Box Turtle Bulletin

Box Turtle BulletinNews, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
“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…”
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Latest Posts

The "Biblical" Worldwide Anglican Communion

Namibia Political Parties Hesitantly Supportive

Purdue Professor Spews "An Economic Case Against Homosexuality"

Australian Senate Refuses to Oppose Uganda's "Kill Gays" Bill

My Prayer

Linda Harvey Fears Tolerance

Uganda Women's Group: "Kill the Gays"

Referendum 71 Update - 11/5

Featured Reports

David Benkof: Behind the Mask

At first glance, David Benkof appears to be a young gay man who believes that same-sex marriage will damage the institution of marriage, that there are better options for gay couples than marriage, that the community should join him in prioritizing other more pressing issues, and that the marriage discussion is harming the efforts of gay couples in red states to get recognition for their unions. He also claims that he’s a gay columnist, that he speaks for an influential collection of gay thinkers, and that he is part of the gay and lesbian community and that he shares our goals and dreams. But none of that is true.

“Repeat After Me”: The Reparative Therapy Echo Chamber

The April 2008 edition of the pay-to-publish vanity journal Psychological Reports featured a new report from NARTH. Written by NARTH president A. Dean Byrd, past president Joseph Nicolosi, and Richard W. Potts, the report carries the unwieldy but self-descriptive title, “Clients perceptions of how reorientation therapy and self-help can promote changes in sexual orientation.” While the title describes what the authors meant to show — how clients describe the benefits of reparative therapy — the report itself actually illustrates something very different: the ex-gay movement’s remarkable ability to instill an almost robot-like parroting of ex-gay rhetoric among their clients.

Testing the Premise: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague?

The Toronto Star said that a new 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,” and anti-gay extremists across America spread the alarm that gays were introducing another plague into “the general population.” But there was a small problem with all of this: None of it is true!

Paul Cameron’s World

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.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

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"

 

The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing The Myths

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.

Testing The Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?

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.

Straight From The Source: What the “Dutch Study” Really Says About Gay Couples

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.

The FRC’s Briefs Are Showing

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.

Review: The Gay Report

When Karla Jay and Allan Young published The Gay Report in 1979, it quickly a favorite source of statistics for many anti-gay extremists. But before you accepts these statistic at face value, you should examine the inner workings of this survey very carefully. What you learn might surprise you.

Daniel Fetty Doesn’t Count

Daniel FettyThe 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.

Posts for August, 2009

We Condemn Maurice Schwenkler / Ariel Attack

Timothy Kincaid

August 27th, 2009

Early Tuesday morning Maurice Schwenkler and another accomplice took hammers and broke eleven windows in the Denver Democratic Party headquarters.

What followed was the usual round of speculation and political nonsense in which first Democratic Party representatives accused the right of stirring up hate and then a Republican legislator accused the left of manufacturing a victim status for sympathy. It seems neither explanation fits. (Denver Post)

Schwenkler, who also goes by Ariel Attack, is a anarchist activist and is affiliated with Bash Back! (the group behind the disruption of morning services at a church in Lansing, Michigan, in May) and other anarchy groups.

Bash Back! is calling Schwenkler “transgendered”, though I do not know if Schwenkler has specifically identified as female and is seeking to live accordingly. It appears to me that perhaps Schwenkler has adopted a gender-queer identity which denies the binary nature of gender recognition. Such identity may have less to do with internal association with a female gender and have more to do with a political ideology that seeks the destruction of conventional norms.

But whether Schwenkler is gay or transgender or both or neither is not relevant. The action s/he took is indefensible. It is reprehensible. And we strongly condemn it.

Ultimately, taking action of this sort is not “revolutionary”. It is not based in a real sense of seeking justice for indignity. It is not the brave work of those seeking a better world. Rather it is the immature acting out of an individual that sees the world through the prism of their own self-assigned martyr status and who selfishly tries to destroy anything they cannot own or control.

Angie Zapata’s Murderer Found Guilty

Jim Burroway

April 22nd, 2009

It has just been announced that a Colorado jury found Allen Andrade guilty of murdering 18-year-old Angie Zapata. He was also found guilty of the additional hate crime enhancement as well as vehicle theft and identity theft. The charges carry a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Angie Zapata was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher on July 17, 2008 when Andrade discovered that she was a transgender woman. Andrade then stole her car, a 2003 PT Cruiser. It was that stolen car which led investigators to Andrade.

During the trial this week, jurors heard a tape of phone call Andrade made from jail to a girlfriend. In that phone conversation, Andrade said that “gay things need to die.” He also joked about his “celebrity” status which should fetch him $50,000 for his life story. That phone call was made just days after his arrest.

Colorado added gender identity to its hate crime law in 2005, making it one of only eleven states to include transgender protections. This is the first case in which Colorado’s hate crime law has been applied in a case involving a transgender person.

