Box Turtle Bulletin

Ellen DeGeneres and Sen. John McCain Debate Same Sex Marriage

Click here to read the transcript

Principal Resigns Over Gay-Straight Alliance

Irmo, S.C. High School Principal Eddie Walker announced that he will resign, following the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club at his school over his objections. That announcement came after the school district determined that he had not grounds to prevent the club’s formation.

Walker’s stated objections to the club were based on his own personal religious convictions. He also falsely accused the GSA of encouraging sexual behavior:

In fact our sex education curriculum is abstinence based. I feel the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance Club at Irmo High school implies that students joining the club will have chosen to or will choose to engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, opposite sex, or members of both sexes.

Gay-Straight Alliances have been established in hundreds of school districts across the country to provide a safe place for LGBT students and their allies, where they can find support and guidance. One student who attended a high school with a GSA remarked:

People used to make fun of and beat up gay people, just because they were different. This is actually a program to make everyone feel that they belong.”

I think Principal Walker made the right decision. If there’s someone who doesn’t belong at Irmo High School, it’s him. Not the LGBT students who attend his school.

Linda Harvey’s Dishonesty about the Day of Silence

Linda Harvey is one of the most extreme anti-gays. Her writings reveal a woman with little regard for fact or constitutional protections.

• She claims that “Child molestation is an everyday occurrence because of the increased access homosexuals have to our children” and advocates banning gay people from teaching (a position so radical that Ronald Reagan opposed it in 1978).
• She claims that the vast majority of gay people are only employed sporadically due to their instability.
• She believes that HIV is “almost exclusively a homosexual male and drug addict epidemic” and advocates that “gay social establishments should close until HIV rates are seriously reduced”.
• She claims that for a Pastor to believe that gay persons can be Christian “is deliberate rebellion against God’s word and His created order of male/female genders and marriage.”

In short, Linda is a woman driven by her objection to anything gay and she’ll not hesitate to say anything to advance her goal of changing America into a nation that conforms to her religious ideals. Honesty, integrity, empathy, or the Golden Rule seem not to be particularly important to this quest.

Linda through her organization Mission:America was a leader in the anti-gay opposition to the Day of Silence. Linda compiled and distributed a list of grievances which sought to portray the Day of Silence as an aggressive act against Christians. Some of these listed abuses seem almost impossible to believe.

In fact, they were so extreme that Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a conservative psychology professor with interest in sexual orientation issues, decided to check up on a few of Linda’s stories. Not surprisingly, what he found did not square with what Linda said.

For example, Linda said

Kirksville, Mo.: A parent reported that the Kirksville High School principal and superintendent laughed when she asked if her child could be excused from participating in the school’s Day of Silence. According to Mission America, she said, “They called me a narrow-minded bigot and refused to give excused absences.”

Dr. Throckmorton did not find that to be confirmed.

Curious, I called the Kirksville High School Superintendent of schools, Pat Williams about the allegation of name-calling. When I read the account to him, he said, “That’s absolutely false. I did not use that language with any parent or in response to any inquiry.”

Throckmorton also spoke with the principal of the school and found that while absences were not excused, the school also allowed the Day of Truth and did not allow either event to disrupt the teaching process.

I emailed Linda Harvey at Mission America to see if I could interview the parent involved but she declined to provide more information or contact the person who made the allegation. The Kirksville administrators were not aware of any allegations surrounding the Day of Silence until I called. In my opinion, the the information provided by Mr. Williams and Mr. Michael and the fact that the school district also allowed the Day of Truth detract from the credibility of the anonymous allegation.

Throckmorton also found out that claims Harvey made about an event in Mesa, AZ, were materially different from police reports. He concludes

And those were just the first two bulletpoints. I guess you can’t believe everything you read.

Dr. Throckmorton and I differ strongly about the appropriate theological, social, and legal responses to persons who are same-sex attracted. But we agree that dishonesty should never be a tool used in the debate over social policy about homosexuality.

Sadly, too many anti-gays (and too many pro-gays) are willing to make any claim that advances their cause. And for what? Ultimately the truth comes out and then what has one gained in exchange for their integrity?

If conservative Christians worried about their religious freedoms want to have their concerns taken seriously, they need to rid their movement of liars, extremist, and haters. Then perhaps we can find common ground where the rights of all can be respected.

When You’ve Run Out Of Rational Arguments…

… there’s always the Nazis to fall back on. This come from Randy Thomasson’s Campaign for Children and Families, who are calling for California’s County Clerks to violate the state’s recent Supreme Court ruling:

Ask your county clerk if they were a Nazi officer during WWII and had been ordered to gas the Jews, would they? At the Nuremberg trials, they would have been convicted of murder for following this immoral order.

