Box Turtle Bulletin

PFOX’s Griggs Goes Off the Deep End

PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) claims to be a support group of parents and others that support and work for the interests of their ex-gay children and friends. However, a closer look at their activism reveals that they are comprised mostly of a handful of ex-gays, a few parents that wish their children were not gay, and some others who just want to “fight the homosexual agenda”.

And while there may be a place for an organization that fights for civil inclusion for those who identify as ex-gay, this group does not fulfill that function.

Ex-gays face discrimination and hostility in society – most of it based on perceptions and stereotypes. It is not unknown for ex-gay men to appear less masculine or ex-gay women to appear more so than social norms may expect. And while they may have religious objections to homosexuality, many of the employment, housing, and other protections that gay people seek would also benefit those ex-gays who may appear to be gender atypical. So any organization seeking to better the lives of ex-gays could find common cause with the LGBT community on a number of issues.

But PFOX has no interest in common cause. Or even in the civil protections of ex-gays.

PFOX pays but nominal attention to ex-gays and instead expends its efforts in seeking to restrict services and information for gay people, primarily youth. And they have a long history of showing little regard for truth, decency, or integrity in their efforts.

They have distorted the work of reputable scientists, made wild accusations against various schools and youth programs, manufactured “attacks” by gay activists, hurled vile insults against those who disagree with them, and, most recently mangled research to exploit suicide statistics for political positioning.

But now Regina Griggs, and PFOX, have bested themselves. They now have made a claim so phenomenally ridiculous, so homophobic (in the traditional sense of the word), that even anti-gays should be driven to mocking them.

As reported by the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow, Griggs opposes Gay-Straight Alliances and other safe spaces for gay teens:

Research shows that individuals often go through periods of gender and sexual confusion as they grow from children to teenagers to adults. Griggs wonders why, then, would schools opt to send children along a dangerous path. “Why are we allowing people to tell them, ‘Try it — you might like it?’ Over 70 percent of young kids 13- to 24-years-old, men having sex with men, are now HIV-positive,” Griggs notes.

Seventy Percent?

That claim is phenomenally stupid, even by anti-gay standards.

As Ed Brayton at ScienceBlogs.com notes:

According to the 2000 census figures, there are roughly 50 million people between the age of 13 and 24. Slightly more than half would be female, so let’s say conservatively that there are 22 million men between those ages. If 2% of them are MSM, that’s 440,000. The percentage of HIV positive MSM between 13 and 24 is more like 3.1%, a far cry from 70%. Okay, it’s probably a bit higher than that because there will be some men in that age group who were diagnosed before 2001, but at the absolute outside we’re talking 5%, not 70%.

I might calculate using different variables, but Brayton is right. HIV infection in gay youth, or even in sexually active gay youth, is FAR from 70%.

Griggs is either a wanton liar or a raging loon. Perhaps both.

UPDATE

I calculate around 0.7% of all gay youth aged 13 to 24 are now HIV-positive.

Relief Fund Set Up For Knoxville Churches

A relief fund has been set up by the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association as more than a hundred Unitarian Universalist congregations hold special services this week in memory of the shooting Sunday at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville.

Funds raised by the UUA will be used to bring “ministry, spiritual care and practical financial assistance to those affected by the tragedy,” according to a UUA statement, and will go to assist Tennessee Valley as well as Westside Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, where several victims attended. Members of both congregations were together last Sunday to view a children’s musical performance. Greg McKendry was an usher at TVUUC, and Linda Kraeger was a member of Westside UUC. Both were killed in Sunday’s shooting.

Contributions to the fund can be made at UUA.org.

See also:
Knoxville Gays On Edge; Local MCC Church Wants To See Letter
Relief Fund Set Up for Knoxville Churches
Thoughts and Prayers for Knoxville Shooting Victims
Knoxville Shooting Witness’s First-Hand Account
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Blacks, Gays, Anyone Different”
AFA Approved Comments: Knoxville Church Doing “Satan’s Work”
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Liberals,” Gays
Just Concluded: Knoxville Press Conference
Knoxville Shooter’s Manifesto Found
Gunman Opens Fire On Gay-Friendly Church, Two Killed

OK Comic Book Author Loses In Primary

That’s quite a comedown for an incumbent politician, to come in last in a three-way primary. But that’s exactly what happened to Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart, the politician who mailed out a crude campaign comic book. He was trounced in the Republican primary, garnering only 21% of the vote.

So now, Rinehart has plenty of time to perfect his artistic skills. That, and to defend himself in Oklahoma County District Court tomorrow against several felony campaign corruption charges stemming from he previous campaign.