Transgender Vets Featured In Arizona Daily Star

Jim Burroway

February 23rd, 2009

Transgender people are often referred to as the silent “T’s” of the LGBT community. But Tuscon, for whatever reason, is home to a very active and comparatively visible transgender community, with many of them making up the most enthusiastic roles of community service via the Wingspan LGBT community center and the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA).

But despite all that, transgender people aren’t as visible in the general community as you might think. So it was such a pleasure to see Tucson’s hometown morning paper, the Arizona Daily Star, feature on its front page the first part of an amazing two-part series by military reporter Carol Ann Alaimo on the hidden lives of transgender military veterans. The first part provides a look in the lives of four veterans, three of whom transitioned to women and one who transitioned to a man. The second part today focuses on the inconsistent medical care these veterans face in the VA health care system.

This invisibility in the military is an especially important story because experts believe that the proportion of transgender people in the military is higher than that of the civilian population:

A study titled “Transsexuals in the Military: Flight Into Hypermasculinity” — a classic still cited in college texts on gender issues — was written in 1988 by Dr. George R. Brown, then an Air Force captain and psychiatrist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Brown found it curious that in a three-year period at the Midwestern base, he came across 11 men — eight current and former military, the rest civilians such as Defense Department staffers — all seeking treatment to become women.

Transsexuality is an issue “believed by many not to exist” in the armed forces, he noted. Yet each veteran told him nearly the same thing: He had enlisted hoping to “become a real man.”

A copy of Brown’s study from the prestigious Archives of Sexual Behavior is available on the Star’s web site (PDF: 676KB/11 pages). Brown’s findings on why transwomen might be attracted to the military was perhaps best illustrated by Erin Rus, one of the three women featured in the Sunday article:

Transgender people often sense their predicaments at a young age, Vanderleest said. That’s how it was for Russ, the former Army captain who has been living full time as a female since 2001. Even as a preschooler, she said, “I knew something was different about me.”

Joining the military was one action in a long list of things — playing football, becoming an Eagle Scout, getting married and becoming a father — that Russ hoped would still the inner sense of being born with the wrong anatomy. “You think if you do enough things of a male nature, then you will become male, and the female thoughts will go away.”

As with gay people, transgender people are barred from serving in the military. Erin’s military career came to a sudden end when she was pulled over for a routine traffic stop while dressed as a woman. The police officer wrote “a page long report on how I was dressed” and sent a copy to the military. The following Monday, Erin was called in to her commander’s office and threatened with a court-martial for conduct unbecoming of an officer. She was allowed to resign honorably.

That loss of talent in the military is a loss to the nation, as many of these vets typically served their country with distinction:

[Mick] Andoso, 51, retired in 1995 as a first sergeant. Back then, Andoso’s name was Master Sgt. Brenda Weichelt — who in 1994 was named one of the service’s top airmen for her work at the military’s Defense Language Institute in California.

Andoso still has a copy of an Air Force Sergeants Association magazine describing the award, and photos taken with the service’s top brass. Also among the keepsakes is a letter from Brenda’s last commander.

“You are among the few rare exceptions whose absolute dedication to duty, commitment to excellence and genuine concern for your service and your fellow airmen, set you so far apart that I can never forget your outstanding achievements,” it said.

The second part of the Star’s series goes more in depth on how the Veterans Administration deals with transgender veterans who come into the system for care. The U.S. bans transgender people from serving in the military, and that policy greatly influences the VA’s health care policies, where transgender vets are often denied treatments that experts say could help them most. (A few other countries, like Canada and Great Britain allow transgender people to serve, and will even pay for treatment, including sex-change surgery.)

Last June, the American Medical Association approved a new policy on the care of transgender patients, which calls gender-identity disorder a “serious medical condition … which causes intense emotional pain and suffering.” Untreated, it can lead to stress-related illness, depression and suicide. The AMA calls for all public and private medical providers to cover the cost of mental health care, hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery.

But the VA medical system does not conform to that policy. The National Department of Veterans Affairs specifically forbids VA hospitals from performing or paying for surgery, hormone treatments, psychotherapy, and other measures. Those policies are now under review.

The VA;s current policy also prohibits “any process or procedure involving genital identity revision,” an open phrase that is subject to wide interpretations from one VA hospital to the next or even one doctor to the next, resulting in huge disparities in patient treatment. Some hospitals have refused to treat transgender veterans for even routine medical conditions unrelated to their transgender status. VA hospitals in Tucson and Boston are seen as more generous in their treatments. Boston’s VA hospital even has a memo which specifies their policy on treating transgender vets (PDF: 176KB/5 pages), the only VA hospital to do so.