Randy Thomasson is closely associated with the hate group Watchmen On the Walls. Founded by Scott Lively, Kenneth Hutcherson, Vlad Kusakin, and Alexei Ledyaev, members of the Watchmen have justified violence against LGBT people.

Thomasson is no stranger to false allegories like this one with the Nazis. He told a Watchmen gathering in Sacramento last fall that California’s laws protecting LGBT kids from bullying was tantamount to “moral rape.”

Update: Jeremy Hooper has now noticed that Thomasson has done some “cleansing” on his web site.

Court Rules Against Military Gay Ban

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Military must prove that a dismissal furthers the military’s goals of troop readiness and unit cohesion to justify dismissing any specific gay serviceperson.

“When the government attempts to intrude upon the personal and private lives of homosexuals, the government must advance an important governmental interest … and the intrusion must be necessary to further that interest,” wrote Judge Ronald M. Gould.

Now it has been my observation that many of the personnel dismissed over Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell served honorably, worked well with their unit, and added to cohesion and troop readiness. Often their immediate supervisors sought to keep the gay servicemen. So I think the Military will find this a rather steep obstacle.

This ruling does not invalidate the military policy. And we must recognize that the 9th Circuit is the most overruled of all appeals courts. But if it stands, it may well make DADT so toothless as to be unenforceable.

The personal life situation upon which this decision rests illustrates the foolish and unnecessary nature of this law.

Maj. Margaret Witt, a flight nurse based at McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, was suspended without pay in 2004 after the Air Force received a tip that she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. Witt was honorably discharged in October 2007 after having put in 18 years — two short of what she needed to receive retirement benefits.

Witt joined the Air Force in 1987 and switched from active duty to the reserves in 1995. She cared for injured patients on military flights and in operating rooms. She was promoted to major in 1999, and she deployed to Oman in 2003 in support of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

A citation from President Bush that year said, “Her airmanship and courage directly contributed to the successful accomplishment of important missions under extremely hazardous conditions.”

Her suspension and discharge came during a shortage of flight nurses and outraged many of her colleagues — one of whom, a sergeant, retired in protest.

Now Maj. Witt’s lawsuit can go forward. I wish her well.

More Anti-Semitism From “Pro-Family” Activists?

UPDATE: I make mistakes from time to time. And I’ll even admit to it when I do. :)I misread Gary Glenn’s poorly written article about David Benkof’s (inaccurate) reporting of comments made by Sean Kosofsky. I thought that Glenn was noting that Kosofsky was Jewish when upon closer inspection it appears as though the comment was about Benkof being Jewish.

Frankly, I find it odd that there is a need to note that ANYONE in this story is Jewish. And I think that including this irrelevant fact in Glenn’s opinion piece is peculiar.

But, as commenter Truthteller noted, Glenn did not present a Jew=bad dynamic in his piece as I had earlier thought and reported.

Gary Glenn, President of AFA-Michigan, started off a bitch and moan articleon Peter LaBarbera’s website thusly

Michigan’s largest homosexual activist group says once marriage is legally redefined to include homosexual couples, business owners and even news media outlets who refuse to recognize such marriages should be jailed or sued and “publicly slapped,” a Jewish and openly bisexual columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News reported Monday.

Hmmm. Something seems out of place there. I’ll get back to that.

Glenn goes on at quite some length quoting from an opinion piece by David Benkof, an opponent of gay marriage. Benkof, who writes in GaysDefendMarriage.com, attributes outlandish quotes to a number of people. And Glenn repeats them as fact.

Now, having had interaction with Benkof in the past, I was not at all surprised to find his version of the truth to be disputed. Jeremy at Good-As-You reports,

By the way, we have dialogued with someone who is quoted in the article. He confirms our suspicions that Mr. Benkoff has completely misrepresented/discontextualized his words.

Benkof is an interesting guy. As David Bianco, he built up a gay news source only to have a spiritual epiphany, denounce sex, and adopt a new “sexual identity”. (Benkof seems to have a bit of a fluid identity and, as best I can tell, uses whatever gives him the most credibility at the moment). Since then he’s taken it upon himself to oppose gay marriage whenever he can.

He’s also, in my opinion, arrogant, abrasive, and obnoxious.

So it’s not at all odd that a pro-family leader would leap right up and delight in quoting Benkof and repeating his claims. An anti-gay activist that presents as LGBT is a dream to anti-gays.

But that’s not what I found interesting in Glenn’s article. What is more fascinating than Glenn’s reliance on Benkof is what he leaves out of his article. Glenn never mentions that Bekhof’s religious conversion was not to Christianity, but rather to Orthodox Judaism.Glenn denounces the “Jewish and openly bisexual columnist” but never mentions the religious/ethnic affiliation of Benkof, the one he wants to present as credible. Bad guy: Jew; good guy: well, let’s not talk about it.

