Box Turtle Bulletin

Jim DeMint channels John Briggs

In 1978, California State Senator John Briggs sponsored an initiative on the ballot which would have banned gays and lesbians, and possibly anyone who supported gay rights, from working in California’s public schools. Although this initiative was initially successful in the polls, it failed on election night by 58.4% to 41.6%.

While the notion of banning gay people from certain types of employment (other than the military) seems archaic, it certainly isn’t dead. In fact, one of the more prominent voices in the Senate seems to be channeling John Briggs. (Spartanburg Herald-Journal)

[Senator Jim DeMint] said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn’t be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who’s sleeping with her boyfriend — she shouldn’t be in the classroom.

“(When I said those things,) no one came to my defense,” he said. “But everyone would come to me and whisper that I shouldn’t back down. They don’t want government purging their rights and their freedom to religion.”

Undoubtedly DeMint considers himself to be a good Republican. And, as such, undoubtedly he idolizes Ronald Reagan. So perhaps he should consider these words from the man that is credited for turning around public opinion:

Whatever else it is, homosexuality is not a contagious disease like the measles. Prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual’s sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child’s teachers do not really influence this.

Were DeMints thinking based on Fears About The Children, then he could rest assured that they are baseless. But they aren’t. Rather, DeMint is concerned about that nebulous “freedom to religion” which seems to be defined as the right to force others to do what your religion dictates.

And so Senator DeMint’s objection to gay people teaching is based in something a bit less susceptible to argument or logic: a desire to harm the lives of gay people and to falsely present them as something to be feared or shunned. Because that is consistent with the values of the god he serves.

“Hang Them”: Another Wave of Anti-Gay Vigilantism Strikes Uganda

October 2, 2010 edition of the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone (Click to enlarge)

A new tabloid appeared on the streets of Kampala, Uganda about a month ago, and they appear intent on displacing the notorious Red Pepper as the leader of vigilante mobs against the country’s beleaguered gay community. The latest tabloid, Rolling Stone (no relation to the American publication of the same name), has published several photos and names along with other identifying information in outing private LGBT citizens and others who are accused of homosexuality.

Rolling Stone has upped the ante considerably over previous vigilante campaigns by attaching the tagline “Hang them” on the front cover. Previous Red Pepper campaigns typically revealed first names and general descriptions of their residences and places of employment. Rolling Stone goes further by including surnames for many of those who are being forcibly outed, as well as numerous photos. The article also promises that their list is “to be continued in the next issue.”

One of the two photos on the cover is that of retired Anglican Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, who is married and a father and grandfather. He has been a tireless advocate for LGBT people since his retirement, and has suffered tremendously for it. In 2001, Bishop Senyonjo received numerous death threats because of his advocacy, requiring him to remain in exile in the United States for about six months.

The anonymous blogger GayUganda was the first to note this latest round of anti-gay outings in a post this morning. Since then, we have received photos of other pages of the paper from other sources, but because of the danger they pose to those exposed, we cannot post them at this time.

I will have much more on this later this evening.

How to Kill a Kid

Step 1: Denial

Maggie Gallagher covers her ass on Tyler Clementi’s suicide:

I do not think the absence of gay marriage is the cause of these tragedies or its presence will resolve them. We can make this a symbol of all our other fights, or we can try to save all our kids, gay and straight, from this kind of ugly and mindless cruelty. My heart goes out to the family of the young man. God bless him and them.

Step 2: Degradation

World Net Daily columnist Vox Day:

[Tyler Clementi] killed himself because he could not live with the shame of knowing that everyone would be aware of his submission to what he apparently believed to be evil desires. While giving in to our desire for evil is something that we all do from time to time, it is also true that some desires happen to be more shameful or humiliating than others. For example, a man’s desire for his neighbor’s wife is sinful, but few consider it to be as appalling as his desire for his neighbor’s child.

Step 3: Damnation

An account of Senator Jim DeMint speaking at a Spartanburg church rally:

DeMint said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn’t be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who’s sleeping with her boyfriend — she shouldn’t be in the classroom.

