Box Turtle Bulletin

Student Senate Says No To Funding Mike Haley’s Speech

Mike Haley is the manager of community education/mobilization for Focus on the Family’s Community Impact Outreach division, aka political activist.

Haley has a testimony about how he was once a gay prostitute but now he’s a husband and a father. And though that endears him to some, those who know and like gay folk are less likely to want to listen to his gay-cure tale.

The student senate at Hastings College, a private liberal arts school in Nebraska affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), is one such group. The Campus Crusade sought to bring Haley on campus to speak and asked the senate for funding. The association emailed the student body and from the responses determined that about 70% did not want their student fees spent for that purpose. So the student group is denying funding.

Campus Crusade will now ask local churches to sponsor Mike Haley’s speech.

More Anti-Gay Math Problems

Perhaps we should pity the anti-gays; they have seem to have learning problems. I’m not saying that they are downright stupid, but they certainly do seem to be confused about math.

In response to a booklet created by the NEA and the APA called Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth, the usual suspects jumped in with their indignation and, well, ignorance. And the Christian Post was right there to give them a venue.

“Among the so-called ‘facts’ in the 24-page document is the opinion that homosexuality is ‘a normal expression of human sexuality,'” stated Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), in an email to FRC supporters.

I suppose it is amusing that this statement alone is shocking, shocking I say, to FRC’s supporters. You can almost hear the froth forming at Tony’s lips when he says, “normal”.

But the gem in the piece was this:

“Despite decades of activism and media propaganda promoting acceptance and celebration of homosexuality, and a number of political and judicial victories for the pro-homosexual movement, polls show that a clear majority of Americans still believe that homosexual behavior is ‘morally wrong,” said Paul Sprigg, vice president for policy of the FRC.

Well, unless there are two wacky Spriggs, his name is actually Peter, not Paul (or Mary), and he’s the darling of anti-gays such as PFOX. Sprigg is just chuck full of opinions about gays, all of them vile.

As it turns out, not only is Sprigg a raging loon, he also doesn’t understand mathematics. This is the result of Gallup’s annual poll (May 2007) of public opinion on the morality of homosexuality:

49% believe homosexual relations are morally wrong; 47% believe they are morally acceptable; with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

In other words, the numbers are statistically equal. But even without allowing for sampling error, 49% is not “a clear majority”, it’s a simple plurality. A “clear majority” would be a number above 50% which allows for the sampling error.

And those numbers are a year old. Which, if we look at the chart below, may well make a difference when Gallup runs its poll this May.

Poor Peter (or Paul or Mary or whoever he is). Not only is it clear that time is his enemy, but he left out the other little facts which show that his battle is nearly over and it’s time for him to start sewing the white flag:

* In general, do you think homosexuals should or should not have equal rights in terms of job opportunities? 89% yes; 9% no

* Do you think homosexual relations between consenting adults should or should not be legal? 59% yes; 37% no

* In your view, is homosexuality something a person is born with, (or is homosexuality) due to factors such as upbringing and environment? 42% born; 35% upbringing; 11% both

and even

* Do you think marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages? 46% yes; 53% no.

And, as I’m sure you guessed, these trends are not in his favor either. But somehow I think that someone unable to recognize that 49% is not a clear majority also won’t recognize that his brand of demonization and loud (false) accusations is losing badly.

Students March for Lawrence King

Last Friday, we reported on a memorial march for Lawrence King, the 15-year-old student who was shot and killed by a classmate because he was gay. There was another march Saturday, this time organized by Oxnard, California students. They had expected only a few hundred to show up. But much to the surprise of organizers, school officials and police, more than a thousand turned out to remember Larry.

A Completely Useless Legislator

WE WERE DUPED

The story below is, as best we know, accurate. But the photo we originally used was photoshopped. We’ve replaced it with Stacey Campfield’s official photo.

A Tennessee legislator doesn’t much like the gays. Per the Memphis Flyer

Representative Stacey Campfield of Knoxville filed a bill last week that would prevent public elementary and middle schools from allowing “any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.”

However, it’s not much worth getting riled up about. Campfield biggest contribution to the Tennessee House is warming his chair. As the Knoxville News Sentinel noted (on an unrelated but no less ridiculous issue)

Campfield has failed to win passage of any legislation, much of it controversial, that he has sponsored in recent years.

I guess Campfield is Tennessee’s official state loon.

Anti-Gay Activist David Parker Loses Appeal

David Parker is a cause célèbre for anti-gay activists.

