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 lobbyMay 10th, 2011
UPDATE: The GetEqual protest at the Uganda Embassy is TODAY. See updated info below.
Stephen Tashobya
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” Bill Is In The Balance: Stephen Tashobya, chairman of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee for Uganda’s Parliament, must be feeling the weight of the world on him right now. Yesterday, his committee heard testimony from supporters and opponents of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The fate of the bill now rests in Tashobya’s hands, as well as those of the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Ssekandi. If the committee’s report on the bill is completed and presented to Parliament, Ssekandi could then call the bill for a second and third reading, with passage taking place on the third reading. According to the current schedule, all of this has to occur before the end of the day on Wednesday when the 8th Parliament’s session is scheduled to end.
If Tashobya’s report does not make it into Ssekandi’s hands by Wednesday morning, the likelihood that the bill will be voted in would be significantly lessened. But constitutionally, the 8th Parliament remains in effect until May 18th. Ssekandi could conceivably call Parliament back for a special session. But time is already running out for that. Thursday is a special national holiday as President Yoweri Museveni is sworn in to begin his twenty-sixth year as President. Swearing in of MP’s for the 9th Parliament occurs over three days from the 16th through the 18th, with the next Parliament beginning its term on the 18th. That effectively would leave Friday the 13th as a potential day for a special session.
Protesters at the Ugandan Embassy in November 2009, following the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Protest At Uganda Embassy: GetEqual has announced a protest for this afternoon from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Ugandan Embassy, 5911 15th 16th Street NW in Washington, D.C. (map). Says GetEqual: “Please bring signs, banners, and your best protest chants Tuesday afternoon to the Ugandan Embassy as we let Uganda know that we stand in solidarity LGBT Ugandans, their families and friends, and we will not sit idly by while Members of Parliament debate whether to imprison or kill them.”
If you can’t make it to the protest in person, you can call, write, and/or fax the Ugandan Ambassador to the United States. Please be polite, but firm. The contact information is:
His Excellency Professor Perezi K. Kamunanwire
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Tel: (202) 726 4758
Fax: (202) 726 1727
pkamunanwire@ugandaembassyus.org
Also, there’s an AllOut petition you can sign online.
Exodus In Morgantown: Exodus International travels to Morgantown, West Virginia today to conduct an “equipping event” at Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. The event is a sort of a miniature “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference, but tailored specifically for pastors, ministerial leaders and seminary students. The event is today from 8:30 a.m. to 2:oo p.m.
Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen will also be in Morgantown, joining Fairness West Virginia for “Fairness in Faith: Fighting the Ex-Gay Myth and Propaganda Machine,” from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on West Virginia University’s campus in the Mountainlair Greenbrier Room. The event is being held in conjunction with First Presbyterian Church of Morgantown’s companion event, “Let My People Go: A Liberating Faith for People of All Sexual Orientations,” will be held at the church at 456 Spruce Street in Morgantown. A light supper will be served at 5:30. The prizewinning film “For the Bible Tells Me So,” which explores issues of sexuality and faith, will be screened at 6:30 with a discussion to follow. For more information, please call (304) 712-9805 or send an email to Bradley@fairnesswv.org.
Lisa Miller (left) and Janet Jenkins (right)
Lisa Miller Case: Timothy David Miller returns to court today for a probable cause hearing in Burlington, Vermont. He was arrested on charges that he helped Lisa Miller kidnap nine-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins and leave the country in defiance of a judge’s order that she turn over custody to Janet Jenkins. Jenkins and Lisa Miller had been in a civil union when they had their daughter, Isabella, but the union fell apart when Miller decided to leave and renounce her homosexuality. Miller initially had custody of Isabella, but refused Jenkins’s visitation rights. Jenkins was awarded custody in 2009, but by then Miller had already fled the country. Timothy David Miller (no apparent relation) allegedly purchased the airline tickets to Nicaragua and arranged for a place for them to stay. A federal arrest warrant has been issued for Lisa Miller who remains at large, and the girl is listed as missing by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Becoming Chaz: This much talked-about documentary chronicles Chaz Bono’s transition from the golden-haired “Chastity” of The Sonny and Cher Show. Beginning with his hormone shots and through his surgeries, the documentary reveals that the transition is not just one of physical changes, but of his heart and soul as well. The documentary premiered last January at the Sundance Film Festival, and will air tonight on OWN at 9: p.m. (EST/PST). It will be flowed with a live discussion hosted by Rosie O’Donnell, with the audience and viewer invited to a conversation with Chaz, his family and filmmakers. You can see the trailer for Becoming Chaz here.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Book Burning in Berlin: 1933. After having raided the Institute for Sexual Research and looted its vast library and archives (See the May 6 Daily Agenda), the German Student Association (Deutsche Studentenschaft) proclaimed a nationwide “Action against the Un-German Spirit”, which culminating in the “cleansing” (“Säuberung”) by fire on May 10, 1033 of an estimated 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books. Book burnings took place throughout Germany, and the bulk of the books burned in Berlin came form the ISR. About 40,000 people watched in the Opernplatz as propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels declared “No to decadence and moral corruption!” LGBT advocacy, which had developed as a strong scientific and social institution in Germany over the past several decades, was shut down virtually overnight.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:
Scott Brison: 1967. Brison is chief economic spokesman for Canada’s Liberal Party, representing the riding of Kings-Hants, Nova Scotia in Parliament. But hie entered politics as a Progressive Conservative in 1997. He came out as gay in 2002, saying that he is “not a gay politician, but a politician who happens to be gay.” While he was the fourth sitting Member of Parliament to come out, he was the first openly gay MP for the Progressive Conservative Party. In 2003, he crossed the aisle and joined the Liberal Party after the PC merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the new Conservative Party. In 2004, he became the first openly gay cabinet minister when Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed him Minister of Public Works. On August 18, 2007, Brison married his partner, Maxime Saint-Pierre in Cheverie, Nova Scotia.
Michele Van Gorp: 1977. Born in Warren Michigan, Michele Van Gorp played women’s collegiate basketball at Purdue University for her freshman and sophomore years, then transferred to Duke University, where she led Duke to the school’s firs NCAA final. She was drafted into the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Van Gorp was the only open lesbian in the WNBA from 2002 (when Sue Wicks retired) until 2005, when Sheryl Swoopes and Latasha Byears came out. Van Gorp retired from the WNBA in 2005 following injuries, and she is now coaching in France.
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it 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.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
John
May 10th, 2011
This has nothing to do with this post, but I can’t seem to send Box Turtle an e-mail. I want to bring to everyone’s attention, a new book that purports to tell the story of gay America in recent decades and it’s negative effect on our country, with a Biblical overtone. The book can be found at this site: http://aqueerthing.com/home and also on Amazon.
Timothy Kincaid
May 11th, 2011
Thanks, John.
Generally when a book is “so controversial that no publisher will touch it”, a more accurate description would be to replace “controversial” with “poorly written” or “inadequately researched and documented”.
In this case, knowing Dr. Brown, I suspect that the real reason no one would publish his book is that it is little other than a bunch of assertions with no support, written in a holier than thou (yet victim) manner, and presents a picture of gay people that is inconsistent with any gay person that any American has ever met.
In other words, unsellable.
Leave A Comment