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 27th, 2008
Former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga) authored the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which Pres. Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996. Today, Barr is now the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee. Speaking at the convention, Barr apologized for his role in further institutionalizing discrimination into American law:
May 27th, 2008
I just found the following message from Linda Harvey, the… umm… rather determined anti-gay activist. Although she sent it Friday, for some reason the yahoo filters put it in my junk e-mail box rather than my inbox.
It seems Linda didn’t like that we put her picture on our commentary about her blatant dishonesty. So, out of respect for Linda’s politely worded request, I’ve now replaced her photo with a generic graphic of no one in particular.
Please note that this is not a representation of Linda. Please also note that I did not include horns on this picture.
I’m glad you found us, Linda. I hope that you keep reading.
UPDATE: Digging further in my junk mail box shows that Linda was really QUITE insistent that we not post her picture. Earlier that day she had sent the following message:
REMOVE MY PHOTO FROM YOUR SITE IMMEDIATELY!! I did not obviously give you permission to post this.
IF YOU DO NOT DO SO I will contact my attorney.
WITH GREAT SINCERITY,
Linda Harvey
Mission America
www.missionamerica.com
www.truthatschool.orgPS–If you were true journalists you would have asked permission and also asked me to comment on your distortions.
Ah, Linda. By all means, check with your attorney. And if you have any comments to make on my “distortions”, I’ll be glad to hear them.
May 27th, 2008
Yesterday we reported on two Exodus-affiliated leaders who claimed that there were only two choices facing struggling gay kids and adults: Change or die. Now we learn that Exodus President Alan Chambers has reinforced this false choice in an interview with radio talk show host Chris Farby on May 16th. Towards the end of the program, Alan Chambers was asked about teen suicide:
Chris Fabry: We had another email that talked about, especially teenagers, and how many teenagers are caught in this emotional trauma, and how many take their own lives because of the homosexual issue. You were a teenager caught in that too weren’t you
Alan Chambers: I was a teenager, you know the bulk of my struggle was during my teenage years, from about 11 to 21 or so, and I understand feeling like the only way out is you kill yourself. In fact one of the things that made me want to die — was when I heard, there is no way out of this, this is your only option, there is no other choice, in fact there is no choice – you are who you are and that won’t ever change. And I thought, that can’t be the truth, and if it is, I can’t live this way.
Instead of confronting the false choice between death or change, Alan Chambers reinforces it. With Exodus, it’s change or die.
But the real danger here is that too many people, believing that there really are only two choices, choose the latter. When I attended last year’s Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference in California, I talked with one person whose former partner was told that his only choice was to “change or go away.” He chose to “go away” by taking his own life.
Indeed, blood has stained the ex-gay movement from its beginning. Love In Action co-founder John Evans describes the suicide of his best friend, Jack McIntyre, while at the Marin General Hospital Psychiatric Ward. Evans recalled, “In Jack’s suicide note, he wrote that he believed that God would forgive him for killing himself, but not for having even one more ‘impure’ thought.”
That was more than thirty years ago. Meanwhile, the “change or die” mantra continues.
[Hat tip: Pam Spaulding’s House Blend.]
See also:
Exodus’ False Choice: Death or Change
May 27th, 2008
Today marks the opening of a new memorial in Berlin dedicated to the memory of gays who were persecuted by the Nazis. The memorial in Berlin’s Tiergarten parks sits just across from the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, and it echos the larger memorial’s field of concrete blocks of varying sizes. The gay memorial, designed by Danish and Norwegian artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, consists of a single grey rectangular block with a small opening through which visitors will see a short film of two men kissing. “A simple kiss could land you in trouble,” says the text which accompanies the memorial.
Until recently, there was little public acknowledgement of Nazi atrocities towards homosexuals. It’s been estimated that about 54,000 were arrested by the Nazis, with 7,000 being killed in concentration camps. While the end of the war meant liberation for the much larger interned populations of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Russians, and other undesirables, allied forces often returned gay men to post-war prisons to continue to serve out their terms. Homosexuality wasn’t formally decriminalized in Germany until 1994.
May 27th, 2008
The LA Times took a poll on public response to the California Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the ban on same-sex marriage. The response was:
And as to whether they would support an amendment to reverse the decision (registered voters)
The Times found this to be inconclusive
the poll suggests the outcome of the proposed amendment is far from certain. Overall, it was leading 54% to 35% among registered voters. But because ballot measures on controversial topics often lose support during the course of a campaign, strategists typically want to start out well above the 50% support level.