But even in Tucson’s relatively generous VA hospital, treatment can be uneven. Mick Andoso is happy with his care at the Tucson VA hospital, but others continue to experience problems:

[Diane] Steen, on the other hand, said she was denied hormone therapy at the local VA as she prepared for her privately obtained sex-change surgery. That forced her to find an outside doctor and cover the cost herself. “It all depends what doctor you get,” Steen said of VA care.

Erin Russ of Tucson, a former Army officer who is transgender and a VA patient, agreed. Tucson VA staffers “are mostly accepting. But there are a few who basically hold the line that we are crazy, and they refuse to deal with us on any other basis,” said Russ, who teaches transgender awareness workshops at Wingspan, the local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender resource center.

Advocates for transgender veterans are working to change that policy soon.

A Truly Stupid Example of Transphobia

Timothy Kincaid

January 10th, 2009

Gainesville, Florida, has an ordinance allowing transgender persons to select whichever bathroom they find most appropriate. The haters and the fools have come up with a campaign to overturn this ordinance and to require transgendered persons to… well, I’m not sure exactly.

This is the television ad they are running:

YouTube Preview Image

Transgender persons – like any group – are too complex to make many absolute statements. But I’m willing to say with absolute confidence that there is not a single solitary male-to-female transgender out there that lurks around in public looking like this guy. And there isn’t a police force on the planet (much less Gainesville) that wouldn’t arrest this dude.

Ironically, however, this appearance would not be out of the question for a female-to-male transgender. And I just wonder just which bathroom the Citizens for Good Public Policy would want him to use.

Of course, their effort have nothing to do with where a T-girl pees. It’s just a cover for an anti-gay, anti-trans agenda.

The proposed amendment, if approved by the voters of Gainesville, will require the city’s civil rights categories (contained in the Code of Ordinances) to match the State of Florida’s civil rights categories. This action will remove two current categories—sexual orientation and gender identity disorder—as well as nullify current laws, such as the Gender Identity Ordinance, that specifically pertain to these categories.

The Good Citizens just want to have the right to discriminate.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Jim Burroway

November 20th, 2008

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day set aside to remember those who were killed due to anti-transgender or anti-gender-variant prejudice.

Transgender Day of Remembrance began in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, who was stabbed to death on November 28th 1998. This year will mark the tenth anniversary of her death. The event has grown over the past decade to include memorials in more than a hundred cities in all over the world.

The Remembering Our Dead web site contains profiles of some 353 people who have lost their lives around the world — some of them, their names are unknown. In fact, we really don’t know the full extent of hate crimes motivated by prejudice against variant gender identity and expression. As imperfect as the FBI’s statistics of hate crimes based on sexual orientation are, they provide even fewer clues to what’s going on against transgender and gender-variant people.  Federal law only mandates the collection of statistics for crimes based on sexual orientation, not sexual identity or expression.

To find a memorial event near you, please visit the Transgender Day of Remembrance website.

Arizona Republic Says No to Prop 102

Jim Burroway

October 20th, 2008

This is huge. The Arizona Republic is the state’s largest, most influential newspaper. It is also generally a conservative one. But in this morning’s edition, the editorial board of the Republic strongly urges that Arizona voters reject Prop 102. And they did so in surprisingly strong terms:

One of the best arguments against a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is this: Secretary of State Jan Brewer blocked ballot language that would have told voters that state law already prohibits such marriages.

If voters were clear on existing law, many might decide there’s no reason to adopt the amendment.

The Republic also doubts the sincerity of the “Yes” side’s claim that this is a “simple” amendment:

Refusing to recognize another state’s contracts brings up federal constitutional issues. What about other types of same-sex legal partnerships?

Lawyers could use up a lot of billable hours parsing the exact meaning of “union” and “marriage.”

Arizona must get beyond the acrimony fueled by the fight over Proposition 102.

…

Arizona could use strong advocates of marriage. They should spend their time and energy hunting for real ways to shore it up. Proposition 102 is a needless distraction. Voters should reject it.

The Republic joins these other Arizona newspapers in urging Arizona voters to reject Prop 102:

The fight isn’t over, nor is it won. We can defeat this so-called marriage amendment again, but only with your help. Our opponents are on track to raise more than ten million dollars, and if they win this time, they will most assuredly decide to go after California again in a couple of years. We need to send a message: when voters say no, they mean it. They’re not dumb.

Please give as generously as you can today.

National Transgender Day of Rememberance

Jim Burroway

November 19th, 2007

With all this talk about hate crime statistics, now’s a good time to mention that tomorrow, November 20, is the annual Transgender Day Of Remembrance. This day is set aside to remember those who have been killed due to anti-transgender violence. Those deaths, by the way, don’t show up in the FBI’s hate crime statistics because the current federal Hate Crime Reporting Act doesn’t address gender, gender identity or expression. You can learn more about transgender hate crimes at the Remembering Our Dead web site.