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 lobbySearch Results
November 16th, 2006
To everyone’s surprise and many people’s delight, Arizona’s Prop 107, the so-called “marriage” amendment continues to go down with an ever-widening margin. Late yesterday, the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), Prop 107’s chief sponsor, conceded defeat, but not before bemoaning the fact that opponents pointed out how their amendment would have affected straight unmarried couples.
November 15th, 2006
The vote counting for Arizona’s Proposition 107, the same-sex marriage amendment, goes on as absentee and provisional ballots continue to be processed. Interestingly, Prop 107’s margin of defeat has actually widened over recent days. Meanwhile, same-sex marriage opponents are starting to cry foul, claiming that the only reason Prop 107 failed is because Arizona Together “distorted” the issues.
November 8th, 2006
I hope that the Arizona Together’s success can be repeated elsewhere when our opponents look for someone to scapegoat. But I think it is important to recognize the possibility that what happened here may be unique. If CAP had offered a “cleaner” amendment without the domestic partnership prohibitions, if CAP had reached out beyond its own base, if Arizona’s gay community were less integrated, if Arizona Together hadn’t gotten its act together before CAP began their efforts — if any of this had been different, we might not be celebrating today. As it is, the margin of Prop 107’s defeat so far is not large. But it may be large enough.
November 3rd, 2006
A few days ago, the internet was buzzing with rumors about Neil Patrick Harris, former Dougie Houser, M.D. star and currently in the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother, had helped his “longtime sweetheart” David Burtka land a part on the show. This prompted Harris’ publicist to issue a statement claiming, “He’s not of that pursuasion.” It appears the publicist spoke too soon.
November 3rd, 2006
My heart goes out especially to his wife and children. I also offer my prayers and condolences to all of those who trusted him for their own spiritual and moral formation. But it will take a very long time for me to fulfill my Christian mandate to forgive our enemies in his case. I suspect I am not alone in that. Haggard was not a man of God. He made an idol out of power and influence. But his idol, like all idols do in the end, let him down.
October 20th, 2006
Peter Sprigg, of Focus on the family, comments that “If we are not willing to say that men should not engage in sex with other men, then we are really not willing to tackle the root causes of the AIDS problem.” If that’s really what he thinks, then he needs to take another look at what is really going on with HIV/AIDS.
October 18th, 2006
Linda Harvey of Mission America claims that “The vast majority of people involved in homosexuality are projected by many studies to be people that are employed sporadically, because of their lifestyle … They are more unstable.” Really Linda? What studies are you referring to?
October 15th, 2006
There is a remarkable double standard when it comes to adults having sex with children. Right here in my adoptive home of Tucson, Arizona, Veronica Bullock, 27, faced 7½ years in prison for having had sex with a twelve-year-old boy. Instead, she was given a thirty day jail sentence and probation. She also has to register as a sex offender.
October 13th, 2006
On June 6, 1975, Richard J. Heakin, a gay man who was visiting Tucson from Nebraska, was attacked and killed by four teenagers while leaving a local bar near downtown. His death forever changed the small city in the desert.
October 8th, 2006
Over the past week, Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, has tried to make himself something of a media expert on the supposed link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse. I’ve looked into his claims and found all of them to be flat-out wrong.
October 5th, 2006
Terrance, at Republic of T has posted an wonderfully thoughtful response to my reaction to Ben Stein’s comments. He had been reading a review copy of the book “Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians And Gays in Black Churches” by Horace Griffin.
October 2nd, 2006
Former Congressman Mark Foley, Republican from Florida, resigned after sexually suggestive Instant Messages between him and a 16-year-old page were made public. It had been rumored in the mainstream press that Mark Foley was gay, but closeted for several years. And now that those rumors are confirmed by way of a scandal, the supposed link between homosexuality and pedophilia is being trotted out once again.
September 28th, 2006
Lost behind all of the rhetoric of “special rights”, it turns out that hate crime laws which include sexual orientation really do protect everyone. According to the FBI’s most recent hate crime report, there were thirty-three anti-heterosexual hate crime incidents affecting thirty-six victims in 2004. And there may have been another one in Colorado last Tuesday evening.
September 25th, 2006
My participating in a recent vigil at a Palm Springs “Love Won Out” conference led me to wonder if activists have lost sight of the purpose of activism. Is it to try to convince the general public to listen to your views and consider your arguments, so they can form well-informed opinions which (hopefully) come close to reflecting yours? Or is it to make a lot of noise so you can feel better afterwards?
September 12th, 2006
CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Robert decided to come out of the closet at this year’s Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association conference in Miami.
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.
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