Now from my point of view, this is either blatant anti-Semitism or at least an appeal to those who are. Considering LaBarbara’s affilitations with Ted Pike, it doesn’t surprise me to see anti-Semitism on his website. But you’d think that the head of a state wide pro-family organization would be more careful not to reveal his bigotry.

Morality of Homosexuality

Every year the Gallup Group takes a poll on what Americans think is moral and immoral. Since 2001, homosexuality has been on the list. For the first time, Americans are evenly split, with 48% saying that it is morally acceptable and 48% saying it is morally wrong.

Poll was taken May 8 – 11, 2008.

Ex-Gay Torture Chambers In Ecuador

Andrés Duque at Babbleando has provided some valuable translations from two newspaper articles from Ecuador chronicling ex-gay and ex-transgender ministries in that country. According to El Universo, there are more than 140 such unlicensed treatment centers operating throughout Ecuador. Operating under the guise of alcohol and drug rehab centers, these ministries engage in barbaric practices which are nothing short of torture. One transgender “client” describes her experience:

“My father paid $1,000 [approx. $350 dollars] to have them lock me up in a clinic because he wanted me to change. Four men practically kidnapped me on the street. I wore my hair long and, since I had already taken hormones, my breasts had grown. They clipped my hair. Me and another three homosexuals. They would lock us up in rooms of less than a meter wide. So small that we had to stand on our feet, in the dark, with flies.”

The place where she was taken was God’s Paradise, a drug and alcohol rehab center, led by Jorge Flor who some residents call “My Pastor.”

“When I tried to escape,” says Chiqui, “they hit me until they broke my nose. They’d ask if I was a man or a woman, they’d take our pants down, they’d throw water between our legs and would put live cables to shock us with electricity.”

Another former “client,” Jorge, who is now an LGBT activist, described similar experiences:

“They gave me hormones that changed my voice. They would put on videos with men and, if we happened to get an erection, they would hit us. They would wake us up at 5:30 and, if we had not committed an infraction, they would give us breakfast. They applied electric shocks to our private parts and on our hands.”

Jorge also said that the center was led by men who called themselves as pastors and claimed that they would touch “patients” to see if they would become aroused, and if not, declare then “cured.”

El Universo notes that although Ecuador is a predominantly Catholic country, most of the ex-gay ministries are associated with the emerging Evangelical movement in Latin America. And as in America, these ministries are politically engaged. One such leader, Assembly member Balerico Estacio, tried to eliminate constitutional protections for gays and lesbians last March. He described his ex-gay treatment approach this way:

“They are demons that invade the body,” he says, “The natural self does not understand them, even if its psychological. Nothing can be done if it’s not from God’s spirit,” defending these centers.

Portland Elects Gay Mayor

Portland elected Sam Adams to be the city’s mayor yesterday, making Portland the largest city so far to elect an openly gay city executive. As of 11:33 PDT last night, he was leading his closest rival, businessman Sho Dozono by a margin of 58% to 34% with 77% of the votes counted.

“I’m running not to be a gay mayor, but a great mayor,” he said after giving his victory speech last night. “But I’m very cognizant, very aware that I’m the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. That’s a real honor”

Governator’s Secret Economic Weapon

The Sacramento Bee reports

The governor appeared at an Environmental Defense Fund event to discuss products and practices that can help businesses become more environmentally sound.

One practice?

In the wake of the state Supreme Court’s recent legalization of gay marriage, the Republican governor said Tuesday in San Francisco he wants gay couples to flock to California for wedded bliss.

“You know, I’m wishing everyone good luck with their marriages and I hope that California’s economy is booming because everyone is going to come here and get married,” said Schwarzenegger, prompting laughs and applause.

Yeah, he’s kidding.

But I’m sure that the state’s hotels and caterers and wedding planners are taking the change in law very seriously.

Today In History: HIV Virus Discovered

Twenty-five years ago today, on May 20, 1983, an article appeared in the journal Science in which a team led by Luc Montagnier of France’s Pasteur Institute announced that they had discovered the virus which causes AIDS. The suspected virus was isolated in a patient who had died of the disease. Nearly a year later, American researcher Robert Gallo would make a similar claim, sparking a three year debate over who actually discovered the virus.

Nevertheless the discovery of the virus sparked a sense of premature optimism. US health secretary Margaret Heckler famously declared in 1984 that “We hope to have a vaccine ready for testing in about two years.” Two decades later, that vaccine remains out of reach.

The introduction of the “AIDS cocktail” in 1995 has transformed the experience of AIDS from being a terminal condition to being a very serious chronic one. Where receiving an AIDS diagnosis was once tantamount to being handed a death sentence, today people are living full and productive lives with HIV/AIDS. And yet, the more than two-decades-old stigma associated with HIV/AIDS continues.

Schwarzenegger Clarifies His Thinking on Marriage Decision

We have become accustomed to hearing our elected officials speak a specific language, one utilized by bureaucrats and designed to have no specific meaning. This allows them to sound authoritative (or compassionate or informed) without being held accountable for their positions.

