionable.

In a recent analysis of Folsom, LaBarbera posted a digital copy of a congratulatory letter from Mayor Newsom to Folsom organizers as a one page excerpt from Folsom’s 2008 Program Guide which he found particularly offensive and illustrated the focus of his analysis.

Folsom organizers took issue with this apparently as their attorney sent LaBarbera a cease and desist letter claiming intellectual property infringement. LaBarbera, aided by the American Family Association’s General Counsel fired back calling their bluff, citing the “fair-use” clause of copyright law.

In this case I agree with Pete. Folsom’s lawyers are full of shit.

Specifically, the letter from Mayor Newsom is not Folsom’s property, it was written by someone at the Mayor’s office and is a matter of public record in the public domain. According to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act misrepresenting ownership of intellectual property puts the person making the false-claim at risk. Per Wikipedia:

anyone who makes a false claim of infringement or false counter-notification is liable for the damages suffered by the other parties

It appears the only thing Folsom organizers have succeeded in is giving the appearance of legitimizing Mr. LaBarbera’s attacks on them by allowing him to paint himself as the victim.

I contacted Folsom organizers to see if their side of the story differed from Pete’s — our email exchange is below:

I’m a pro-gay activist and write for a website called BoxTurtleBulletin.com which tracks and monitors the religious right. Recently it came to my attention that the anti-gay group Americans For Truth is claiming your lawyers sent them a cease and desist letter relating to their use of Folsom St. Fair promotional materials. The full article is online here:

http://americansfortruth.com/news/so-much-for-leather-pride-folsom-
organizers-try-to-stop-aftah-from-exposing-their-vile-event.html

Based solely on Peter LaBarbera’s account it appears he is well within the realm of fair-use and your lawyer’s claims have no ground are designed only to intimidate him.

Before blogging on this I would appreciate your side of the story.

Thanks,
Daniel Gonzales

Folsom’s response:

Daniel,

Thanks for your email. While AFTAH claims fair use, that doesn’t mean it is fair use. There are specific legal criteria by which fair use is gauged. And, there are actually pretty severe limits placed on the amount of a work that can be reproduced under the fair use rule. We state clearly in our Guide: “Reproduction in whole or in part without permission…is prohibited.” That said, we apparently disagree on the issue which is why we are pursuing it. There is no intimidation involved here.

Demetri Moshoyannis
Executive Director

LaBarbera’s Incoherence on Hate Crimes

Jim Burroway

July 30th, 2008

Peter LaBarbera thinks that the media attention surrounding the Knoxville shooting “proves” that hate crime laws aren’t necessary. According to the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow:

The pro-family advocate adds that the homosexual movement gets favorable treatment within the media, and LaBarbera says with that type of coverage there is no need for special legislation to “give more attention and better treatment to this case.” He adds that with the media spotlight on the incident, “it proves our case” that hate crimes laws are not necessary.

The tortured logic behind this statement is astounding. LaBarbera constantly complains that gays are getting “favorable treatment” in the media. Now he says that gays don’t need hate crime protections because of that treatment. But if the media acted the way LaBarbera wants them to act – by only portraying gays and lesbians in a negative light – would he then agree that maybe hate crime protections are warranted? Don’t count on it.

Besides, here’s a news flash for LaBarbera. The FBI is already investigating this as a hate crime.

Why? According to Stacie Bohanan, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Knoxville division, “Anytime someone uses force to obstruct another person in the free exercise of their religious beliefs, that becomes a violation of the federal civil rights statutes.”

And according to police reports, it certainly appears that Jim David Adkisson targeted the church because of its “liberal” beliefs, which just happen to include a safe and welcoming haven for gays and transgender people.

So ironically, if authorities decide that Adkisson is guilty of a hate crime, it will be because he committed a crime based on the victim’s religious beliefs, which is protected. It’s the same protection that everyone enjoys, not just religious minorities. In 2006, the FBI recorded 62 anti-Protestant hate crime incidents. Last I checked, Protestants were hardly a persecuted minority. But when the law covers religion, it covers all religions — even atheists.

But if this same shooting had happened instead at an LGBT community center, the FBI would nowhere in sight. The same crime targeted against a different community would be treated very differently under the law.