However, if we compare the polling to the vote on Proposition 22 – an anti-gay marriage legislative initiative on the Spring 2000 ballot – it is hard to maintain a rosy view of the future. Seven months before the election, polling showed support at 57%, opposition at 39% and uncertainty at 4%. The month before the election, 5% had moved from support to uncertain. But on election day, 61% of those who went to the polls voted to restrict the rights of their gay neighbors.
If the same pattern holds, in November this new anti-gay amendment will also pass by significant numbers.
But there is one card we hold that we did not have eight years ago. Unless the court issues a stay, Californians will not be asked to prohibit possible future marriages, they will be asked whether lives that have been joined should be put asunder. It ceases to be abstract and becomes personal.
So I ask this of you fellow gay Californians who are considering taking this step: Invite your friends and relatives. It may break your budget to double your guest list but do it anyway. Even if you have to limit yourself to cake and punch in the church’s rec hall. Even if you really don’t want to see Aunt Edna and hear her snide remarks on your special day, invite her anyway. Invite everyone and anyone that might be even slightly happy for you.
And be certain that your minister tells those present that “forever hold your peace” means that they have to support this union, in person and at the ballot box, and they are obligated to do what they can to keep it together, happy, and legal. Marriage is not just a commitment between two people. It is also a commitment between the couple and the community.
Aunt Edna may not like gay marriage. But make sure she is invested in your gay marriage. Make your marriage matter to your friends, your family, and your neighbors. Give them a reason to vote against this discriminatory amendment.
May 27th, 2008
Protected by 1,200 riot police, about 200 Gay Pride participants paraded through Bucharest on Saturday after courts refused to ban the event. Religious and far-right groups had tried to get the court to rule against Romania’s fifth annual gay festival. No incidents were reported this year.
Reuters reports, “Romania decriminalized homosexuality in 2001, but gay people often face hostility in this largely conservative country of 22 million where the powerful Orthodox church views homosexuality as a sin and a disease.”
May 27th, 2008
It’s like a bad recurring nightmare for Neal Anthony. Last Friday, his Warren County, Tennessee, home was badly damaged in an act of anti-gay vandalism yet again — for the ninth time:
“I’ve spent a whole lot of money on this house,” said Anthony, Warren County homeowner and vandalism victim.
He spent $80,000 to fix up the home and $10,000 more dollars on surveillance cameras to make him feel secure. The cameras are a modern-day amenity that stand out against his 150-year-old structure.
“I’m scared to leave my windows open. I’m scared to leave my door open. I’m afraid to go out in the yard by myself,” said Anthony.
…
The suspected vandals also spray painted “Dorothy’s in Hell” referring to Neal’s mother, who passed away in December.
While virtually every square inch of his property is within range of security cameras, this latest act of vandalism went undetected. Vandals cut the lines to the cameras, security lights, landscape lights and even severed power to the main house and his phone line. Anthony fears the attacks may escalate from vandalism to personal assault.
So far, Warren County sheriffs have only made one set of arrests in association with these nine crimes. Last year, three teens confessed to vandalizing his home with paint balls. They were given probation.
The ACLU of Tennessee has called upon the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) and the FBI to investigate. The FBI declined, according to ACLU’s Christine Sun:
“The FBI has informed me that it would otherwise investigate the crimes but for the unfortunate fact that sexual orientation is not a protected characteristic under the federal hate crimes statute. The TBI has informed me that it will consider providing additional resources to investigate the hate crimes against Mr. Anthony but only if requested to do so by the Warren County District Attorney’s office.”
Sun also sent a letter to the Warren County sheriff’s office asking them to request additional help from the TBI and to report the crimes as a hate crime to the FBI. As we’ve noted earlier, many jurisdictions have refused to report far worse hate crimes to the FBI.
So far, the sheriff’s office appears unresponsive. They have not responded to the ACLU’s request, nor have they responded to an offer from Neal Anthony to post a reward for information leading to the arrests. The also refused to return phone calls to a local television station for comment.
May 26th, 2008
This month’s edition of the Presbyterian newspaper The Layman features two more shining examples of ex-gays who claim to have changed. The commentaries by Maria Cardenas and Brad Grammer are actually word-for-word reprints from their testimonies found on the OneByOne web site — an organization for which they both just happen to serve on the board of directors. Grammer is also the Executive Director of Exodus-affiliated Hope & New Life Ministries. Funny, but have you noticed that virtually all the ex-gays who speak publicly have some professional connection with ex-gay ministries?