They love to claim that he was arrested protecting his child from a “homosexual curriculum” in his kindergarten class. Here’s the real story:

In January 2005, Jacob Parker brought home a diversity book bag from his kindergarten. Included in the bag was books about other cultures and traditions, food recipes, and a book called Who’s in a Family. The illustrations included various family constructions: single parents, mom-dad-kids, grandparents, mixed-race families, and same-sex parents.

David Parker, his father, decided that young Jacob was entitled to ignorance of the existence of same-sex headed families. He set out to change school policy so that his child not be exposed to that fact. He extended his demands to include any discussion of same-sex parenting, regardless of the context or setting – including any conversations of children of gay or lesbian parents.

Because the school district has a large number of same-sex families, many with children attending the school, the administration deemed Parker’s request to be nearly impossible.

This resulted in a string of emails and eventually Parker showed up in the administrative offices and refused to leave until his demands were met. At the end of the day, police were called and, when Parker refused the police requests to leave, he was arrested for trespassing.

Dr. Paul Ash, superintendent of Lexington Public Schools, said the school tried to be accommodating.

“The school department said, ‘Look, we’ll work with you, but we cannot assure you what a child is going to say and that we can immediately stop a discussion that you find objectionable,'” said Ash. “One of the central units in kindergarten is the discussion of families and we show families of all different types.” Ash says the discussions “ended up in an irreconcilable difference.”

In June 2006, the Parkers sued the school in federal court for civil right violations.

They were joined by the Joseph and Robin Wirthlin, parents of a second grader in the same district. On a day in which the school discussed marriage, a teacher read King and King, a book in which a prince doesn’t fall for a princess but for another prince instead. Although marriage laws in Massachusetts include same-sex couples, the Wirthlins believe that such marriages should be excluded from discussion about marriages in the classroom.

A few days after filing their suit, David Parker’s credibility came under question. He spread a story that his child, Jacob, was beaten by students for David Parker’s anti-gay stance and suggested that school teachers or the administration were behind the beating.

After much press in the anti-gay conservative Christian media, the facts were released. It turned out to be nothing greater than a schoolyard scuffle over who sat next to whom in the cafeteria.

In February 2007, U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf dismissed the lawsuit.

In his 38-page decision, Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf of US District Court said that under the US Constitution, public schools are “entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy.”

“Diversity is a hallmark of our nation,” he said.

The Parkers and Wirthlins appealed the decision. Yesterday the three judge appeals panel unanimously upheld Judge Wolf’s decision.

“Public schools are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive, particularly when the school imposes no requirement that the student agree with or affirm those ideas, or even participate in discussions about them,” the court said in its ruling.

As we have seen recently, anti-gay activists object not only to any positions taken publicly that are favorable to gay individuals and couples, but to even the acknowledgment of their existence. The court addressed this issue.

Writing for the Appeals Court, Judge Sandra L. Lynch said the parents did not have the legal right “to be free from any reference in public elementary schools to the existence of families in which the parents are of different gender combinations,” according to the ADL statement.

The Parkers and their attorneys are preparing to take the case to the US Supreme Court.

Blame the Altar Boys – They WANTED It!!

This one comes in a bit of a circuitous route (via PageOneQ‘s reference to a translation site) so I can’t swear to its accuracy.

However, the Catholic Bishop of the Canary Island of Tenerife seems to think gay folks are bad for society.

“Homosexuality harms society, and we will pay for it,” he said, adding that most homosexuals lived out their sexual leanings as if they were addicts.

No big surprise. The Church under the current Pope seems to be constantly looking for ever more outrageous things to say.

But Bishop Bernardo Alvarez has an all new take on what I assume is his response to the scandals surrounding priests molestating children and the Church covering it up. Usually it’s simply “defend the Church, blame the homosexuals that snuck into the Church.” Alvarez’ position is even more ignoble.

The bishop further stated that there are minors who desired sexual abuse and even sought it out. “If one isn’t careful, they could even provoke it,” Alvarez said. “Sexuality is more complicated than one suspects.”

So now it’s not just the Church that is innocent, it’s also the molesting priests. The ones to blame are those oversexed Lolitas, male or female, that provoked the priests.

Sure there are sexually provocative youth. No question. There are even precocious minors that are sexually active younger than thirteen, Spain’s age of consent. But isn’t it the adult’s job to set appropriate boundaries?