Now if people like LaBarbera were arguing that there should be no hate crime laws period, then that would be different. But I don’t see him arguing that. He’s only arguing that existing laws should not be extended to cover violent and property crimes motivated by sexual orientation. He claims that doing so would be some sort of “special” treatment under the law.

Well, as the law stands today, it is special treatment. LaBarbera’s religious beliefs are protected under current hate crime laws.

And even if the law were changed to extend protections based on sexual orientation, LaBarbera would still be protected — perhaps even moreso. Because if he is ever straight-bashed in a violent crime or a property crime — as 28 other heterosexuals were in 2006, then the law would be there to protect him too.

But as long as The Peter continues to agitate against hate crime protections based on sexual orientation — and let’s add gender identity and expression while we’re at it — while complaining about “anti-Christian” persecution, then the only thing he’s interested in is keeping “special protections” all for himself. And with that argument, he’s either showing his ignorance or his hatred. Pick one.

Porno Pete Earns His Nickname

Jim Burroway

July 23rd, 2008

“Porno Pete” LaBarbera is at it again. He wrote a post in which he uses Catholic priestly celibacy as an argument against gays in the military. And you’d think that drawing a connection between the two would be the oddest thing you ever heard of, right?

Wrong. Here’s the graphic Porno Pete used to illustrate his post:

Jeremy Hooper decided to investigate:

So where does one even find this ad elsewhere on the Internet? Well after digging for about half an hour, the only place we could track it down is on a site called “Gay Pervs,” which is a links list to all kinds of porn sites…

And we weren’t able to pull it up through a Google Image search or something like that. You have to actually go to the link and “investigate” in order to bring up the banner.

That’s right. Porno Pete couldn’t just call it up on a search engine. He actually had to know about this web site ahead of time.

I have a feeling Porno Pete’s browser bookmarks are very, very interesting.

Study Links Virus to Rare Cancer In Heterosexual Men

Jim Burroway

July 8th, 2008

There’s a headline you don’t see every day. This is almost the mirror image of the study which sparked the MRSA panic last January: A virus that had been causing cancer in women and gay men has been found in straight men in pretty high numbers. It’s just one small study though, just like the one that inspired worldwide headlines of a new killer superbug threatening homosexual men. So where’s the panic this time? After all, HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases out there.

Paging Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber…

LaBarbera Blames Gays for Heterosexual Beastiality Porn

Timothy Kincaid

May 31st, 2008

While Peter LaBarbera will grudgingly admit that some of the participants at the International Mr. Leather event held every Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago are heterosexual, he insists that this is mostly a gay male event. And that is probably correct.

And LaBarbera places the blame for the most extreme elements, those which he declares are most objectionable, squarely on gay persons or, in an exercise of extrapolation, on the gay community as a whole. He trots out his pictures and his descriptions as an evidence that gay people - and not just some small subset - are depraved, perverted, and satanic.

This year Pete’s leading off his porno pic collection with a snapshot of a DVD display.

Note that we’ve covered up the pornographic images. The bestiality titles (e.g., “Goat Fever,” “Amateur Animal 1,” speak for themselves. “Scat,” according to one online (and sexually explicit) “Robert Scott’s Gay Slang Dictionary,” refers to [*] “A gay male who gets sexual gratification from acts involving faeces.” That is, excrement, which to us at Americans For Truth is proof that Satan is alive and well in this world.

I’m not sure that Satan was all that obsessed with poop; I couldn’t find any references in Scripture that tied the two together. But I’m willing to concede that Pete may be on better terms with Satan than I am.

I was, however, able to find out some interesting information about the videos that Pete highlighted to titilate and horrify his readers. They are heterosexual.

Goat Fever involves a man, two women, and a (presumedly female) goat. Amateur Animal 1 features “A couple with a blonde and german shepherd”. (I’m not providing links but descriptions of these videos are available by Googling their titles).

Neither of these videos involve male-male contact. But you wouldn’t know that from Pete’s posting.

I did not do an exhaustive search of every DVD shown in his promo picture; my interest level in such matters is much lower than Pete’s. But while it does appear that some of the scat DVDs are same-sex, the beastiality vids all seem to be evidence that if Satan is alive and well in this world, then he’s decidedly pushing a heterosexual agenda.