So it can be refreshing when a politician says something directely, clearly, and in language we all speak and understand. I believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger did just that in explaining his response to the California Supreme Court decision to invalidate state law that restricts marriage to opposite sex couples.

From the San Francisco Chronicle

“First, I have always said that for me, marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said.

Then he added: “But I don’t want to make everyone else go in that direction.”

Schwarzenegger said he vetoed same-sex marriage legislation because he felt the Legislature shouldn’t override voter-approved Proposition 22, which had defined marriage as between a man and a woman and was nullified by the high court on Thursday.

However, the governor said he doesn’t necessarily feel the same when it comes to the Supreme Court overturning a statute enacted by a voter initiative.

“When the people vote, people are not legal experts, constitutional experts or any of that,” he said. “I think that’s why we have the courts. People may vote with good intentions, but then the court says, ‘This is not constitutional.’

“It’s not that the court interferes with the will of the people,” he added. “But the court says, ‘You voted for something, but it’s not constitutionally right, so let’s rework this.’ That’s really the idea.”

Oddly enough, that makes sense to me.

Perhaps this is not the most elequent statement, but it is a statement that I think can appeal to the average Californian. And I’m glad to hear it from our governor.

Russian Bill To Recriminalize Homosexuality Introduced

365gay.com is reporting that a bill was introduced in Russia’s lower house to recriminalize homosexuality, providing for up to five year in prison for anyone convicted of the crime. The bill, introduced Monday by Deputy Nikolay Kuryanovich, would also make it a crime for gays to congregate, which would prohibit meetings or gay pride marches .

It’s unclear how far Kuryanovich’s bill will go. Earlier this month, Russian Vanguard, a monarchist group with ties to the Russian Orthodox Church demanded that Article 121, which had banned homosexuality in the former Soviet Union, be restored.

Next week will mark the fifteenth anniversary of Article 121’s repeal. It was repealed on May 27, 1993.

Beyond Ex-Gay Gathering in Barcelona

Wherever there are ex-gay groups, there are ex-gay survivors recovering from the experience. Exodus Global Alliance has been trying to make inroads into Spain for quite some time. Beyond Ex-Gay, in conjunction with local LGBT groups, will be holding an ex-gay survivors gathering at the University of Barcelona on May 30.

Conference speakers include Jordi Petit, Honorary President of la Coordiandora Gai-Lesbiana de Catalunya (the Gay-Lesbian Network of Catalonia), Noemí Domínguez, Clinical psychologist and Master’s in sexual and couple therapy (University of Barcelona), and Peterson Toscano, ex-gay survivor and co-founder of Beyond Ex-Gay.

NARTH Goes South Of The Border

The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) took their ex-gay message to Mexico a few weeks ago. Sponsored by the Mexican ex-gay group Renacer (“Rebirth”), an “Understanding Homosexuality” conference featuring at least six prominent American ex-gay activists took place May 1-3 at the Sheraton Centro Histórico in Mexico City.

The Spanish language LGBT web site Anodis reported that conference speakers included:

• NARTH president A. Dean Byrd,
• NARTH past president Joseph Nicolisi,
• NARTH president-elect Julie Harren-Hamilton,
• Desert Hope Ministries founder and director Janelle M. Hallman,
• Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) co-director Arthur Goldberg,
• Venus magazine publisher Charlene Cothran.

According to Anodis, Byrd opened the conference by claiming that he didn’t want to change anyone, and that he respected those who are “defined as openly gay.” He mentioned the 1990 removal of homosexuality from the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD), but then he went on to describe homosexuality using the clinical sounding acronym SSA, or Same-Sex Attraction, which he describes it as “something [that] happens in the development of the individual.” Byrd then went on to decry the state of research into homosexuality today, claiming that half the research is being conducted by gay people. This, by the way, is a most unscientific claim, one that can be easily disproved by a few quick searches of the PubMed databases on virtually any topic related to homosexuality.

Identifying the hallmarks of sound science is clearly not Dr. Byrd’s strong suit. This is the man who, with Nicolosi, co-authored the recent ex-gay “study” in the pay-to-publish vanity journal Psychological Reports, a paper which reads more like ex-gay propaganda than legitimate social science. In 2002, Byrd cited the work of discredited “researcher” Paul Cameron in a paper published by Regent University.

Meanwhile, other shining examples of “science” include Julie Harren-Hamilton focusing on child sexual abuse as being a critical factor in the development of male homosexuality, and Nicolosi claiming to have treated “hundreds of men” to “reorient their SSA.”

According to Anodis, approximately 300 people paid between 900 to 1,200 pesos (US$87 to $115) for the three day conference.

[Hat tip: Andrés Duque at Blabbeando]