The Invention Of The Heterosexual
Salon interviews historian Hanne Blank, who argues that the categories of “straight” and “gay” as we know them today arose with the spread of psychiatry in the late nineteenth century. So I guess Blank is saying, this Valentine’s Day, thank Freud?
“Heterosexual” was actually coined in a letter at the same time as the word “homosexual,” [in the mid-19thcentury], by an Austro-Hungarian journalist named Károly Mária Kertbeny. He created these words as part of his response to a piece of Prussian legislation that made same-sex erotic behavior illegal, even in cases where the identical act performed by a man and a woman would be considered legal.
Psychiatry is responsible for creating the heterosexual in largely the same way that it is responsible for creating the various categories of sexual deviance that we are familiar with and recognize and define ourselves in opposition to. The period lasting from the late Victorian era to the…
CA Legislature Passes Bill To Teach LGBT History In Schools
They say history is written by the winners, who will be writing the LGBT history curriculum? Via Reuters:
A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation.
Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has not said publicly whether he supports the bill, which he has 12 days to sign or veto once it reaches his desk later this month. If he takes no action, the measure would become law automatically.
The bill gained final passage from the state Assembly on a vote of 49-25, without a single Republican supporting it. The measure cleared the state Senate in April.
California already requires public schools to teach the contributions made to society by women and by racial and ethnic groups that were historically discriminated against, such as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.
Archaeologists Discover First ‘Gay Caveman’
Example of a 'Squat Burial'. Photo: Hamed Saber (CC)
Researchers have found the remains of a skeleton that may be an early homosexual man. This conclusion did not come from the findings of any ‘gay gene,’ but rather the burial placement and its social implication. The man was given the burial of a woman which prompted archaeologists to believe that his social role reflected his sexual orientation. Via TIME:
Kamila Remisova Vesinova and her team of researchers from the Czech Archeological Society believe they have unearthed the remains of an early homosexual man. The remains date from around 2900-2500 B.C., on the outskirts of Prague.
That claim stems from the fact the 5,000-year old skeleton was buried in a manner reserved for women in the Corded Ware culture: its head was pointed east rather than west, and its remains were surrounded by domestic jugs rather than by hammers, flint knives and weapons that typically…
Sexual Preference Chemical Found In Mice
BBC News reports:
A chemical in the brain controls sexual preference in mice, according to scientists in China.
Male mice bred without serotonin lose their preference for females, a report in Nature says.
The researchers say it is the first time that a neurotransmitter has been shown to play a role in sexual preference in mammals.
Experts have warned about the dangers of drawing conclusions about human sexuality.
The research team first bred male mice whose brains were not receptive to serotonin.
A series of experiments demonstrated that these mice had lost the preference for females shown by unmodified males.
When presented with a choice of partners, they showed no overall preference for either males or females…
Pastor Helps Teens ‘Gain Purity’ Through Sexual Exploitation
Is this really helping them gain ‘purity’ or is it just an outlet for the pastor to act on his homosexual impulses without having regret? The thirty-one year old pastor admitted to engaging in sexual contact as a means of ‘praying’ for the teens. The Raw Story reports:
A former youth pastor arrested in Iowa on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation allegedly told teenage boys he was trying to help them gain “sexual purity in the eyes of God.”
Thirty-one-year-old Brent Girouex, a former youth pastor at Victory Fellowship Church in Council Bluffs, turned himself in to the police in February after four young men came forward with allegations against him, The Daily Nonpareil reported.
Girouex has been released on a $30,000 bond and is due back in court on April 21. If found guilty, he faces up to five years on each charge.
Court documents show Girouex told investigators he had sexual contact with a…
iPhone App To ‘Cure’ Homosexuality
No longer want to be gay in the 21st century? There’s an app for that. While it’s hard to believe that anyone would buy this to be used seriously, it’s encouraging to see how many people were so quick to demand it’s removal. Over 90,000 people have already signed a petition against it. The Atlantic reports:
Gay rights activists are outaged — and rightfully so. More than 90,000 people have signed a petition hosted on Change.org demanding that Apple remove an application from the iTunes Store that promises to deliver “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.”
Developed by Exodus International, an Orlando, Florida-based Christian organization, the application claims to be “a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders.” But Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay misinformation campaigns, finds the app offensive at best. “Exodus’ message is hateful and bigoted,” the petition…
Mercury ‘Turns’ Wetland Birds Homosexual
American White Ibis. Photo: Terry Foote (CC)
Victoria Gill reports for the BBC:
Mercury affects the behaviour of white ibises by “turning them homosexual”, with higher doses resulting in males being more likely to pair with males.
Scientists in Florida and Sri Lanka studied the effect of mercury in the birds’ diet. Their aim was to find out why it reduced the ibises’ breeding.
Mercury pollution can come from burning coal and waste, and run-off from mines.
The report, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that wetland birds are particularly badly affected by it.
Although the researchers already knew that eating mercury-contaminated food could affect an animal’s development, they were surprised by the “strange” results of this experiment.