UPDATE:

* As reader PiaSharn correctly noted, this is not the definition of “Scat”. This is, rather, the definition of “Scat Queen”. Although LaBarbera prefers a definition that starts with “a gay male”, scat is actually a fetish that is practiced among heterosexuals as well and does not appear to be more common among homosexual fetishists than heterosexual fetishists.

Peter LaBarbera Celebrates Memorial Weekend at Leather Event

Timothy Kincaid

May 30th, 2008

This past weekend I went to Disneyland. It was a little rainy so the lines were short and we had a wonderful time. The next day we went to The Magic Castle for a great meal and to be amazed by prestidigitation. Throw in dinner at Saddleranch (so my friends could ride the mechanical bull), a walk on Venice Beach, and a showing of Indiana Jones and it was quite the gay weekend.

Meanwhile, Peter LaBarbera was living up to his nickname and having quite another type of gay weekend. He spent his Memorial Day celebration at the International Mr. Leather competition in Chicago. IML is an event, mostly for gay men, that celebrates the leather community. It also appeals to fetishists including those whose sexual tastes run to the unconventional or peculiar.

IML really isn’t my cup of tea - I tend to think leather is best when made into a belt or a pair of shoes. So it would never cross my mind to trek out to Chicago and spend my time in a hotel ballroom gawking at fetish porn.

But LaBarbera never misses a year.

And, yet again, Memorial Weekend found him oogling men in leather regalia and taking pictures of every bare butt cheek or risque poster he could find. Pete could hardly wait to get back to tell his buddy Matt “Bam Bam” Barber about all of the pig sex and watersports and “sodomy on steroids” that he found. Just think, gasp, of all the raunchy sex that was going on right in the very hotel where he was standing! Pete and Bam Bam almost worked themselves into a froth going on about anal sex and fetishes and all sorts of “satanic, depraved sodomitic orgies involving feces and urine”.

Now I’m a tolerant guy. If you’d rather check out the Pecs and Personality contest than sail with the Pirates of the Carribean, it’s no business of mine. If your idea of fun is a boot shining contest rather than watching a really impressive card trick, who am I to complain?

But if you go, I have a word of advice: avoid getting your picture taken by LaBarbera. I don’t even want to think about how Pete uses those pictures. Ick.

See also:
LaBarbera Blames Gays for Heterosexual Beastiality Porn

Porno Pete’s Headline Of The Day

Jim Burroway

May 15th, 2008

Whenever I write a post, my worst struggle is with the headline. I’m rarely satisfied with what I come up with. In a word, I suck.

But at least my headlines aren’t as bad as this one:

How Will California Homosexual Couples Consummate their Counterfeit ‘Marriages’?

Poor Peter. His mind really is in the gutter, isn’t it?

Anti-Christian Bigotry

Timothy Kincaid

May 14th, 2008

Today I ran across some anti-Christian bigotry of a particularly nasty sort. As I was recently accused by Peter LaBarbera of being an anti-Christian bigot, this caught my attention.

I’m including a selection here. I hope no one is offended as it is pretty hateful and vile.

yet another connection between the United Church of Christ (UCC) and perversion.

We hear that the UCC is still searching for a partnering church that cater to swingers.

For the sake of accuracy, we also recommend a name-change to UCS: United Church of Sodom.

Enough with this phony “Christ” talk.

We envision a host of liberal Protestant mergers under the UCS banner beginning with proud homosexualist bishop (Vicky) Gene Robinson and his wayward Episcopal Church.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen such a venomous attack on Christianity and Christian churches. But, surprisingly it wasn’t atheists or agnostics that were spewing hate. It wasn’t Wiccans or Muslims or “homosexualist Jews”.

Nope, all this anti-Christian bigotry was brayed out by Peter LaBarbera. Ah Pete, it’s no wonder you didn’t accept our challenge to point out Box Turtle Bulletin’s bigotry. You forgot that it was you who wrote it on your own site.

LaBarbera rants on like… well, LaBarbera

Timothy Kincaid

May 13th, 2008

In response to our criticism of his alliance with racists, Peter LaBarbera has lashed out in his usual way, ranting and frothing and void of all reason or accuracy.