Thoughts and Prayers for Knoxville Shooting Victims

The community of Knoxville is pausing to remember and pray for the victims and their families from Sunday’s shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Knoxville area residents of all faiths and creeds (like Tom McCosh, from the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship in Madisonville, TN, above) have been leaving flowers and notes at the church’s entrance. The sign at the entrance has become a makeshift memorial to Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, the two fatalities from Sunday’s shooting.

The Knox County Commission opened its Monday meeting with a moment of silence, followed by an invocation by Gary Weedman, president of Johnson Bible College, who prayed, “We lift up these brave people who acted so courageously and lovingly.” Commissioner Mark Harmon, a member of the church, talked about the heroes of that Sunday morning.

The community came together on Monday evening for a candlelight vigil in the sanctuary of the Second Presbyterian Church, which stands adjacent to TVUUC. Congregants who survived the Sunday shooting gathered earlier that evening to meet with crisis counsellors, while volunteers from Temple Beth El and Heska Amuna synagogues provided food.

And today, more than 150 people attended an ecumenical service at First Baptist Church of Knoxville at noon today, where two candle were lit on the church in memory of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger. St. John’s Lutheran Church will hold a service of hope and healing this evening, while the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee offered its crisis response team to TVUUC church members to help deal with the shootings.

We join our thoughts and prayers with the community of Knoxville for those who were so deeply affected by this tragedy.

See also:
Knoxville Gays On Edge; Local MCC Church Wants To See Letter
Relief Fund Set Up for Knoxville Churches
Thoughts and Prayers for Knoxville Shooting Victims
Knoxville Shooting Witness’s First-Hand Account
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Blacks, Gays, Anyone Different”
AFA Approved Comments: Knoxville Church Doing “Satan’s Work”
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Liberals,” Gays
Just Concluded: Knoxville Press Conference
Knoxville Shooter’s Manifesto Found
Gunman Opens Fire On Gay-Friendly Church, Two Killed

CBN News A Year Late

The Christian Broadcasting Networ is reporting a story today about how firefighters were forced to man a vehicle in the San Diego Gay Pride Parade. The only problem, the story is about 2007 Gay Pride.

But there is a 2008 fireman story, and it was reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Tonai, a 17-year fire department veteran, signed up to ride in the 2008 gay pride parade under the city’s all-volunteer parade policy, which San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Tracy Jarman instituted in response to the 2007 controversy.

“A whole bunch of people wanted to do this,” Tonai told me.

But on parade day many of them were off battling wildfires up north, and the job went to Tonai and three female colleagues.
…
I asked him what he thought of his parade duty.

“The crowd response was just awesome,” Tonai said. “To me, it justifies what I do. There’s definitely nothing negative about this event.”

And as for the lawsuit filed last year by firemen who were offended by “celebration of lewdness and obscenity in support of the homosexual agenda”, well its certainly no without its own entertainment.

Aguirre, having learned that one of the firefighters subscribes to Playboy and brought copies to the station house, wants to question them about the magazine’s racy photos and cartoons.

He contends the firefighters can’t plausibly claim they were subjected to workplace harassment from sexually explicit behavior at the parade when they voluntarily view sexually explicit materials on the job.
…
The firefighters’ lawsuit contained 26 pages of photographs purportedly portraying “explicit and offensive sexual remarks and gestures” from the 2007 parade.

The city trumped that in a brief that contains 36 pages of “sexually explicit” images from six recent issues of Playboy.

Mass. House Votes to Allow Out-of-State Marriages

The AP is reporting

The Massachusetts House voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law that had been used to block gay marriages involving out-of-state couples, all but assuring that the state will allow same-sex couples to wed regardless of where they live.

The 118-35 vote came after the state Senate approved the repeal earlier this month, and Gov. Deval Patrick has said he will sign the bill. The measure requires one more procedural vote in each chamber before it is to the governor.

Major Alan Rogers – the Rest of the Story

In March we learned of the death of Army Maj. Alan G. Rogers, a man praised by the Pentagon and lauded in the Washington Post and on MSNBC. And we observed the mainstream media try to hide the truth of Maj. Rogers’ life, that he was a gay man actively working to reverse the ban on openly gay servicepersons. Then we read as the Post’s ombudsman chided the paper for the deletion (unknowing that she was leaving out facts of her own).

We even saw how some friends and distant family angrily tried to hide or deny his orientation and how someone at the Pentagon attempted to change information in Rogers’ Wikipedia entry.