“We knew mercury could depress their testosterone (male sex hormone) levels,” explained Dr Peter Frederick from the University of Florida, who led the study. “But we didn’t expect this.”
Read more here.
…
Gay “Kiss-In” Protest Greets Pope In Spain
Welcome Pope Benedict XVI! From The New York Daily News:
A crowd of about 200 gay men and women in Barcelona staged a massive make-out session in front of the Pope Sunday as he was driven through town in the bullet-proof Popemobile on his way to celebrate mass at one of the city’s basilicas.
The monster spit-swap was organized by a Facebook group called Queer Kissing Flashmob, which sought to protest Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Spain and the Catholic church’s policies about homosexuals.
“We are here for a peaceful protest,” Eduardo Prado, one of the men who participated in the so-called kiss-in, told The Irish Times. “The church oppresses us and doesn’t respect us…We can’t tolerate this sort of Pope in the 21st century.”
The kissing protesters were a small segment of the estimated 250,000 Spaniards who lined the streets along Benedict’s motorcade route, but they were joined by others who were unhappy with the 83-year-old…
African Newspaper Purposefully ‘Outs’ Gays, Suggests Hanging
Photo: AP
This is quite a shocker, reported by Godfrey Olukya and Jason Straziuso for AP, especially as it seems to have been instigated by American Christian fundamentalists:
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The front-page newspaper story featured a list of Uganda’s 100 “top” homosexuals, with a bright yellow banner across it that read: “Hang Them.” Alongside their photos were the men’s names and addresses.
In the days since it was published, at least four gay Ugandans on the list have been attacked and many others are in hiding, according to rights activist Julian Onziema. One person named in the story had stones thrown at his house by neighbors.
A lawmaker in this conservative African country introduced a bill a year ago that would have imposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts and life in prison for others. An international uproar ensued, and the bill was quietly shelved.
But gays in Uganda say they have faced…
As More Bullying Victims Commit Suicide, Right-Wing Groups Decry Anti-Bullying Policies As ‘Gay Agenda’ Ploy
As a sort of follow up to my post yesterday, from Think Progress:
Many states across the country are taking laudable steps to enact measures that bolster administrators’ ability to protect students who face such harassment. However, despite the evidence supporting the need, right-wing lawmakers and activists insist that anti-bullying measures are nothing more than insidious tools of the “homosexual agenda”:
- The American Family Association of Michigan has spent years decrying a proposed anti-bullying measure as “a Trojan Horse to sneak [homosexual activists'] special rights agenda into law” and to “legitimize homosexual behavior” which is “a practice scientifically proven to result in a dramatically higher incidence of domestic violence, mental illness, illegal drug use, promiscuity, life-threatening disease, and premature death.” The bill “died in 2008 in the state Senate because senators could not agree” on whether to address bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the measure.
- In Minnesota, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer said he would not…
What If Homosexuality Becomes a Choice … For Parents?
Evidence that homosexuality is biological — and not a lifestyle choice like some on the religious Right believe — is building; gay men are more likely than straight men to have counterclockwise hair wholrs, have longer index than ring fingers, and be left handed or ambidextrous. David France wrote in a 2007 New York magazine article:
Because many of these newly identified “gay” traits and characteristics are known to be influenced in utero, researchers think they may be narrowing in on when gayness is set — and identifying its possible triggers. They believe that homosexuality may be the result of some interaction between a pregnant mother and her fetus. Several hypothetical mechanisms have been identified, most pointing to an alteration in the flow of male hormones in the formation of boys and female hormones in the gestation of girls. What causes this? Nobody has any direct evidence one way or another,…
UN Accreditation For Gay Rights Group
The U.N. Economic and Social Council approved the US-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission application for a “consultative status.” With many countries still prosecuting laws against homosexual activity and gay rights, this accreditation from the UN has been a great leap forward. The Washington Post reports:
The U.N. Economic and Social Council voted Monday to accredit the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission after strong lobbying by the Obama administration.
Obama, in a statement issued by the White House, welcomed the vote as an “important step forward for human rights.” With the group’s inclusion, he said “the United Nations is closer to the ideals on which it was founded, and to values of inclusion and equality to which the United States is deeply committed.”
The group will now be able to attend U.N. meetings, submit statements and collaborate with both government and U.N. agencies on human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual…
Christopher Hitchens: ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Gay’
Christopher Hitchens tells Deborah Solomon why, for her New York Times Magazine column:
Solomon: What did you mean to suggest by including the detail about your long-ago flings with two men who became part of Margaret Thatcher’s administration?
Hitchens: There are still people who want to criminalize homosexuality one way or another, and I thought it might be useful if more heterosexual men admitted that they are a little bit gay, as is everyone, and that homosexuality is a form of love and not just sex.
Solomon: Not everyone is “a little bit gay,” as you say. Do you think your basic sexual confusion underlies your political confusions?
Hitchens: No, I wouldn’t call it confusion. I’d call it a punctuated consistency. I argue in the book that my principles were the same throughout…
[continues in the New York Times Magazine]