Pete doesn’t rebuke his allies David Duke and Ted Pike for their racism and anti-Semitism. He doesn’t admit that he is fearful of the story that might come out in court if VanAdslen is prosecuted. He doesn’t allow that “the homosexual”, the witnesses, and the police just might be telling the truth. He doesn’t acknowledge that his language contrasting Velasquez with the “strapping, clean-cut, All-American looking young man” lends itself to racism.

Ah, but if he did any of that, he wouldn’t be Peter LaBarbera.

No, instead Pete identifies me as “the Left”, accuses me of hate, and calls me an anti-Christian bigot like Barney Frank (I don’t know why he brings up Barney Frank, but I’m guessing it’s because he’s Jewish and we know what Pete’s allies think about those radical homosexual Jews).

Oh, and to prove that LaBarbera is not a racist he posts a picture of a Black ex-lesbian (yes, he capitalizes “black”). If it wasn’t so tragic it would be funny.

OK. Sure I question the theology of exclusion and condemnation. Yeah I point out when conservatives twist Scripture, logic, and truth to fit their anti-gay agenda.

But “the Left”?

Anti-Christian?

Now that’s what I call irony.

So we have a challenge for LaBarbera: Hey, Pete, give us an example of how our writings here at Box Turtle Bulletin show that we hate Christians. Provide us an example of the anti-Christian bigotry that you think is so prevalent on this site.

Racists Gain More Allies from the Anti-Gay Movement

Timothy Kincaid

May 12th, 2008

The defense of homophobic violence that started with an article by Ted Pike on David Duke’s virulently racist and anti-Semitic website has now been taken by Peter LaBarbera to his fellow anti-gays: Concerned Women for America (CWA)’s Matt Barber, and Bob Knight of the Culture and Media Institute.

Bob Knight and Peter LaBarbera are old friends from when they were part of Concerned Women, but I really don’t know if either Barber or Knight also share Pike and Duke’s racist and anti-Semitic agenda. They may just have been brought into the alliance by LaBarbera.

Have You Heard? We Won The Culture Wars!

Jim Burroway

April 10th, 2008

That’s according to Peter LaBarbera anyway. Me, I’m not seeing it. But LaBarbera sees defeat and he’s in a full blown panic:

My friend Laurie Higgins below has hit on a microcosm of why our movement is on the brink of an astounding cultural defeat — the triumph of immoral same-sex behavior as a “civil right.” …

About three years ago, I sat in a roomful of evangelical leaders at a major ministry where it was taught that you should not criticize homosexual behavior in advocating against “same-sex marriage.” The “expert” speaker cited poll data and negative audience reaction to the issue being raised. [Emphases his.]

LaBarbera’s also upset that a recent poll found that “80% of Christians polled picked “anti-homosexual” as a negative adjective describing Christianity today.” His solution? Be even more “anti-homosexual.”

Good plan, Pete.

Porno Pete Wants To Out Gov. Crist

Jim Burroway

March 27th, 2008

A few years ago when Florida Governor Charlie Crist was running for office, allegations surfaced that Crist was gay. Crist has repeatedly denied it — not that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, he isn’t opposed to civil unions, and he did direct the state Republican Party to halt funding of the anti-gay marriage initiative.

But now Governor Crist has a new girlfriend, and Crist’s father, Dr. Charles Crist is vouching for him as well:

Dr. Crist said his son, married once from 1979 to 1980, has always enjoyed the company of women: “Always! I mean, I can’t keep up with him,” Dr. Crist laughed. “And they like him, too.” 

I guess he’s really straight after all. Good timing too, now that Gov. Crist is being talked up for as possible GOP vice-presidential slot.But none of that is enough for Peter LaBarbera. He still thinks all the as-yet unsubstantiated rumors by themselves are enough to disqualify Gov. Crist from the ticket. What’s more, Petey is intent on outing him:

You won’t believe the amount that’s already been written and discussed in the media about Crist’s sexuality and related issues in the homosexual and liberal press … In our view, that’s a reason right off the bat not to consider Gov. Crist for the highly visible and important position…

We called the Florida’s Governor’s office to ask if the governor is a homosexual or bisexual, and whether he has ever engaged in homosexual behavior — odd questions, to be sure, but necessary ones in this situation. We did not hear back. 