Now the New Yorker has an 8 page article detailing Rogers’ life and laying rest to any rumors or misunderstandings. It is well worth reading.

Deputy Secretary England attended a memorial service at the Pentagon, where Thomas Gandy, a director of counterintelligence and human intelligence, hailed Rogers as “simply the most talented officer I ever had the opportunity to serve with,” and described his selflessness in taking wounded veterans at Walter Reed hospital to a Super Bowl party on a nearby base. “There was something special about Alan Rogers,” Lieutenant General John F. Kimmons, the deputy chief of staff for Army Intelligence, said. “He was more than he seemed.”

And indeed he was.

And there was much more behind the story of efforts to hide his orientation. The New Yorker did not find malice or a conspiracy, but the type of well-intentioned homophobia that assumes that a hiding one’s orientation protects a reputation.

Rogers was both more secretive and more honest than many of those who knew him really wanted to believe about him. He was a brave man, a good man, a loving man, and the embodiment of the evidence that those who seek to keep this discriminatory ban operate from a base of foolishness, ignorance and bigotry.

Knoxville Shooting Witness’s First-Hand Account

Via Out and About Newspapers:

The Annie character was just finishing “Maybe”. I was thinking, “this is really good.” The Miss Hannigan character walked in stage left and slapped a basket Annie was holding out of her hand. From the sanctuary right entrance, I thought I hear yelling and a loud BOOM of an explosion.

My mind tried to register the sound. I was thinking, “Did a speaker explode? Did I hear a prop gun? Did something go wrong?” and as soon as that thought left my mind I smelled the sulfur from the gunpowder and heard another BOOM and then BOOM. I left go of Jaime’s hand and stepped around the corner just as John Bohstedt tackled the shooter. Immediately two others were on top of him.

Read the rest here.

See also:
Knoxville Gays On Edge; Local MCC Church Wants To See Letter
Relief Fund Set Up for Knoxville Churches
Thoughts and Prayers for Knoxville Shooting Victims
Knoxville Shooting Witness’s First-Hand Account
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Blacks, Gays, Anyone Different”
AFA Approved Comments: Knoxville Church Doing “Satan’s Work”
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Liberals,” Gays
Just Concluded: Knoxville Press Conference
Knoxville Shooter’s Manifesto Found
Gunman Opens Fire On Gay-Friendly Church, Two Killed

Frothing Lunacy, Part 2

Perhaps Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, found Bam Bam Barber to be an inspiration. Because Garlow has come up with some projections about Proposition 8 that rival Barber’s carnival of nutjobbery.

Garlow has organized a teleconference with pastors and lay leaders to explain to them just how important it is for Prop. 8 to pass. “[If] we lose, we go to jail. How soon I don’t know. But the fact is this is the kind of case where political correctness is bearing down,” the pastor contends. “If a pastor refuses to perform a homosexual wedding, if we lose on this, he will be or she will be so incredibly vulnerable at that time.”

He is organizing training for California pastors and lay leaders to get out the Christian vote in November — and he has a message to pastors who are reluctant. “If you don’t care about this campaign, don’t want to get involved, you can go to jail and start a wonderful prison ministry,” Garlow adds. “But if you want religious freedom, we’re going to have to win this thing.”

The sad thing is that Garlow is not just some anti-gay whacktivist ranting whatever he thinks will get him attention.

Garlow is the pastor of an influential church with regular attendance of several thousand. And he’s making these bizzare claims as though he believes them to be true.

Public Utility Opposes Prop 8

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), the largest public utility company in Northern California, has announced that they oppose Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage amendment. (LA Times)

Giving a financial and public relations boost to gay marriage proponents, PG&E announced today that it is giving $250,000 to the No on Proposition 8 campaign. *

The utility also said it will spearhead the formation of a business advisory council that will seek to get other businesses around California to to defeat the ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.

AT&T and Wells Fargo have also contributed to efforts to opposite this discriminatory amendment.

I wonder if those Northern California anti-gays who are boycotting McDonalds are willing to stand on principle. Will they be willing to go without water and power, or does their passion only extend to changing burger brands?

UPDATE

* Wells Fargo and AT&T have given to Equality California. Their contributions have not been earmarked for opposition to Proposition 8.

Will Arizona Be Abandoned?

This is a question I am asked nearly everyday from folks in Arizona and from folks around the country. They ask questions like how much support came from outside Arizona in 2006? Will anyone outside of Arizona give money this time to defeat Prop 102? Will anyone inside Arizona give money? How do you feel about so much money going to California? What about Florida? Can Arizona win this one too? Do you feel abandoned by those supporting California especially but also Florida since Arizona is the only state in the nation to defeat an anti-marriage amendment?