Step 4: Repeat

Here’s what the right-wing Christianist (not Christian) message boils down to:

It’s not our fault that gay kids are killing themselves. They kill themselves because they feel naturally ashamed of their perversion. Also, they’re vile creatures who shouldn’t be around kids.

How angry are you? How much angrier can you get? Double that. Then get angrier.

It Gets Better: From a BTB Reader

Ben Mathis, who comments regularly on BTB, contributed this video to Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project:

I love BTB readers! You can contribute your message of encouragement and support here.

Growing Backlash Against Kenyan Gov’t Minister Who Called for Gay Acceptance

Kenya's Special Programs Minister Esther Murugi at an HIB/AIDS conference in Mombasa

A growing backlash appears to be brewing in Kenya following remarks by Special Programs Minister Esther Murugi at an HIV/AIDS conference last week in Mombasa, in which she told those in attendance that acceptance of LGBT people, particularly gay men, will be critical in the fight against AIDS. That drew a swift condemnation from Muslim leaders in Kenya, followed by demands from a coalition of 74 Evangelical Christian churches that Murugi be fired:

The churches, under the aegis of the Federation of Evangelical Indigenous Christian Churches of Kenya (FEICCK) warned of street demonstrations against the Ms Murugi, the Special Programmes minister.

…”This [her firing] should happen in the shortest time possible; failure to which we shall not be left with any other option other than to ask those who care about righteousness and morality to demonstrate against her, “said FEICCK chairman Bishop Dr Joseph.

Dr Methu stressed unless intended to invite God’ wrath, Kenyans should not dare to allow homosexuality and lesbianism to thrive in the country.

“God will punish all forms of immorality despite who is promoting it and are at whatever level. We have observed Hon Murugi Transforming herself to becoming a trouble shooter and one who makes statements focused on demeaning and antagonizing the faith community in Kenya , “he further state in his statement to the Nation.

Kenyan rally: "Gay people need health care too."

Murugi first stirred the controversy last week when she told an HIV/AIDS conference in Mumbassa, “”We need to learn to live with men who have sex with other men… we are in the 21st century and things have changed.”

While the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has been a predominately heterosexual epidemic, health care professionals say that gay men make up an important, growing, and under-served subset of the epidemic. Male homosexuality is a felony in Kenya, punishable with up to fourteen years’ imprisonment. Female homosexuality is not prohibited by law.

Kenya’s LGBT advocates are rallying to Murugi’s defense. Denis Nzioka of Gay Kenya writes:

All Kenyans, under the new Constitution have a right to health care regardless. Esther Murugi was simply echoing this by asking Kenyans to be accepting and open to the more than 2.4 million LGBTI Kenyans present in Kenya.

We support Esther Murugi and assure her of our complete support and encouragement in her endeavours. We wish to ask that religious leaders back down from their persistent calls for action to be taken against the Minister who was simply doing her work. Their calls are unwelcome, ignorant and miss the point. We, as Gay Kenya, support and echo those same sentiments of Esther Murugi, if not to advocate for gays to be accepted and respected, but at least to ensure access to health for all but especially those most at risk of infection – women, children, the physically challenged included.

In related news, a Catholic priest in the coastal town of Malindi issued a rather unconventional homily, in which he blamed the marriage of two Kenyan gay men in London, which made banner headlines across Kenya, on the failure of women:

“Today as we celebrate this Holy Mass, I am a very, very disappointed man,” said Fr Muli when he begun his sermon drawn from the book of Mark.

The packed cathedral was immediately sent into dead silence with the congregation wondering what the priest was up to, or what had disappointed him.

Fr Muli continued: “This so-called marriage between the two Kenyan men in London last week, why do you think it happened? What went wrong? What is the matter?”

This drew murmurs from the congregation culminating with loud “No, no, no” from the women when the priest said: “This was because the women are no longer marriageable”.

Fr Muli said men were resorting to marrying one another probably because the women had failed to provide what they should in marriage.