Imagine that. The Florida Governor’s mansion isn’t returning Peter’s calls.

Peter’s Obsession

Jim Burroway

February 21st, 2008

We’ve often been bemused and perturbed by Peter LaBarbera’s peculiar obsession with all things gay. We’re not alone. Fellow Christians also find him an embarrassment:

…I will faithfully be waiting for the following websites to emerge, if these people are really trying to get biblical truth out there

Americans for Truth about Lying
Americans for Truth about Gossip
Americans for Truth about Bitterness
Americans for Truth about Slander
Americans for Truth about Poverty
Americans for Truth about Widows

MRSA Update: UCSF Creates Task Force To Study Overhyped Scare

Jim Burroway

February 7th, 2008

If you remember from last month, we saw the mainstream media and anti-gay extremists hype a study by scientists from the University of California, San Francisco by reporting that a “flesh-eating superbug” was sweeping the gay community and threatening to spread into the”general population.” This drug-resistant staph infection, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), has actually been spreading among straights for decades (especially among professional athletes and military personnel). But that didn’t stop the usual band of anti-gay extremists, who are never ones to be sticklers for truth or accuracy, to exploit the misery of others to blame gays for once again being a threat to the “general population” — all with their cynical brand of “love,” of course.

The hype eventually retreated somewhat — some members of the mainstream media took a deep breath and sought out some second opinions as UCSF offered a half-hearted apology. But that did little to clarify the situation, and the hype of the “flesh-eating superbug” has continued to take on a life of its own.

That’s why three local San Francisco activists, Michael Petrelis, Clinton Fein, and Hank Wilson, sought a meeting with UCSF to discussion the events of last month. That meeting took place on Tuesday, and Petrelis and Fein have reported the results. Here are some highlights:

The following people were present at the meeting: Barbara French, Associate Vice Chancellor, University Relations; Kieran Flaherty, Director of State Government Relations; Shane Showdon, Director of LGBT Resources; Aimee Levine, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs, Beth Mooney, assistant to Barbara French and Dr. Chip Chambers, a scientist and professor involved in the MRSA study. …

…

The core problem presented by the press release was a misapplication of epidemiological terminology that implied that gay men were about to unleash a MRSA strain on the “general population” instead of acknowledging that the strain already exists in the “general population,” despite findings that it seems to have a higher preponderance among men who have sex with men.

This misconception was fueled by comments by one of the lead authors of the study, a postdoctoral scientist, Binh Diep, who expressed grave concern about “a potential spread of this strain into the general population.”

…UCSF was quick to acknowledge the boundaries breached by Binh Diep. As a postdoctoral scientist, while excited about communicating the findings of his study, and whilst genuinely hoping to communicate the information in the interests of promoting health, he was unequipped to recognize the extent to which his comments could be misconstrued….

…Ms. French acknowledged that an internal task force had been created in the wake of the MRSA fallout, to streamline and coordinate efforts between and among various departments relating to the dissemination of news and public communications. This is an important and significant development.

It looks like Peter LaBarbera’s the one who could use some fact-checking.

LaBarbera Babbles on about MRSA

Timothy Kincaid

January 29th, 2008

Peter LaBarbera has yet further musings about MRSA. But because there’s nothing new and they really aren’t very interesting, I think I’ll just illustrate for you the limitations of my artistic abilities.

Close the San Francisco and Boston Bathhouses!!!

Timothy Kincaid

January 23rd, 2008

Update for Peter LaBarbera’s readers: The post you’re really looking for is here: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague? It’s the post he doesn’t want you to see.

As we reported earlier, the usual crowd of anti-gay activists jumped all over the faulty stories about outbreaks of MRSA in San Francisco and Boston. Although subsequent reporting (and our indepth analysis) clearly shows that the anti-gays were completely wrong in their accusations, rather than repent of their false accusations, they simply changed directions.

Concerned Women for America issued a press release quoting their own Matt Barber “inviting” the gay community to join his campaign against bathhouses

Therefore, these groups should publicly condemn those specific ‘high-risk behaviors’ which this study has concluded are responsible for spreading MRSA among homosexuals.