There is no easy answer to any of those questions. Frankly, I’m not sure there is value in even trying to come up with an answer. I do believe however, the real value lies in the fact that we are even having this discussion. Internal and external to Arizona.

In an odd way it shows people care. They care enough about Arizona’s contribution to the movement to worry whether we might be slighted financially in this campaign season. They care enough about our statewide LGBT infrastructure to be concerned we are not damaged in the process – at least hopeful that we might escape long term or irreparable damage.

Instead of answering those questions with only the “what’s in front of us” view, I prefer to answer from a 30,000 foot perspective. That means we have to look at our work as a marathon and not a sprint. It means we cannot be angry or feel slighted by donors who, from their own perspective, believe their need and desire to participate in the movement, to make a difference, is best served by giving to a campaign that in their opinion would provide the greatest impact to achieving equality – to meeting their personal political goals. Because we all come from different backgrounds, different economies, different cultural experiences, no one has any right to pass judgment on another for the decisions we make in political giving. Sometimes those decisions are very personal, sometimes they are just hard core strategic moves and sometimes they are the simplicity of altruism.

The higher ground at 30,000 feet allows us to let wash beneath our feet the hardness created by politics – in a way it is cleansing. Don’t think for a minute though that coming down from the high ground to do the work is easy. But we have to have a place to land. Something you can touch, hear and believe in. For me that place is community – it is the work. It is the very place where we interact with one another on a very human and hopefully humanitarian level. It is that place that sometimes stinks, sometimes is so loud with opposing voices you can’t hear yourself think and on occasion calls into question our belief in that very humanity we seek to be a part of.

Over the past several weeks in particular we have been fighting a battle that stems from the worst display of disintegration of democracy I have ever witnessed. We are fighting with every tool at our disposal to call out those who would seek to limit the fullness of our lives in order to advance their own.

Amidst our ongoing Senate debacle we have organized and are executing our 2008 elections strategy; we have organized a Statewide Coordinated Campaign to defeat Prop 102; and we continue to build the capacity of Equality Arizona – design and deliver programs that change hearts and minds while also managing a hard-hitting public affairs agenda to change public policy.

We need a win in California. We need a win in Florida. We need a win in Arizona. That very trifecta has the potential to change the face of American politics. Just for clarification, “trifecta” as a slang term is used to describe any successful or favorable phenomenon or characteristic that comes in threes (according to Wikipedia). That’s what our national agenda should be about.

There is often much angst about coastal states dictating what happens to the rest of the country but today, we need to support our coasts! And yes, tucked into the Southwest – in a place in mid-August where you’re sure you’re already doing time in purgatory – we WILL continue to do our part to advance equality – to contribute to the greater good of our great state and our nation.

Do we want and need your contributions? Yes! Not at the exclusion of California or Florida but in addition too. Just do it. Don’t hesitate, don’t even blink. Just write the checks…address one to California, one to Florida and one to Arizona and sign them simply…from one who cares.

Barbara McCullough-Jones is the Executive Director of Equality Arizona. You can support Arizona’s efforts at the Vote No On Prop 102 website.

Frothing Lunacy

Sometimes the anti-gays come out with something so ludicrous, so froth-at-the-mouth insane, so raving lunatic that it’s worthy of Lewis Carroll. Except, of course, they believe themselves… or the less sane among them do.

And one such trader in fantasy is J. Matt “Bam Bam” Barber, formerly the voice of Concerned Women for America. Barber always manages to amuse and, in his critique of McDonalds and the AFA boycott, Barber delivers in spades.

You can almost see the spittle and hear his rapid breathing as he writes:

Unfortunately, the radical San Francisco-style policies both the NGLCC and McDonald’s advocate run directly counter to the best interests of the vast majority of Americans outside California’s “Sodom on the Bay.” For example, under communist-tested, McDonald’s-approved “hate speech” legislation, such as the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Christians and other business owners with traditional values would be forced – under penalty of law – to abandon sincerely held religious beliefs and adopt McDonald’s own secular-humanist, moral-relativist view of right and wrong.

It’s not often that you can get “communist”, “Sodom”, and “McDonalds” in the same paragraph. You’ve got to hand it to him. When it comes to nutbaggery, it just doesn’t get much more bat-poopish than Barber.

Oh but he doesn’t stop there

Yet McDonald’s has now thrown its full weight, brand name and presently tarnished reputation behind the push for “gay marriage” in all 50 states.