“Women, from the way I see it, have become too complicated and unattractive in marriage. You don’t provide what God intended you to give in marriage. You have frustrated the men so much leading them to trying among themselves whether they will get the joy that comes with marriage”.

Update: This notice went out from the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GLKCK)

There is a  debate question on page 14 of today’s Daily Nation where we are asked
‘SHOULD HOMOSEXUALITY BE LEGALIZED IN KENYA AS MINISTER MURUNGI PROPOSES?’

Please send your comments to mailbox@ke.nationmedia.com

I urge all members of GALCK and others to respond and send your comments. Let’s support the minister.

Given the debate over the supposedly “un-African” values of equality for LGBT people, coupled with the long-running African versus Colonial lens through which such debate take place, having a bunch of North American, European or Australasian commenters would be very counterproductive. But Kenyan and East African readers are strongly urged to send your comments to the Daily Nation.

It Gets Better: From a Divinity Professor

Rev. Stephen Sprinkle is the director of field education and supervised ministry, and associate professor of practical theology at Brite Divinity School, which is an independent school affiliate with Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He is also a gay man, and he has a message for you: It gets better.

Rev. Sprinke attended the memorial service for Asher Brown over the weekend and wrote about it for the Dallas Voice.

(By the way, my first contact with Rev. Sprinkle came when he emailed me to express his complements for one of my earlier endeavors, Testing The Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children? That was back in 2005 or 2006, when I still wasn’t sure exactly where this web site was going — I was still working under the delusion that it would not be a blog. I was and remain grateful for Rev. Sprinkle’s words of encouragement and support.)

You can contribute your message of encouragement and support here.

How Suicides Serve the Anti-Gay Agenda

From Oklahoma City:

Some time back, I asked this question of Focus On the Family and other groups like them: “When Does Opposition to Suicide Prevention Equal Murder?”

I think that with Focus On the Family’s response to what are now being called “The September Suicides,” we have that answer. The “when” is now. Opposition to suicide prevention equals murder.

I was reminded of that question three times today. First, with the video you see above. And then again when I read this heartfelt and thought-provoking piece by Exodus International vice-president Randy Thomas — that is, until I read where he re-posted Exodus’ policy statement on bullying:

In addition, every individual deserves equal protection and every offender should receive equal punishment. We call upon other organizations concerned with preserving the essential equality of all individuals to exhibit impartiality in their policies, rather than singling out some for special treatment. [Emphasis mine]

That last phrase serves a very specific reason: Anti-gay groups like Exodus International and others routinely oppose anti-bullying programs which mention gay people, on the theory that if you don’t talk about a problem, it will no longer exist. That’s the rationale behind Focus’ opposition to anti-bullying programs that talk about gay people.

But of course, we know the problem exists precisely because the specific problem isn’t being addressed in schools. The problem exists because school administrators turn a blind eye to gay kids being bullied. It exists because very public people give a green light to bullying. And it exists because people create an atmosphere — administrators, teachers, parents, preachers, and ex-gay program vice-presidents — where they only speak of gay people as problems to be dealt with, struggles to be cured, “choices” to be condemned, and any notion of positive futures to be denied.

And the problem exists precisely because gay kids, along with gay people in general, are already being singled out for special treatment. The special treatment exists in the prohibitions and discrimination written into our laws, where we can’t marry, we can’t serve in the military, we can be fired from our jobs without cause, and in many states we cannot even claim our spouse’s corpse. And this special treatment exists beyond the law and into the hearts of those who protest that we are a threat to society, our families, our children and ourselves.

Against this backdrop, you can see how suicide may begin to look logical for a tormented individual. It becomes an acceptance of an open and unspoken (and yes, sometimes a spoken) invitation to just go ahead and kill yourself and be done with it. After all, if people like Focus and Exodus don’t want us to actually name the problem in schools, then the problem for these kids isn’t that there are bullies in school. The problem is that these kids are gay. And that is precisely the message that anti-gay groups would have for kids, parents, administrators, politicians and everyone else, to the exclusion of all other messages.