But what’s not so funny is Grammer’s and Cardenas’ promotion of one of the worst messages ever to come out of the ex-gay movement: Death or change. Grammer begins his statement by saying,
Seventeen years ago, my life came to a crossroad. In my mind, I could either commit suicide or give God one more chance to change my life and bring it meaning.”
Cardenas wrote:
It was at this point I made a deal with God. I asked Him either to end my life or change it.
Death or change. According to Cardenas and Grammer, those were the only two choices before them. Given what they claimed were the only two options — as the ex-gay movement is all too often inclined to do — they chose “change.” They also chose to use their experience as fodder for denying civil rights to those who don’t buy into their false crossroads between death and change. Grammer uses his testimony to claim:
For the Church to make a decision to bless same-sex unions or ordain practicing homosexuals is to communicate to me, and individuals like me, that the transformation in my life did not happen and that I am obviously in an unhealthy state of denial.
What Grammer fails to recognize is that if a church makes a decision to bless same-sex unions or ordain gays and lesbians, it is not an act of judgment on his life. He is free to make whatever choice he wishes to make. But what it does do is expose the false argument that there are only two choices which can be made: death or change.
But exposing this false argument is what Grammer really fears, and he’s not alone. Exodus President Alan Chambers told NPR’s Terry Gross in 2006 that he opposed same-sex marriage because he feared that if it had been an option when he was younger, he might have chosen to marry another man.
A few days ago, I facetiously posted a “Heterosexual strategy” based on what the Alliance Defense Fund claimed was a “Homosexual strategy” to win acceptance for gay people. In my parody, the Heterosexual strategy ended with recriminalization of homosexuality.
The problem with my parody however is that it’s not the least bit funny. One wonders what the ultimate goal of the ex-gay movement really looks like. If they really got their way, what would my world — and yours — look like? Is it really their goal to make our lives so miserable that the false choice between change or death actually looks plausible?
It appears so. We’ve often heard them frame the problem with homosexuality in precisely this false choice between death and change. This has been their recurring theme for quite some time. And we also know that they believe that accommodating the civil rights or the spiritual needs of gay people necessarily comes at the expense of those who would have you believe that there are only those two choices before us.
And so if they feel threatened whenever there are gains in the LGBT movement, then maybe they ought to feel threatened — at least insofar as upholding this false message is concerned. Because tragically, too many LGBT kids and adults have bought into that false choice, and some have chosen to take their own lives when they discover the “change” that they were promised was not forthcoming.
We can agree to disagree when it comes to religious doctrine or even political positions. But when it comes to suggesting that there are only two ways to deal with one’s sexuality, there can be no agreement. The message of “change or die” must itself die. Better that than another struggling LGBT kid or adult.
See also:
Alan Chambers’ Death or Change
May 25th, 2008
Have you seen Encyclopædia Dramatica?
May 25th, 2008
… even though Lawrence vs. Texas invalidated out all sodomy laws in the U.S. nearly five years ago.
What’s worse, Nelson Keith Sloan, 40, was charged after calling police to his apartment complaining of an assault. Also charged, Ryan Christopher Flynn, 25, who was also charged with assault in addition to sodomy.
Flynn is using the “he asked for it” defense, claiming that they were engaging in rough “consensual” sex, a claim that Sloan denies.
“I didn’t allow anything,” he said Saturday after being reached at home by phone. “They knew it and turned it around and arrested me. I have never been so humiliated in all my life. It’s just awful.”
Police did not charge Flynn with any sort of sexual assault.
Sloan’s outrage is completely justified. When someone is attacked and calls the police, the last thing that person expects is to be charged with a crime — in this case, a nonexistent one — unless the complainant filed a false report. One wonders how Raleigh police and the D.A. would have handled this had this been a woman attacked by a man.
Unbelievable.
Pam Spaulding has more background on recent attempts to wipe this anachronistic law off the books.
May 23rd, 2008
LGBT bloggers are having a field day over the Alliance Defense Fund’s “discovery” of the Homosexual Agenda. According to the ADF, the agenda looks something like this:
We did some digging around, and we managed to get a copy of the actual Heterosexual Agenda. Guess what? It looks surprisingly similar:
They may try to tell you there’s no such thing as a “Heterosexual Agenda,” but don’t you believe it.
