Sexual Orientation

Anti-gay rant.

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While people's initial reaction to this rant is most likely complete disgust, it might be worth noting that this woman is probably mentally ill. From Mediaite

Terrifyingly Hilarious: Nebraska Woman Gives The Most Amazingly Bonkers Anti-Gay Rant Ever

You know what’s not funny? Hate. You know what’s also not funny? People going on hate-filled rants. However, you know what is funny, people going on hate-filled rants that make so little sense that they sound like someone took the worst comments from a political message board, mixed all the words around, translated them to Japanese, and then translated them back. And that’s what happened at a council meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska and it resulted in one of the craziest videos you’ll see this week.

Recently, Nebraskan cities have been trying to deal with the lack of protection that LGBT citizens have from discrimination. The state’s anti-discrimination laws don’t cover sexual orientation. YouTube user aksarbent has been uploading videos of some of the more interesting moments from hearings on the issue. One of them, he or she labeled “Best in Show!” and, good lord, is that not hyperbole.

Wearing a big white hat, a woman gets up and reads a screed that you need to hear to believe. She begins by accusing the ABC show Wipeout of being “produced in Holland by gays, bis, and orgiers” who like to see “people perishing.” At least I think that’s what she’s saying. And it just gets weirder and weirder.

In no discernible train of thought, the woman accuses Hillary Clinton of turning lesbian in college, gay people of being “homociders” who all dying at the age of 40, gay men of molesting boys because “they don’t have AIDS yet,” talks about the health risks of “licking anus,” and says something I can’t even figure out about Whitney Houston being naked when she died.

Again, there’s nothing funny about bigotry but there’s something amazing about watching a video that makes it clear just how ridiculous these beliefs are.

Plus, the kid sitting directly behind the lady who can’t stop cracking the hell up really seals the deal!

And the video:

Watch the guy in the audience behind her, for added hilarity. The world is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think. Lincoln, Nebraska proposed LGBT protection ordinance.. Original post featuring this clip: http://aksarbent.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-lincoln-nebraska-hearings-on.html Towleroad, (then Gawker, Queerty, Huffington Post, JoeMyGod, et al picked this up later.


No gays in the Turkish army.

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Passed along by Will (thanks!):

From the BBC:

Proving you're gay to the Turkish army

Military service is mandatory for all Turkish men - they can only escape it if they are ill, disabled or homosexual. But proving homosexuality is a humiliating ordeal.

''They asked me when I first had anal intercourse, oral sex, what sort of toys I played with as a child."

Ahmet, a young man in his 20s, told officials he was gay at the first opportunity after he was called up, as he and other conscripts underwent a health check.

"They asked me if I liked football, whether I wore woman's clothes or used woman's perfume," he says.

''I had a few days' beard and I am a masculine guy - they told me I didn't look like a normal gay man.''

He was then asked to provide a picture of himself dressed as a woman.

Continue reading the main story

''I refused this request,'' he says. ''But I made them another offer, which they accepted.'' Instead he gave them a photograph of himself kissing another man.

Ahmet hopes this will give him what he needs - a "pink certificate", which will declare him homosexual and therefore exempt from military service.

Read the rest of the article here.

Probably gay.

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More at http://www.katiegoodman.com/ Written and directed by Katie Goodman and Soren Kisiel. Featuring, left to right, Erin Roberg, Katie Goodman, and Maggie Garver. Filmed by Ryan Stumpe and AVERIngenuity. Edited by Soren Kisiel and Ryan Stumpe.

Tweets from homophobes.

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This website was passed along by Luis (thanks!):

On March 12, 2012, the hashtag #ToMyUnbornChild became a trending topic. People used this hashtag to "tweet to" their future child. Here are 100 real tweets from real people — all within 24 hours — saying they would murder their child if he or she was gay.

And some samples (clic to make larger):

Click here for many more: link.

I'm still holding out hope that the proportion of people who feel this way is shrinking, and hopefully very quickly.

Homosexuality in Iran.