“This is What Love in Action Looks Like” In Post-Production

Peterson Toscano reports queer filmmaker Morgan Fox is in need of additional funding to assist with editing and licensing of his upcoming film about Love In Action. Peterson (along with Bruce Garrett) is an associate executive producer on the film.

If you wish to donate money you may do so at the film’s blog.

And, in case you live on Mars and haven’t seen the trailer yet, here it is.

Anti-Gay Policies Endanger Children

For many years, anti-gay activists have strived to convince the American public that gay people are inclined to molest children. They create fraudulent “statistics” that define every man that molests a male child as “homosexual”, even though this man may be married to a woman, have also molested many female children, and have no interest whatsoever in adult men.

It is true that some gay men are predators, as are some heterosexual men. But there is no clear evidence that gay men are any more likely to molest children than straight men.

Nonetheless, parents and other good intentioned people can fall victim to this anti-gay propaganda. And, seeking to protect innocent and vulnerable children, they can be swayed to take anti-gay actions that do not in any way benefit children. Often these actions can result in quite the opposite, direct harm to kids.

Take, for example, the Boy Scouts’ policy of excluding gay scouts and leaders. I believe that this policy, while it may feel to some parents as though it is a protection, actually places children in greater harm.

It does this in two ways. First it provides a false sense of security. Parents may believe that no one is going to be sexually interested in their children because there are no gay men involved. And any unusual behavior or undue attachment may be overlooked.

Second, those kids who are experiencing same sex attractions have no roll models or confidants with whom they can talk. They are left at the mercies of whomever is willing to listen. And this is a pedophile’s dream.

Sadly, the harm of this anti-gay policy is illustrated today.

In 1997, the city of Berkeley stated that it could not subsidize organizations that exclude residents based on sexual orientation or religion. Leader Eugene Evans led the charge – all the way to the Supreme Court – to fight for free berthing. The Sea Scouts did not win their battle, but Evans did become a darling of anti-gay activists. And surely parents felt safer knowing that their children were sailing with a man who was an anti-homosexual warrior.

But now Evans has been arrested for molesting at least four of the boys under his charge.

This sad example makes clear two things. First, identifying as gay or as anti-gay are not indications of pedophile tendencies or behavior. Parents should not fear gay men more not place greater trust in anti-gay activists. Second, policies that exclude gay men and women add no further level of protection and may, indeed, serve to lower a parent’s guard.

Unfortunately, there will still be those who are willing to sacrifice the innocence or protection of children to advance their anti-gay goals.

Hat tip Pam’s House Blend

“How Can Lies Be Truth? – Second Edition”

Since I first created a youtube film examining the “Day of Truth” a great deal has changed at Love In Action and a great deal has not changed at Exodus International and at the Alliance Defense Fund. Since my video is one of the few internet resources available on the “Day of Truth” I have decided to updated it by adding a prologue explaining developments since it was originally released.

I present “How Can Lies Be Truth? – Second Edition”

Just Leave Out the Icky Part

What would you do if there was a charming little story about an orphan kid who thought he was a Martian? You’d make it into a movie, of course.

But what if this was a family movie and one of the characters was gay? Oh, you’d just remove that icky part, of course. Does it matter if the story is semi-autobiographical and based on a the difficulties of being a gay father to an adopted son with serious abandonment issues? Nah, just make him straight. It’s much cuddlier.

From Vue Weekly:

Really, how can you not love a little boy orphan who truly believes he’s from Mars and travels inside of an Amazon.com cardboard box with the warning “FRAGILE: Handle with care” on it? David Gordon (John Cusack) certainly can’t. In fact, this celestial orphan named Dennis (Bobby Coleman) might be the perfect match for science fiction writer David.

That is the sole premise of Martian Child, based on the award-winning novelette by, and about, sci-fi author David Gerrold and his experiences as a single adoptive dad. The only major difference is this family film leaves out the part where David is gay, and instead makes him a widower with an attractive “friend,” Harlee, played by Amanda Peet.

Awww. How sweet.

Maybe he and his father can go to a Save Marriage rally in the movie as well. Wouldn’t that be sweet?

Reviewer Omar Mouallem, who has no problem with this minor revision, tells us

But like the orphan in the box, it’s not humanly possible to dislike Martian Child. Not even a little.

Oh, I don’t know about that, Omar. I haven’t even seen it and already I dislike it more than a little.