“In light of this behaviorally related MRSA outbreak,” said Barber, “we additionally ask HRC and other groups to call on local health agencies to shut down the many bathhouses and sex clubs around the country where men meet for anonymous sex with other men, often multiple partners, on a daily basis. These places create the ‘perfect storm’ for infectious disease, including MRSA.

Peter LaBarbera printed Concerned Woman Barber’s press release with the heading

CWA Invites Homosexual Groups to Work to Curb Spread of MRSA

and put in his own support for the effort

Well, folks, I’m not exactly expecting Human Rights Campaign and the rest of the “gay” lobby to hop on this request for cooperation from my good friend Matt Barber of CWA, but it sure would be progress if they did.

So will Box Turtle Bulletin join the cry to close down those bathhouses in San Francisco and Boston that were so integral to the spread of MRSA? Well, we might consider the question, if they existed!

What the anti-gays failed to notice is that neither San Francisco nor Boston has a single public gay bathhouse. San Francisco closed down bathhouses in 1984 at the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic and the closest bathhouses to San Francisco are in Berkeley and San Jose. Bostonites can head down to Providence.

So yet again we see that the claims of anti-gays have no basis in reality.

Mainstream Media Retreats From MRSA Hysteria

Where are LaBarbera's and Barber's apologies?

Jim Burroway

January 20th, 2008

The mainstream media is now beginning to recognize that the MRSA hype was overblown:

• New York Times: “After linking new strain of staph to gay men University scrambles to clarify.”
• Newsweek: “A new ‘gay disease’? A drug-resistant staph is infecting some gay men, but experts say a lot of media got it wrong.”

Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber couldn’t conceal their glee when the lead researcher’s ill-conceived statements landed on their lap. Now that UCSF has apologized and denounced LaBarbera’s and Barber’s statements and major news outlets are correcting initial reports, will we see a similar apology from LaBarbera and Barber? After all it would be the Christian thing to do. I somehow doubt it. They’ve built a career by exploiting the suffering of others to score cheap political points. “With love,” of course, as they like to say when they remember it’s what they’re supposed to say. But in the end, this is just another day at the office for them.

You can read more about the overblown hype in our latest report, Testing the Premise: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague?

Is MRSA The New Gay Plague? Not According To The Medical Literature

Jim Burroway

January 19th, 2008

A new study came out last week from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, which found a high rate of drug-resistant staph infection among “men who have sex with men” in San Francisco and Boston. The sensational reporting surrounding this report suggests that once this drug-resistant infection known as MRSA “reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable.” That line has probably become the most quoted line among our favorite anti-gay demagogues. Lead researcher Binh An Diep also told the San Francisco Chronicle:

We probably had it here first, and now it is spreading elsewhere… This is a national problem, and San Francisco is at the epicenter.

The Toronto Star said that this latest 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,” while Australians panicked over the more widespread, “Flesh-eating bug spreads among gays.”

But there’s a problem with all of this. None of it is true!

In our latest report, “Testing the Premise: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague?”, we examine some of the medical research on MRSA over the past two decades — there are over 750 articles listed in the PubMed Database on community-acquired MRSA — and reach several conclusions which should be obvious to anyone familiar with the subject:

• San Francisco is not the epicenter of the new disease,
• this disease in fact is not new,
• and gay men are not spreading it into the “general population.”

The overwhelming medical evidence actually shows the opposite — it’s the “general population” that’s responsible for spreading MRSA into the gay community. In our report, we examine some of the communities that have been hardest hit by MRSA, including:

• Cities all across the U.S. and around the world.
• American Indians, rural Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, prisoners, and kids in day care;
• A religious community in upstate New York;
• Soldiers and sailors in the U.S. and on a ship at sea;
• And athletes. Lots of athletes. The USC Trojans, St. Louis Rams, Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins were all hit in recent years, as were other professional, college and high school programs around the country. (One study blamed “cosmetic body shaving and turf burns,” and the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine described MSRA as “the latest sports epidemic.”)

But for some reason, there has not been a hue and cry over a “flesh-eating jock staph” threatening the “general population.” In fact, none of this has anything to do with gay men. But that doesn’t keep the popular press and anti-gay demagogues from accusing disease-ridden gay men of spreading filthy diseases to an innocent, unsuspecting population. Sound familar?