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From the CBC, and passed along by Amir (thanks!):

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims there are no gays in his country. This documentary was the first to reveal the little-known plight of gays in Iran, where beatings, flogging and death are everyday risks.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims there are no gays in his country. This documentary was the first to reveal the little-known plight of gays in Iran, where beatings, flogging and death are everyday risks.

Big gay vs. little gay.

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Gays come in all different shapes, sizes and colors - and our external differences have some some pretty interesting implications. Add Davey on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DaveyWaveyOfficial Circle Davey on Google+: http://gplus.to/DaveyWaveyOfficial BlogTV channel: http://www.blogtv.com/people/daveywaveyofficial Davey's Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TheDaveyWavey Davey's second YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/DaveyWaveyRaw Davey's website: http://www.daveywavey.tv Davey's fitness blog: http://www.daveywaveyfitness.com PO Box: Davey Wavey, Inc.

Why homosexuality should be banned.

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The original video, which I posted last year, disappeared. Boris sent along a new link (thanks!). Click on the little red dialogue bubble (annotations) to get rid of the annoying popup text boxes.

Video que muestra siete poderosas razones por las cuales la homosexualidad debería prohibirse (porsiaca, esto es IRONÍA) El video original está aquí: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSfFa44p96o y pertenece al canal de Kayjen: http://www.youtube.com/user/kayjen


Advert: Sinead's Hand.

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Support Marriage Equality's campaign for same-sex marriage in Ireland. http://www.marriagequality.ie or +353 1 873 4183 http://www.facebook.com/marriagequality http://www.twitter.com/marriagequality This film was inspired by "Permission" - a film made by Public Service USA, commissioned by Freedom To Marry.

Pray away the gay.

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This is an excellent investigative piece, written by a gay man who went undercover to get conversion therapy. From The Independent:

The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion

Is homosexuality a form of mental illness? A small but evangelical band of psychotherapists believe that it is – and they're on a mission to 'heal' the afflicted. Patrick Strudwick enters the bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion

In Britain today therapists are trying to convert gay men and women to heterosexuality. I know this, because for several months I infiltrated this network of therapists and put myself – a happy, "out" gay man – through treatment.

According to a report by Professor Michael King of University College London, one in six UK psychiatrists and psychotherapists have sought to reduce or change a patient's sexual orientation. And with the help of the American conversion therapy movement, practitioners here, along with a clutch of international "conversion" organisations, are becoming co-ordinated and unified. They plan to gain credibility, university backing and government funding. In some cases, the NHS is even paying for the treatment.

This is despite the fact that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – psychiatry's glossary of conditions – 36 years ago. And despite much evidence that such practices are damaging and ineffective.

My investigation began last spring, shortly after King's report was published, when an evangelical group held a conference in a central London church for therapists wanting to learn how to "reorient" their patients. I wanted to know who these therapists were, what happened during the treatment, and what effect it would have on the recipient. I posed as a potential client wanting to be cured.

Read the rest of his account here.

As a follow-up, one of the therapists he met with got fully busted. Read about it at The Guardianhere.

Ted Haggard.

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As mentioned during last class.

There are many examples of men like this who've made it their life's work to fight against homosexuals' rights, only to turn out to have same-sex preferences themselves. I posted a link to a list of them last term (here). Their hypocritical behaviour can likely be explained by cognitive dissonance, as explained in class.

Ted Haggard is probably the best known case. He's had a tumultuous few years since it was discovered that he was having sex with a male sex worker. GQ recently published an article about where he's at now. Here are some excerpts:

[...]

Soon after Ted signed the separation agreement, the Haggards began their exile in Phoenix, where Ted took a job as a door-to-door insurance salesman. He attended therapy sessions in which a counselor used a technique called eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) to trace Ted's same-sex urges to having been molested by one of his father's employees at age 7. After just three weeks of EMDR, a member of Ted's advisory committee told The Denver Post that Pastor Ted was "completely heterosexual."

