For the minority of GLBT folk who read Investigate magazine's sleazy hatchet job on MP Tim Barnett (don't rush to read it) Craig Young takes a look at its sources. As Bernard Moran and I have a long history as sparring partners, I will refrain from commenting about his affiliations to SPUC, Family Life International, the Christian Coalition and The Tablet. Suffice to say, he doesn't get out into the real world much. Instead, I'll concentrate on Bernie's sources in his hatchet job against Tim Barnett, published in Ian Wishart's “Investigate” magazine. These centre on overseas US and UK Christian Right sources, which is hardly surprising. 1. Stephen Green: The Sexual Deadend: London: Broadview Books: 1992. This is the usual cut and paste job beloved of an earlier generation of Christian Right activists, in which quotes are taken out of their original context and slapped into the middle of bizarre interpretations, usually cobbled together from the claustrophobic and conspiratorial confines of the conservative Christian psyche. Either that, or they're dredged up from half-forgotten movement ephemera in the sixties, when the utopian activists of that period were given to many a half-baked statement, later abandoned through resort to practical politics and new political insights. I'm surprised that Bernie has taken this long to discover the book in question. I picked up a copy when I visited Adelaide a decade ago, and visited the offices of the Australian Festival of Light. And can Bernie please explain why my search engine turned up a reference to On Target Britain (January 2003)? It appears that Green's book is distributed by the British League of Rights, a neofascist, racist and antisemitic organisation. Exactly where did he get his copy from? Particularly as the Conservative Family Institute was disbanded in the late nineties after embarrassing horizontal hostility against gay Tories? 2. Robert Knight: The Age of Consent: Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture: Spence Publishing: Dallas: 1998: And can someone tell me why this bloke is a Concerned Woman for America? Knight is no stranger to those of us familiar with the US Family Research Council, their closest equivalent to our own Maxim Institute. Spence Publishing is a conservative Catholic publisher deep in the dark heart of Texas. As one might guess, it is full of references from within the conservative Christian subculture, not mainstream, independently verifiable professional sources to substantiate its apocalyptic claims about the collapse of marriage, families and western civilisation. 3. Stanley Kurtz, "Beyond Gay Marriage" Weekly Standard (08.04.03): I will refrain from Joseph Conrad references. Like Green, Kurtz takes isolated statements about polyamory from individual lesbian and gay people, and turns them into an elaborated social movement. There's just one problem- where are the legal, social scientific and allied professional opinions that support this phantom polyamory movement? Interestingly, I see that evangelical Christian journalist Dave Crampton has the good sense to be highly embarrassed by the contents of Moran's diatribe within the pages of Investigate. And there you have it- Bernard's wedded blitz has predictable ammunition and misses its target altogether. Sources: Stephen Green: The Sexual Deadend: London: Broadview Books: 1992. Robert Knight: Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture: Spence Publishing: Dallas: 1998. Stanley Kurtz: "Beyond Gay Marriage" Weekly Standard: 8th April 2003. Craig Young - 14th April 2004