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 lobbyNovember 7th, 2012
Fifty-one years ago today, José Sarria, a drag performer at San Francisco’s famed Black Cat bar, lost his bid for election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Desite the loss, his election was historic as an openly gay candidate stood for election for the first time. Sarria earned nearly 6,000 votes, putting him in nineth place city-wide in a contest for five at-large seats. Ninth out of thirty-four, which mean that, as Sarria later recalled, “From that day on, nobody ran for anything in San Francisco without knocking on the door of the gay community.”
Fifty-one years later, the long-unimaginable happened. A president ended a ban on gays in the military, ordered his Justice Department to stop defending the DOMA, and announced his full support for the rights of everyone to marry. He was re-elected, against a candidate who was against all of those things. Five openly gay candidates for Congress won their races, and for the first time, a lesbian will sit in the Senate. In none of those races were the candidates’ sexual orientation a major issue.
And after voters in 31 states voted to add bans on same-sex marriage to their state constitutions, Minnesota voters stopped the tide and refused to write discrimination into their organizing document. But that’s not all. Voters in three states (assuming the victory in Washington holds) have gone much further than ever before. Citizens in Maine, Maryland and Washington have given their approval to allow their gay and leasbian neighbors to actually begin marrying in the next couple of months. They didn’t just say no to a permanent ban while existing laws continued to prevent gay people from marrying. They changed existing law so that those marriages can take place.
And they did that at the ballot box. Remember how our opponents always said that every time voters weighted in on marriage , they always voted to deny marriage equality? No more. I would love to be sitting in the offices at the Family “Research” Council and National Organization for Marriage right now. They have seen their era end right before their eyes. But make no mistake: they will also steadfastly refuse to acknowledge its importance.
Right now, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and the District of Columbia allow same-sex couples to marry. By the end of January, two and probably three more states will join them. But in the best case, less than 16% of Americans will live in states with marriage equality. Yes, that’s nearly a third higher now, but it just goes to show how far we still have to go.
It will be generations, I think, before we can win marriage equality throughout the U.S. at the ballot box. In fact, there are some states where that will never happen; it will also take some key court victories before all Americans are created equal. We will undoubtedly experience more losses and setbacks in the years ahead. But every great movement moves forward one step at a time. This was a big step, but it is only the latest one in a long line of just putting one foot in front of the other. We’ve been doing that for more than half a century. But right now it feels pretty good, now that we’re starting to get the hang of it.
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:
WildwoodGuy
November 7th, 2012
Jim,
You wrote “it will also take some key court victories before all Americans are created equal. ”
I would have to disagree with you. We Americans are already created equal; we simply are not TREATED equal.
Otherwise, fully agree with you.
WildwoodGuy
Jack
November 7th, 2012
Democrats also held Iowa State Senate so no chance of anti-SSM referendum there until at least 2018, which means it probably will never happen.
Mark Cross
November 7th, 2012
Thanks for the post; the editor in me wants to point out that it is “tide” not “tied”.
Jim Burroway
November 7th, 2012
I guess the spell-checker missed that, didn’t it?
Nick
November 7th, 2012
Don’t forget that if the Supreme Court passes on Prop 8, California will have same-sex marriage (again), possibly as soon as December… so (fingers crossed in CA and WA) that’s 10 states and a district with marriage equality in the US totaling 87 million people– 28% of the national population. A big deal.
jerry
November 7th, 2012
Part of me wants to find every anti-gay person in the nation and gloat. The bigger part of me is savoring the results of yesterday’s election as one more step in the nation living up to the promises of the DofI and the Constitution.
And a part of me is delirious that the nation can not be bought with huge amounts of money and ugliness and lies.
Lindoro Almaviva
November 7th, 2012
In fact, there are some states where that will never happen
Not so. at one point or another the SCOTUS will be forced to take on the issue because of the inequal way that we are treated from state t0 state.
At one point, the SCOTUS wull have to decide whether it is OK for SC to prevent their gay citizens to marry while NY is OK while at the same tim IN remains inactive on the issue.
At some point the SCOTUS will have the take on the issue that in NY they call is marriage while somewhere else they call it “Civil union”, with all the segregationist implications that brings.
To be honest, I think we have enough to bring a federal class action suit that will legalize marriage accross the USA. the only think we are waiting for is the person with balls of steel to take on the fight.
That day, we will be ale to marry no matter what state we are in, and there is nothing that NOM or any of their friends will be ale to do about it.
IT
November 7th, 2012
If you compare marriage equality for Same Sex couples to the inter-racial marriage, you will see that when Loving v. Virginia passed, only around 20% of Americans approved of inter-racial marriage. But national polls show that same sex marriages are approved by a plurality, if not an outright majority.
it is also the case that in 2011, there were still a number of people (ca 15%) who disapprove of inter-racial marriage.
The trend lines for approval of SSM actually track pretty well with inter-racial marriage trends in terms of the slope. The difference? By the time they got to our levels, inter-racial marriages had been legal for over 20 years.
I figure we need a few more states to be decisive electorally, and then a suit will come against Clause TWO of DOMA (it’s only 3 under challenge now). And hopefully we will have the court to overturn it.
http://gaymarriedcalifornian.blogspot.com/2012/04/inter-racial-marriage-vs-same-sex.html
Mark F.
November 7th, 2012
“If you compare marriage equality for Same Sex couples to the inter-racial marriage, you will see that when Loving v. Virginia passed, only around 20% of Americans approved of inter-racial marriage. But national polls show that same sex marriages are approved by a plurality, if not an outright majority.”
There is a difference between disapproving of something and thinking that it should be illegal, so I question whether 80% of the populastion really thought interracial marriages should be illegal at the time of Loving.
Mark F.
November 7th, 2012
Even without court action, I am confident that even the citizens of Utah, Mississippi and Oklahoma will be okay with same sex marriage in 2032. It won’t be “generations.”
Leave A Comment