It was the sort of easily mocked, over-the-top statement that Ted might make, but he himself never actually put it in those terms. Ted has been vague about his sexuality since moving back to Colorado Springs in 2008. He says that he still believes the Bible is clear that "homosexuality is not God's best plan for people," but his stance on the issue has softened to the point of near incomprehensibility. After the camping trip, when I asked him about the wording he once used to describe his same-sex urges—in 2006 he wrote in a letter to New Life's congregation that he was warring with a "repulsive and dark" part of himself—he backtracked, saying he never meant it that way. "There's nothing repulsive to me about that world, but it's not a temptation anymore."

[...]

What bothers Jones most is that Ted is again serving as a pastor and an influencer, putting the people who trust him—especially young men—in danger. Two years ago, a New Life volunteer named Grant Haas revealed that Ted had masturbated in front of him and offered him drugs on a church trip in 2006, when he was 22, and that New Life subsequently paid him $179,000 to keep quiet. New Life later confirmed having paid Haas but insisted that it wasn't meant as hush money. (Ted denies the drug offer but admits that he masturbated in the room they shared. "I thought he was asleep," he says.)

New Life won't comment on the Haggard era, but Haas tells me over the phone that what happened with him and Mike Jones wasn't the end of it, that Ted's tenure at New Life was marked by an atmosphere of sexual impropriety. Haas has forgiven Ted, but he shares another incident, of being invited with a friend to skinny-dip in Ted's pool while Gayle was away. He also recalls Ted showing him a photo of a group of naked men from New Life's youth program standing in his office, covering themselves with books. "Everything at that church was sexualized," Haas says.

[...]

Ted may be telling the truth, but his peculiar brand of self-victimization and protestation—in which every "I messed up" is followed by a "but... "—makes it hard for people in Colorado Springs to believe that he's actually sorry for what he did. One former New Life member expressed what seems to be the general sentiment surrounding his resurgence: "I think Ted genuinely loves God, and I think he has a sincere interest in helping people, but I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth."

The rest of the article can be found here.

Sadly, it looks like Ted Haggard is still in denial about his preferences, and claims to be cured of same-sex sexual desires. It's hard not to feel bad for the guy, despite all the hate he's spread and the damage he's done.

A recent clip:

http://elifeinchrist.com


Gay-for-pay in Prague.

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If you haven't read the previous post on gay-for-pay, scroll down and read it first.

GlobalPost has put together an excellent report on the gay porn industry in Prague. Prague has become an international powerhouse for porn production of all types. The article in long, as it goes into great detail describing the various stories of people working in the industry. highly recommended reading if you have the time. Here's the opening:

Editor’s note: In this GlobalPost investigative report, Prague correspondent Iva Skoch gained rare access to one of Eastern Europe’s most secretive industries, uncovering a world where shifting human sexuality meets rampant commercial demand. It is an industry where global economic crisis mixes with the latest web technologies, set amid the upheavals of Eastern Europe’s uneven transition from communism to a raw form of capitalism. In this multimedia report, we examine the complex and interlocking pieces of Prague’s booming gay porn business, from its roots in an American entrepreneur, to the cultural, moral and political foundations that make Prague a gay porn capital, as well as the economic necessities that drive many into the industry, and finally, the human toll it takes on workers. It is intended solely for mature audiences.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Martin Justel is 20, as old as the Czech democracy and, arguably, just as mature.

He is scrawny and too tall for his body mass. He has a baby face, short auburn hair, long eyelashes and a vacant expression. He looks hardly 18 but his eyes, blinking slowly, convey the gloom and servitude of somebody much older. In the terminology of the American gay sexual marketplace, he is a classic “twink,” a thin, young, pretty boy.

He whispers “hello” as he tiptoes into the Prague film studio of William Higgins, 67, an American producer and “dean of gay porn” who moved to Prague right after communism ended to corner the gay sex market, arriving around the same time two other bearded vanguards of capitalism — Santa Claus and Colonel Sanders — showed up to monopolize Christmas and fried chicken.