You see, Omar, I’m not all that fond of when heterosexuals take the contributions and sacrifices that gay men and women make – often times because of the humanity and compassion that comes from being made to feel like an outsider – and pretend that the very attributes that taught this person compassion are icky and nasty and to be hidden.

Failing to Convince, Seeking to Coerce

Why do some people put such effort into “defeating the homosexual agenda”? Regular ol’ people seldom really care what you do in private. They can’t even seem to get all incensed about whether you marry the person you love and they tend to think you shouldn’t be fired from your job or banned from the military. But why do some folks care a WHOLE LOT about those issues?

Often when you scratch below the surface, the motivation becomes evident. Sometimes it’s a hidden sex life. Sometimes it’s some grief that the individual had with a gay person. But quite often it turns out that the anti-gay activist has a gay child.

I believe that their motivation to pass anti-gay legislation or other forms of discrimination is born out of their sense of frustration. Unable to convince or persuade their child not to be gay, they seek to use the power of the government to control the life of their child.

This week one more anti-gay activist is revealed to be the parent of an openly-gay child. This time it is the virulently homophobic Amy Contrada.

We’ve discussed Amy before. She’s the voice of opposition to The Laramie Project that recently was embarrassed when her daughter starred in the play (though she was quick to point out that this daughter is adopted). To Amy’s chagrin, rather than being grateful and submitting to Amy’s every demand, the Claudia Contrada is exerting her right to be herself. This week Claudia gave an interview to Queer Today:

I am a lesbian, which my mom still does not get. She just says that I am confused. I realized in around eighth grade, but I was in denial for quite some time because I was scared due to my mother constantly saying that homosexuality is wrong. How can it ever be wrong to love though? That’s what I’d like to know.

We know full well how difficult it can be living in a home that does not approve of your orientation. We wish Claudia strength.

Further, we wish Amy the courage to let go and allow Claudia to become the woman she’s intended to be. We wish Amy the wisdom to see that her efforts to control the lives of total strangers is based in her inability to control those closest to her and that such efforts are not only futile but also selfish and cruel.

Cancer Linked to Oral Sex…

… in heterosexuals.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, men who have oral sex with women can come into contact with the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer in women.

Men probably obtain the virus by performing oral sex on women who have an HPV infection of the cervix. Ernster said the cancer could develop as late as 20 years after the oral sex occurred.

“Oral sex has implications that are way beyond what we first thought,” he said.

For a while, HPV was assumed to be benign – and it mostly is. But now it has been shown to be a contributer to a number of cancers. And while this observation is limited to oral sex among heterosexuals, it is likely that oral sex between men can also spread HPV.

Fortunately, there is now a recently-identified vaccine for HPV. Unfortunately, conservative activists have been fighting tooth and toenail to stop the broad vaccination of American school girls – they think it gives them permission to be promiscuous. Perhaps now that it can be shown to endanger men their objections may diminish.

The broad vaccination of all schoolchildren should be of great interest to the gay community as HPV has also been shown to play a factor in anal cancer in gay men.

A Tale of Liars and Attention Whores

One of the problems with being a Culture Warrior and fighting against an Evil Agenda is that sometimes you begin to believe your own rhetoric. Of course, it helps if you start with a bit of a disconnect from reality.

Take, for example, this story from Edge about a recent confluence of some of the anti/ex-gay’s loonier players.

MassResistance, an anti-gay outfit in Massachusetts, held a forum on October 3 at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School to protest the Drama Department’s planned production of The Laramie Project. Ironically, the daughter of MassResistance’s main blogger, Amy Contrada, is playing a lead part in the play. Amy was unable to be at the forum because she was “putting her efforts into our banquet” planned for the following day. However, ex-gay gadfly Stephen Bennett was scheduled to declare that “no one is born homosexual and complete change is completely possible”.

Brian Camenker, the face of MassResistance, told a little story to those in attendance about why Bennett didn’t show.

“Stephen Bennett will not be here tonight. … He is reviled and hated by the homosexual movement. While he was driving here after he got off the Mass Pike onto highway 290, as he paid his tolls and went going there was a parked car,” Camenker told the crowd of about 50 people at the start of the forum. “The parked car, as he got going, bashed into his car, causing him personal injury and then took off. State troopers came and they refused to file a police report on this.”

The story of the gay plot to target Stephen Bennett became a recurring theme throughout the evening, particularly in the remarks of Dr. John Diggs, a Massachusetts internist who spoke at the forum to warn Acton parents and community members about the dangers of homosexual sex. Diggs at various points in his remarks compared the alleged attack on Bennett to the attacks on civil rights workers in the South fighting for rights for African Americans, and he said the attack was similar to the tactics used to quash dissent in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union.