All because they contributed a $20,000 pittance to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, an organization that doesn’t even mention marriage in their mission or programs. Ah, but if we were looking for logic and sanity we wouldn’t look to Barber, now would we?

But it is this doozie that I really love. Barber sarcastically proclaims

If you happen to support the historical definition of marriage – which is, and has always been male-female – then you’re a drooling, inbred hatemonger.

Well, Matt… not everyone who supports the historical definition…

Some day the anti-gays may realize that lunatic ranting doesn’t win hearts, minds, or Culture Wars. Let’s hope it’s too late by then. And in the mean time, someone give Bam Bam a word processor.

AZ Senate To Investigate Ethics Complaint

In a surprise move after Arizona GOP leaders tried to “fix” the makeup of the Senate Ethics committee at the last minute, the committee voted 3-2 this afternoon to investigate the actions of Sen. Jack Harper (R-Surprise) on the last night of the legislative session. Harper’s actions in breaking the Senate rules cut off debate and forced a vote on the anti-marriage amendment.

[Ethics committee chairman] Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-Chandler, sided with the two Democrats on the panel in concluding that further inquiry is needed to “clear the air” on what happened when Harper, chairing floor debate, shut off the microphones of two legislators in the middle of discussion. That cleared the way to table that issue and vote to put a measure on the November ballot to constitutionally ban gay marriage. Harper left Monday’s meeting and the building before the session was over and did not return calls seeking comment.

At the time he shut off the microphones, Harper said he had made a mistake. But Harper has since said the move was a conscious decision because the two lawmakers were “making the same point over and over again.” The Ethics Committee hearing will give panel members a chance to ask Harper about the inconsistencies.

…

Harper interrupted the dialogue between Cheuvront and Aboud and turned off their microphones. “I clicked on the wrong thing,” he said at the time. “I clicked on the ‘clear mikes’ (button).”

But rather than turning the floor back to the pair, he instead recognized Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, who moved to table further debate, paving the way for a vote on the gay marriage ban. And Harper ignored clearly audible calls for a “point of order,” which is supposed to stop action.

Harper and Sen. Ken Cheuvront (D-Phoenix), who lodged the complaint, are both expected to appear before the panel. It’s unclear who else may be called.

Anti-Gay FL School Board Hit With Legal Fees

In May we told you about Principal David Davis at Panama City, Florida’s Ponce de Leon High School. Mr. Davis was unhappy that a gay student had friends and supporters so he banned all positive messages about gays or equality, be it by button, armband, sticker or symbol. The ACLU didn’t find that amusing and sued Davis and his school board.

I commented at the time that Davis seemed astonishingly stupid. My opinion hasn’t changed.

Davis outed a gay student to her parents, organized a “morality assembly”, and interrogated students about their orientation, and suspended students that were part of the “Gay Pride” movement.

Now the judge has issued his opinion (pdf) and has awarded legal recovery to the plaintiffs. And Davis’ homophobia cost the district $325,000 in legal fees and cost (plus a dollar to the plaintiff).

As for Davis, (WTVY)

Davis has chosen to return to the classroom and teach American government and other classes.

Somehow I don’t think that the curricula involving the First Amendment will receive the attention that it deserves.

Knoxville Shooter Hated “Blacks, Gays, Anyone Different”

More details continue to emerge about Jim David Adkisson, the Knoxville shooter responsible for killing two and injuring seven at the gay-affirming Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church yesterday. The Knoxville News Sentinal, which is doing quite a bang-up job in covering this story, has more from people who know him:

“He always had the attitude the government was trying to get him,” [Carold] Smallwood said. “He disliked blacks, gays, anyone who was a different color or just different from him.”

Smallwood also described Adkisson as an accomplished guitarist with “a heart of gold when he’s good.” Adkisson carried the 12-guage shotgun into the church hidden in a guitar case.

It has also been revealed that Adkisson’s ex-wife had taken out a restraining order against him in 2000 after he put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. She filed for divorce a few days after the incident.

See also:
Knoxville Gays On Edge; Local MCC Church Wants To See Letter
Relief Fund Set Up for Knoxville Churches
Thoughts and Prayers for Knoxville Shooting Victims
Knoxville Shooting Witness’s First-Hand Account
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Blacks, Gays, Anyone Different”
AFA Approved Comments: Knoxville Church Doing “Satan’s Work”
Knoxville Shooter Hated “Liberals,” Gays
Just Concluded: Knoxville Press Conference
Knoxville Shooter’s Manifesto Found
Gunman Opens Fire On Gay-Friendly Church, Two Killed