All three have found fertile ground here.

“You can take off your clothes,” says Rado Pauer, Higgins’ cameraman, stage artist and translator, as he walks over to Justel to hand him half of a blue pill, which he swallows without question.

Read the rest of article here.

Buddy and Pedro.

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From the Toronto Star:

Same-sex penguin pair fascinates zookeepers

Are Buddy and Pedro, two African penguins at the Toronto Zoo, gay?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but their keepers have noticed the two are inseparable, and perhaps most telling, they’re showing signs of mating behaviours.

There are other cases of gay penguins — zoos in New York, Japan, Germany and Sea World Orlando have seen examples.

As part of an experiment a few years ago, Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York’s Central Park zoo, incubated an egg together and raised the chick, named Tango, after she hatched. A children’s book about them called And Tango Makes Three was a smash best seller.

But in Toronto, Buddy and Pedro’s relationship, however you describe it, is destined to come to an end soon because they have a duty. They have top-notch genes, so the zoo intends to separate them from each other and pair them with females for breeding.

Given that African penguins are endangered, the move falls within a species survival plan among zoos.

Buddy, 20, and Pedro, 10, are in Toronto as part of the popular African penguin exhibit that opened at the zoo in May. The two, bred in captivity, were part of a group of 12 penguins — six male, six female — that came to Toronto from zoos in the U.S.

Buddy and Pedro arrived from Toledo, Ohio, where they formed a connection as members of a bachelor flock.

Their relationship, referred to as “pair bonding’’ in zoo speak, continued after they arrived here, say their zoo keepers. Scientists don’t use the words gay or straight when it comes to sexual orientation in animals.

Read the rest of the article, and see a video clip of the pair, here.

It's time.

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Repost from last term: 

Please share this with friends and loved ones. Join the campaign: http://www.getup.org.au/marriagematters music: Oliver Tank - Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion GetUp Australia - Over 670,000 people campaigning for a progressive Australia . Join the movement at: Website http://www.getup.org.au Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GetUpAustralia Twitter http://twitter.com/GetUp

Howard Stern goes to bat for Ellen Degeneris.

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This entire story is mind-boggling (from various sources, including the SLOG and Meherin - thanks!). The back story: Ellen Degeneris, who is a hugely successful media star, was chosen by JC Penny's to be their spokesperson. Ellen is openly gay, which raised the ire of a group who call themselves One Million Moms (even though they more likely number in the 10s of thousands). One Million Moms came out swinging and tried to start a massive boycott of JC Penny. It blew up in their collective faces. Apparently the American public, at least the millions of Ellen fans, didn't agree with the boycott and threw their support behind both Ellen and JC Penny. In the process, One Million Moms has gone down in flames. Here's their website, if you're interested: link.

Ellen had this to say to her foes:

Since the announcement that Ellen would be a new spokesperson for JCPenney, there's been an outpouring of support. There have also been a handful of critics. Ellen addressed them head-on in her monologue.

 

Howard Stern, whose not really known for being the most politically correct sort of dude, also came to Ellen's defence. Here's the clip from his radio show (NSFW language):

Taken from Stern Show Feb 6th 2012

In response to Howard Stern's comments, Dan Savage of Savage Love had this to say:

I can't count the number of times I've defended figures like Howard Stern and Bill Maher—straight entertainers who 1. fully support gay rights but 2. sometimes tell jokes that sensitivos consider homophobic. These guys are on our side and they're good for our side. Yeah, sometimes the tell jokes or do bits that are rooted in what is clearly their own personal discomfort with/fear of gay sex, particularly that man-on-man buttsex they never tire of hearing about, obsessing about, joking about, etc. But you know what? There are a lot of people out there who oppose gay rights because they're uncomfortable with gay sex and a lot of these folks—and lots of them are the kinds of guys who listen to Stern—are convinced that their own personal discomfort with gay sex requires them to oppose gay rights. What the Sterns and Mahers demonstrate is that you can be a little uncomfortable with gay sex—you can even have sense of humor about your discomfort, you can even tell the occasional joke about it—and still support the full civil equality of LGBT people.