[Hat tip: Pam Spaulding for the ADF’s “Homosexual Agenda”]
May 22nd, 2008
May 22nd, 2008
Irmo, S.C. High School Principal Eddie Walker announced that he will resign, following the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club at his school over his objections. That announcement came after the school district determined that he had not grounds to prevent the club’s formation.
Walker’s stated objections to the club were based on his own personal religious convictions. He also falsely accused the GSA of encouraging sexual behavior:
In fact our sex education curriculum is abstinence based. I feel the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance Club at Irmo High school implies that students joining the club will have chosen to or will choose to engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, opposite sex, or members of both sexes.
Gay-Straight Alliances have been established in hundreds of school districts across the country to provide a safe place for LGBT students and their allies, where they can find support and guidance. One student who attended a high school with a GSA remarked:
People used to make fun of and beat up gay people, just because they were different. This is actually a program to make everyone feel that they belong.”
I think Principal Walker made the right decision. If there’s someone who doesn’t belong at Irmo High School, it’s him. Not the LGBT students who attend his school.
May 22nd, 2008
Linda Harvey is one of the most extreme anti-gays. Her writings reveal a woman with little regard for fact or constitutional protections.
In short, Linda is a woman driven by her objection to anything gay and she’ll not hesitate to say anything to advance her goal of changing America into a nation that conforms to her religious ideals. Honesty, integrity, empathy, or the Golden Rule seem not to be particularly important to this quest.
Linda through her organization Mission:America was a leader in the anti-gay opposition to the Day of Silence. Linda compiled and distributed a list of grievances which sought to portray the Day of Silence as an aggressive act against Christians. Some of these listed abuses seem almost impossible to believe.
In fact, they were so extreme that Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a conservative psychology professor with interest in sexual orientation issues, decided to check up on a few of Linda’s stories. Not surprisingly, what he found did not square with what Linda said.
For example, Linda said
Kirksville, Mo.: A parent reported that the Kirksville High School principal and superintendent laughed when she asked if her child could be excused from participating in the school’s Day of Silence. According to Mission America, she said, “They called me a narrow-minded bigot and refused to give excused absences.”
Dr. Throckmorton did not find that to be confirmed.
Curious, I called the Kirksville High School Superintendent of schools, Pat Williams about the allegation of name-calling. When I read the account to him, he said, “That’s absolutely false. I did not use that language with any parent or in response to any inquiry.”
Throckmorton also spoke with the principal of the school and found that while absences were not excused, the school also allowed the Day of Truth and did not allow either event to disrupt the teaching process.
I emailed Linda Harvey at Mission America to see if I could interview the parent involved but she declined to provide more information or contact the person who made the allegation. The Kirksville administrators were not aware of any allegations surrounding the Day of Silence until I called. In my opinion, the the information provided by Mr. Williams and Mr. Michael and the fact that the school district also allowed the Day of Truth detract from the credibility of the anonymous allegation.
Throckmorton also found out that claims Harvey made about an event in Mesa, AZ, were materially different from police reports. He concludes
And those were just the first two bulletpoints. I guess you can’t believe everything you read.
Dr. Throckmorton and I differ strongly about the appropriate theological, social, and legal responses to persons who are same-sex attracted. But we agree that dishonesty should never be a tool used in the debate over social policy about homosexuality.
Sadly, too many anti-gays (and too many pro-gays) are willing to make any claim that advances their cause. And for what? Ultimately the truth comes out and then what has one gained in exchange for their integrity?
If conservative Christians worried about their religious freedoms want to have their concerns taken seriously, they need to rid their movement of liars, extremist, and haters. Then perhaps we can find common ground where the rights of all can be respected.
May 22nd, 2008
… there’s always the Nazis to fall back on. This come from Randy Thomasson’s Campaign for Children and Families, who are calling for California’s County Clerks to violate the state’s recent Supreme Court ruling:
Ask your county clerk if they were a Nazi officer during WWII and had been ordered to gas the Jews, would they? At the Nuremberg trials, they would have been convicted of murder for following this immoral order.
Randy Thomasson is closely associated with the hate group Watchmen On the Walls. Founded by Scott Lively, Kenneth Hutcherson, Vlad Kusakin, and Alexei Ledyaev, members of the Watchmen have justified violence against LGBT people.
Thomasson is no stranger to false allegories like this one with the Nazis. He told a Watchmen gathering in Sacramento last fall that California’s laws protecting LGBT kids from bullying was tantamount to “moral rape.”
Update: Jeremy Hooper has now noticed that Thomasson has done some “cleansing” on his web site.
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