I think it is time to turn the question into a declarative: Opposition to anti-bullying programs and suicide prevention equals murder.

If you don’t believe it, then here is my third reminder for today. It’s from Dan Savage:

The religious right points to the suicide rate among gay teenagers—which the religious right works so hard to drive up (see above)—as evidence that the gay lifestyle is destructive. It’s like intentionally running someone down with your car and then claiming that it isn’t safe to walk the streets.

Which is why I argued that every gay teen suicide is a victory for the religious right. Because, you see, your side does use those suicides to “perpetuate [your] agenda.” Tony Perkins and all those other oddly effete defenders of “Christian values” and “traditional marriage” will point to this recent spate of gay teen suicides to argue against gay marriage, anti-bullying programs, against allowing gay people to serve in the military—basically, they’ll gleefully use these tragedies to justify what they like to call the “Christian, pro-family agenda.”

Savage added that profound insight as a quick post script to an already outstanding post. Read the whole thing.

It Gets Better: A Farmboy From Ohio

Brian is from my neck of the woods, perhaps 20 miles from where I grew up.

You can contribute your message of encouragement and support here.

Heterosexual Agenda: Don’t Spare the Rod

Colossians 3:20: Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. (AP)

An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to beating his 4-year-old stepson to death. The Columbus Dispatch reports John Reeves was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after he whipped Lawrence King III with a leather belt and killed him at the family’s Columbus home in March. Reeves said he was trying to correct his stepson. An investigation found that Reeves beat the boy because he was acting up and wouldn’t stand in the corner.

…Police say the boy’s mother, 24-year-old Nikki Reeves, turned up the radio to drown out the sound of a beating. She’s awaiting trial on child endangering and murder charges.

…But Reeves’ father, the Rev. Michael Reeves Sr., defended his son. “John is not a thug,” he said. “He is not the villain he has been portrayed in the media. … I’m sorry for what happened, for what my son allegedly did, but there is more to the story.”

Tyler Clementi On Violin

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.

It Gets Better: With An Apology From An Adult

You can contribute your message of support here.

U.S. Secretary of Education Says “No More” “This Must Stop” to Anti-Gay Bullying, But Legislation Speaks Louder Than Words

Today Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, released the following statement in response to recent tragic incidents of youth committing suicide as a result of pervasive anti-LGBT harassment and bullying in schools and college campuses across the country:

“This week, we sadly lost two young men who took their own lives for one unacceptable reason: they were being bullied and harassed because they were openly gay or believed to be gay. These unnecessary tragedies come on the heels of at least three other young people taking their own lives because the trauma of being bullied and harassed for their actual or perceived sexual orientation was too much to bear.

“This is a moment where every one of us – parents, teachers, students, elected officials, and all people of conscience – needs to stand up and speak out against intolerance in all its forms. Whether it’s students harassing other students because of ethnicity, disability or religion; or an adult, public official harassing the President of the University of Michigan student body because he is gay, it is time we as a country said enough. No more. This must stop.”

Actually, it’s time for the Obama administration and our national LGBT advocacy organizations to actively push for the passage of  the Student Nondiscrimination Act (SNDA) and the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA).

The SSIA, first introduced in the House in 2007, is currently locked up in the House Subcommittees on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education and Healthy Families and Communities. It amends the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (Title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act) to require schools and districts receiving federal funds to adopt codes of conduct that specifically prohibit bullying and harassment, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It also requires states to collect and report data on bullying and harassment to the Department of Education.

On July 8, 2009, Sirdeaner Walker, mother of 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, testified before that committee in support of SNDA’s passage just a few months after Carl committed suicide after experiencing pervasive anti-gay harassment at school. A YouTube clip of her testimony is below and GLSEN provided a transcript here.

