October 2nd, 2010
A small glimpse of what was lost:
It doesn’t have to end this way. This straight guy has a message: it gets better:
You can contribute to Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project with your message of support here.
Latest Posts
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.
Regan DuCasse
October 2nd, 2010
Fresh tears this morning…
Tyler played with such serenity, who could know the storms inside him enough for a cruel action wanting him to take his own life?
Poor Tyler! Poor, poor boy…
So many things about him that were amazing and beautiful, yet…it’s always being gay that seems to supercede the gifts a gay person has.
And the one thing to so profoundly sadden, a gay person forgets this of himself too?
This was a boy with enough LOVE him to spend the hours to learn to play so beautifully, to express his love for another boy at school, love enough for his family perhaps, so that he didn’t bring them shame for his orientation?
Why are these gifts ignored as if being gay commits you to a character without them?
Poor Tyler…poor, poor boy.
“Goodnight, sweet prince. May flights of angels, sing thee to thy rest…”
Ginger
October 2nd, 2010
Although, I don’t know what church org. with was, I think that playing in a Christian worship band probably contributed to the guilt he had associated with his homosexual behavior. The song was beautiful, and it is so sad that religion is dividing us when it can lift us up.
TampaZeke
October 2nd, 2010
Sad to see how many of us grow up in churches that we dedicate ourselves to in spite of the fact that they hate us.
Fiddling for our oppressors.
Everett
October 2nd, 2010
Thanks for posting this video of Tyler. He played the violin beautifully in it.
Rev Ray Neal
October 3rd, 2010
I’m glad that Tyler had a connection with God. I know nothing about the church where he played his violin. I can only hope they accepted him and loved him just as God created him…and make no mistake, God created Tyler to be gay. Tyler plays with beauty and grace. I am appalled that his life was cut short by cruelty and hate and disrespect and inhuman behavior. It’s time for all of us to stand up and be counted as opposing all kinds of brutality and bullying by anyone, whether physical or electronic or verbal.
Rev Ray Neal, pastor
Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle
The oldest LGBT congregation in the Pacific Northwest
Timothy (TRiG)
October 3rd, 2010
Could we have a “contains religious language” content warning on that first video, please? I’m not feeling well disposed to religion right now.
Beautiful playing, of course.
“Some of the songs that they sing have nice cords, but the lyrics are dodgy.”
Tim Minchin, White Wine in the Sun.
TRiG.
Leave A Comment