Cynthia Nixon on her sexual orientation.

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From The Nerve:

Cynthia Nixon clarifies that whole "gay by choice" remark

Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon caused an uproar in the LGBT community earlier this month for saying that for her, being gay was a choice — and that choice or not, no one should be discriminated against for their sexual orientation. Reactions varied: some cheered her words (I'm in that camp), others wondered why she didn't just say she was bisexual, and some said she was just giving fuel to bigots who work to undo all the progress made in the past decades on behalf of LGBT people in the U.S.

Well congratulations, people in the latter camp! You've successfully told someone who is not you how she should feel about her own sexuality. After the major browbeating she received, she clarified her statements to The Advocate:

"My recent comments in The New York Times were about me and my personal story of being gay... However, to the extent that anyone wishes to interpret my words in a strictly legal context I would like to clarify:

While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual. I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have 'chosen' is to be in a gay relationship."

Frankly, I think it's embarrassing for the LGBT community that Nixon had to do this. For one thing, interpreting her words to mean that being gay is a choice for everyone is a flagrant and intentional misreading of the text. (I mean, she literally says she is only talking about herself.) And for another: she's right! "Don't discriminate against gays because homosexuality is not a choice" is a shitty argument; it implies that we'd, you know, be straight and normal if we could but, oops! Looks like we're stuck this way, so please don't gay-bash us. No one says, "Don't discriminate against black people because being black isn't a choice;" you don't discriminate against black people because they're people and the color of your skin says nothing about your character or worth as a human being.

If homosexuality is a choice for some people — some — why should that change anything? You still don't get to dictate the consensual sexual activities or identities of anyone other than yourself. (And you certainly don't get to deny them rights because of it.) Nixon wasn't wrong, and the fact that people have harangued her into saying something about her own life and identity they find more palatable is a shame.

This is the excerpt from the New York Times article that started the controversy:

Nixon manages to keep a similarly cleareyed perspective on her relationship with Marinoni, despite the titillation it has caused in the tabloid media. She has less tolerance for the skepticism she says her relationship has sparked among some gay activists who find her midlife switch in sexual orientation disingenuous.

“I totally reject that,” she said heatedly. “I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.’ And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me. A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it’s a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.” Her face was red and her arms were waving. “As you can tell,” she said, “I am very annoyed about this issue. Why can’t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we’re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don’t think that they should define the terms of the debate. I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn’t realize I was gay, which I find really offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I’ve been out with.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Click on the following links for more information about Ms. Nixon and sexual orientation (thanks Madeline!):

What Cynthia Nixon Is Teaching Us About Sexuality

Lane: The Best Choice I Ever Made, or Why Queer Is Revolutionary

What does it mean for gay rights if homosexuality can be a choice? (radio)

The Pope: Gay marriage a threat to humanity.

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From Reuters:

Pope Benedict said Monday that gay marriage was one of several threats to the traditional family that undermined "the future of humanity itself."

The pope made some of his strongest comments against gay marriage in a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican in which he touched on some economic and social issues facing the world today.

He told diplomats from nearly 180 countries that the education of children needed proper "settings" and that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman."

"This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself," he said.

The Vatican and Catholic officials around the world have protested against moves to legalize gay marriage in Europe and other developed parts of the world.

One leading opponent of gay marriage in the United States is New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, whom the pope will elevate to cardinal next month.

Dolan fought against gay marriage before it became legal in New York state last June, and in September he sent a letter to President Barack Obama criticizing his administration's decision not to support a federal ban on gay marriage.

In that letter Dolan, who holds the powerful post of president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, said such a policy could "precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions."

The Roman Catholic Church, which has some 1.3 billion members worldwide, teaches that while homosexual tendencies are not sinful, homosexual acts are, and that children should grow up in a traditional family with a mother and a father.

Read more here.