Introduced for the first time in the House and Senate in 2010, SNDA prohibits school programs or activities that receive federal funding from discriminating against any public school student based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. SNDA also prohibits discrimination against any public school student because of the actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of a person with whom a student associates or has associated. Discrimination, as defined by SNDA, also includes harassment of a student. SNDA also prohibits retaliation based on an individual’s opposition to conduct made illegal by the bill, and it affirms the right of any individual who believes he or she has been harmed under its provisions to pursue legal recourse.

SNDA is currently locked up in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

As an undergraduate, my first class on public policy included a variety of theories on how policy becomes law despite a U.S. system of government designed to be slow and deliberate. The theories of John Kingdon reigned supreme and focused, among other things, on a “window of opportunity” opening that creates an often singular opportunity for legislation to be passed, usually due to the convergence of unexpected events that capture the public’s and politician’s attention.

My broken hear over the rash of suicides in the past month would never reduce those tragedies to political “windows of opportunity.” Still, we all have to wonder the proverbial, “if not now, when?” as these two major pieces of legislation languish in a Congress focused on the mid-term election.

We need leadership in Congress, the White House, and in our movement’s national organizations to stand up and demand attention to anti-LGBT bullying in more than just words.

It’s time to pass SNDA and the SSIA. Period.

Tus Valores gets supporters

The National Organization for Marriage sponsored Vota Tus Valores tour picked up some support yesterday. They had Latinos there to support Carly Fiorina and her anti-gay values in Stocton and in Modesto and in Fresno. Too bad they were all the same people just moving with them from stop to stop. (Courage Campaign)

Day 4, Stop 1: Stockton

Twenty minutes after 10 AM, the Vota Bus finally arrived at Weber Point park in Stockton with three large vans filled with 42 (predominantly Latino and male) members of an organization called Victory Outreach, a Christian men’s group that does outreach in inner-city communities. Three local equality supporters also stopped by to check things out.

Day 4, Stop 2: Modesto

In Modesto, Tus Valores took what they called “a beautiful impromptu stop at a Market in Modesto” with their bus and three vans full of Victory Outreach men.

Day 4, Non-stop 3: Merced

Rather than show up at Applegate Community Park, Tus Valores decided to stop for enchiladas. Which is unfortunate because it looks like they missed the chance to meet a supporter – and with the “crowds” they are drawing, everyone counts.

Four equality supporters stood in a near empty park (one Latino man and his son were there) in Merced.

They even had a few folks show up specifically to see the bus.

Later three women and a young girl (all Caucasian) stopped at the park for the “Susan B. Anthony” event.

“Where’s the bus?” one woman asked. “Why aren’t there any people here?”

Day 4, Stop 4: Fresno

In Fresno, nine members of the Victory Outreach ministry were bused to Vallarta market and received literature from the Vota Tus Valores organizer.

Three counter-protesters were present, although only one was vocal, chanting “no es vertad” (“that’s not true”) as Alfonso and Karyme made their speeches to the small crowd.

Day 4, Stop 5: Los Banos

One of the few things I know how to say in Spanish is the useful phrase, “¿dónde están los baños, por favor?” (where are the bathrooms, please?) So I was surprised to see that the Valores tour would announce an official tour stop at Los Banos.

Well it turns out that this is the name of a town in California. We have some really bizarrely bastardized Spanish place names in this state, but “Los Banos”? Really? I can only imagine what teasing the locals get. (And get your mind out of the sewer, the mascot of Los Banos High School is “the tigers”)

On their was to Los Banos, the bus made an unexpected stop. Karyme Lozano, Mexican telenovela star, was getting off the bus and going home. Karyme was the “celebrity” draw.

Lozano had been a supporter of the community and had even been the “queen” of the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade in 2008. But then her father died and she had an epiphany. She abandoned her “wild life” and embraced religion. She has since taken on celibacy and is encouraging “her gay friends” to do so as well.

However, it seems that she wasn’t exactly aware the extent to which NOM has taken on the role of oppressor of gay people or the extent to which they fund anti-gay activism. And she was clearly unaccustomed to being thought of as a bigot or hateful. (Funny how people who can dedicate a week of their life to opposing our equality are hurt when we don’t accept them as benevolent or just as having “another opinion”. I wonder how she would feel if I spent a week traveling to deny her rights.)