In our latest report, you can:

• See the actual medical evidence — including direct links to the medical research so you don’t have to take our word for it;
• Examine the statements by lead researcher Binh Diep which helped to fuel the hysteria about the latest “gay plague”;
• Look at how the usual suspects have used the researcher’s comments to flame anti-gay bigotry;
• Learn what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention really say about MRSA and gay men.

You will find all of this in Testing the Premise: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague?

Peter LaBarbera Updates His Pathetic Mess

Jim Burroway

December 28th, 2007

After we reported on LaBarbera’s disgusting twist of a Cicero, Illinois assault, we now learn that he decided to retract his original story:

NOTE TO READERS: When we made our initial comments on our story, we were relying on what turned out to be a sloppy and erroneous Chicago Tribune story (see bottom), and we had not seen the Chicago Sun Times story on this crime, which conflicts with the Tribune account. I apologize for reporting this so quickly and for foolishly relying on a single Chicago media story for accurate news (not a good idea).

It’s not a good idea to rely on LaBarbera for “the truth” either. Anyway, his sole “evidence” that the attacker is gay now gone. But when your name is LaBarbera, who needs evidence anyway?

Regardless, what we still have with this case is a maniac who sexually assaulted another man, while later claiming to hate “faggots.” Strange. Most men would never think of sodomizing another man, and last I heard anal sodomy was seen as the defining act of male homosexuality.

So, we come back to this: if this criminal — who is so crazed that his own mother put out an order of protection against him — is a violent “gay-basher,” then he’s one with a homosexual problem.

Right is wrong, black is white, and he’ll stick to his story even when the evidence evaporates. News flash for LaBarbera: You don’t have to be gay to sodomize someone with a broom handle. That’s not a “defining act of male homosexuality” any more than raping a woman with a beer bottle is a “defining act of heterosexuality.” But saying so is a defining act of stupidity. What a pathetic creature. If only we had an award to give him…

Possible Hate Crime Assault In Chicago

And Peter LaBarbera couldn't be happier

Jim Burroway

December 28th, 2007

It appears that an horrible hate crime near Chicago a few days ago, and already one anti-gay extremist is positively dripping with glee as he takes a shot at twisting it to his advantage.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times:

Felipe Rivera, 43, is charged with a hate crime as well as aggravated criminal sexual assault and other offenses, said a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. If convicted, he could face more than 30 years in prison, a source said.

… “Mr. Rivera got upset apparently because he believed the victim, No. 1, didn’t respond to a female and then, No. 2, somehow winked at him — made what he perceived as a sexual advance,” said Cicero police spokesman Dan Proft.

According to police, Rivera punched the unnamed victim in the face and was asked to leave the party. According to another report, Rivera offered to pay the victim $50 for sex, an offer that the victim refused. Rivera then waited outside for the victim to leave the party, and then followed him to the outer staircase of a basement apartment, where he raped him, punched the victim in the head rendering him semi-conscious, and then sodomized him with a metal broom handle.

Rivera then confessed the entire crime to the police, saying he did it “because he hates f - - - - - s, and this is what they get,” according to police spokesman Proft. Proft also said that Rivera claimed that the whole reason he did this is because the victim winked at him, which the victim denies.

Rivera then went to his mother’s home. His mother — his mother! — called the police on him because she has a protective order against him. Even his own mother won’t have anything to do with him. But Peter LaBarera sees Rivera as being unjustly accused of committing a hate crime — all because of a mere allegation that Rivera offered $50 for sex.

What LaBarbera doesn’t seem to understand however is that 1) we don’t know whether Rivera really made the offer, 2) we don’t know Rivera’s sexual orientation (was the offer real or a taunt?), and 2) Rivera’s orientation has no bearing on whether this is a hate crime or not. If a Black man who holds White supremacist views (and believe it or not, a very few of them exist) attacks an African-American solely because of his race, then it’s a hate crime.

But I guess one thing we can be sure of. We certainly know who LaBarbera sees as the victim in this case.

Update: LaBarbera’s evidence for Rivera’s supposed homosexuality evaporated, but he’s sticking to his story anyway.