“So why is Stephen Bennett so dangerous? Why is Stephen Bennett run off the road, in Massachusetts, the land of tolerance!” said Diggs, raising his voice to a shout. “Obviously because of what he had to say here tonight. Why? … Stephen Bennett is dangerous because he sticks the knife in the core of the lie.”

Frightening! Shocking! Horrifying!

The only problem with this story? It wasn’t true.

Camenker forgot to run his conspiracy story by Bennett, who had no idea that gay activists had attacked him. And, when contacted, the police told another story which differed from Camenker’s fairy tale.

“The damage as a result of that crash was extremely minor. It includes a scuffed bumper,” said Benson.

He also dispelled the myth of a conspiracy between State Police and gay activists. He said police did not file a crash report because the incident did not meet the required threshold; the damage to Bennett’s car was less than $1000 and he was not injured. Benson said police took down Bennett’s description of the vehicle of the alleged perpetrator, including the license plate number and are working to track that person down.

Camenker has yet again illustrated that he’s either deranged or an unabashed liar. And Bennett has yet again illustrated that he’ll join with anyone, no matter how nutty, to get his face in the spotlight.

Ah, Irony

Mass Resistance is a anti-gay site that seeks (rather futily) to promote anti-gay attitudes in Massachusetts. Amy Contrada is one of the main haters. Typical rantings from Amy:

Many of you may be aware of the pro-homosexual play “The Laramie Project” that’s being presented in colleges and even high schools across the country. It’s an extremely offensive piece of propaganda that uses the murder of the gay college student Matthew Shepard to push acceptance of homosexuality and horribly demonize Christians and others who have moral issues with homosexual behavior. It is also an extremely violent and profane work, meant to be psychologically jarring, with little value beyond that.

So perhaps it’s more than a little amusing that QueerToday.com is reporting that Amy’s daughter, Claudia Contrada, is performing in her school’s production of…The Laramie Project. This is confirmed by a couple of fellow students who also report that Claudia is delightful.

Let’s hope the production goes well and touches the hearts of all who watch it.

hat tip GoodAsYou

UPDATE

Yep. It’s Amy Contrada’s daughter. And MassResistance responded in their usual loving way:

This is the true sleazy, self-centered face of the homosexual movement, that cares about no one else’s rights and nothing but their immediate emotional desires.

As reported by Queer Today, Contrada basically argues that other people should boycott The Laramie Project, but that because her daughter enjoys acting then her family is exempt:

Amy and her husband were forced into a no-win situation by the school when the “Laramie Project” was chosen as the fall play. Their daughter had her heart set on acting during her senior year; being involved means a great deal to her.

And here I had my heart set on equality for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation.

College Runner Comes Out On-Line

Willamette College is a liberal arts college in Oregon with a United Methodist heritage. Steven Millard is a runner at Willamette.

Recently Steven gave an interview to the ever interesting Outsports.com in which he talks about his life as a gay collegiate athlete.

I am not out to anyone on the team, although I don’t mind if they know. I think that bad reactions will be very limited. The campus is supportive, the coaches are supportive and the team has a lot of special men and women on it. I think they will like me for who I am as a person, as they do for everyone else. And when it comes down to it, my sexuality has no affect on how I perform or how I interact with my teammates.

He also discusses how his faith impacted his decisions surrounding his sexuality.

Outsports: How have you reconciled your Christian faith with your sexuality?

Millard: Not simply or easily. When I first started to deal with my feelings I struggled with thinking that my faith and feelings might collide. I did a lot of reading and a lot of personal investigation and have come to the conclusion that the bible simply does not speak to the issue of homosexuality as we understand it today. One source that was tremendously helpful to me was the website gaychristian.net which has several thoughtful responses regarding the issue. Today, I am happy with where I am at regarding my faith.

I with Steven all the very best success both on and off the track and hope that his team is as supportive as he anticipates.

Additionally, with all of the language about “evil agenda” that is coming from anti-gay Christians, I believe we all owe a great debt to Justin Lee and the others at www.gaychristian.net who provide young gay and lesbian Christians with thoughtfully researched and eloquently articulated information about sexual orientation from a Christ-centered perspective and give a supportive home to those who seek a reconciliation between their sexuality and their faith – whatever way that takes them.