Once they got to Los Banos, they were greeted by seven supporters. So this was one of their more successful stops on one of their more successful days. But news reports from Santa Cruz suggest that today was not so fun for the Vota Tus Valores tourists.

(Ugh… now I’ve got ¿dónde están los baños, por favor? playing in my head to the tune of Do you know the way to San Jose?)

Kenya Gov’t Minister Urges Gay Acceptance

Kenya's Special Programs Minister Esther Murugi at an HIV/AIDS conference in Mombasa

A Kenyan Cabinet minister suggested that the government should address the wider concerns of the country’s gay community if it is to make headway in its fight against HIV/AIDS. Special Programs Minister Esther Murugi told participants at a national symposium on HIV/AIDS in Mombasa:

“We need to learn to live with men who have sex with other men… we are in the 21st century and things have changed,” she told the gathering on Thursday.

According to the Daily Nation, one of Kenya’s principal independent newspapers, religious leaders expressed outrage over Minister Murugi’s remarks. Sheik Mohammad Khalifa of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya denounced her remarks as “satanic and contrary to African culture.” The Kenyan National Muslim Advisory Council demanded that Murugi resign or be fired.

Muslims make up only about 10% of Kenya’s population overall, but the North Eastern Province is predominantly Muslim, and the Coast Province has a very large Muslim population. Mombasa is the Coast Province’s capital city, and was the scene of Muslim-led anti-gay vigilantism last February.

Homosexual behavior between men is criminalized in Kenya, with a penalty of up to fourteen years’ imprisonment. Lesbian relationships are not prohibited.

On Wednesday, Malawi’s Vice President Joyce Banda urged a gathering of religious leaders in the commercial capital of Blantyre to address the needs of LGBT people in that nation’s fight against HIV/AIDS.

Are You a Wacktivist?

I am a “wacktivist.” So says Matt Barber, Associate Dean of Liberty University School of Law. What makes me so wacko? I agree with the UN Secretary’ General’s statement that we should discourage other countries from killing gays. Matt says:

“The United Nations just continues to spiral further and further down into the abyss of irrelevancy. Their radical, leftist, post-modern secular humanist, globalist agenda is just as clear as it has ever been…

[T]his is why so many nations around the world that embrace traditional values, that embrace sexual morality, have really written the U.N. off as an extremist conglomerate of really left-wing ‘wacktivists.'”

So what exactly has big, butch Matt in such a tizzy? Here’s the meat of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s statement:

No one, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. No one should be prosecuted for their ideas or beliefs. No one should be punished for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

I, therefore, repeat the appeal I made in May: for all countries that criminalize people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity to take the steps necessary to remove such offences from the statute books and to encourage greater respect for all people, irrespective of their sexuality or gender identity.

No wonder Matt’s so freaked out! Ban Ki-Moon doesn’t think we should torture gays just for being gay! He doesn’t even think we shouldn’t make it illegal! That’s outrageous, huh?? I have to give Matt one thing: abuse of homosexuals is a long-standing traditional value. Many nations sentence gays to long prison terms, and a handful of them punish homosexuality with death:

• Iran
• Yemen
• Pakistan
• Mauritania
• Nigeria
• Sudan
• Saudi Arabia

Pakistan, Niger, and Sudan, by the way, got nearly $2.5 billion in US military and economic assistance in 2006 (the most recent year for which I could find data).

Matt, apparently, is just fine with this. No, not just fine – he thinks that opposing this means you’re a radical, leftist whacko. The ugly irony that makes this special is that Matt’s not merely part of Liberty University. He’s also director of Cultural Affairs at Liberty Counsel. Did you get that? Liberty University. Liberty Counsel. I think they’re based in Orwellia. Here’s their logo, claiming they advance the sanctity of human life. I guess that make gays less than human:

I’m afraid I had to tweak the logo in light of Matt’s statement. Could not help myself: Read the rest of this entry »