"I wrote to 40 prominent gay New Yorkers -- from Michael Kors to Edward Albee, Fran Lebowitz to Stephen Sondheim, Ingrid Sischy to Philip Johnson -- and asked them to pose for our cover. Three weeks later, only seven had agreed. The responses were fascinating. One man had his secretary inform me he was going out of town for six months. Another, a well-known producer, begged off, explaining his mother might be upset. One wrote me a nice note saying he'd love to, but he was "overexposed." "What gave you the idea that I'm even out?" wailed a television personality who called me upon receipt of my letter. (I replied that the fact that I saw him kissing his shirtless boyfriend in the middle of the Roxy led me to conclude he might be.) But the most honest response came from a well-known Wall Streeter, the sixth person to phone in his regrets one day. "Come on, kid," he said when I expressed my disappointment. "Don't take it personally. It's just business, you know?"
There are, of course, many perfectly valid reasons for not wanting to be on the cover of a magazine. But the hostility with which many greeted the invitation pointed to a more disturbing truth: Even as homophobia is in full retreat, gay public figures remain comfortably closeted -- no longer as a matter of survival but now as a matter of commerce. People are entitled to present themselves as they wish, to maximize their market value; I suppose they're even entitled to lie. But as a journalist, I'm tired of being expected to collude in their deception."
The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.I'm afraid that homophobes are indeed more likely to be gay.
"I don't identify as 'gay' because I believe there can be a difference between what one experiences and the life that God offers. I'm a cracked vessel held together only by God's power."I don't know what to say other than keep up with your counseling appointments and hopefully you'll get to a point to accept that God loves all if of his creations. Gay and straight alike.
making out in a cab or even fucking a guy makes you gayI think that if you're having a hard time keeping yourself from pulling off your date's clothes before the cab reaches its destination, we can safely conclude you're attracted to men.
"Untrammeled homosexuality can take over and destroy a social system. If you isolate sexuality as something solely for one's own personal amusement, and all you want is the most satisfying orgasm you can get - and that is what homosexuality seems to be - then homosexuality seems too powerful to resist. The evidence is that men do a better job on men and women on women, if all you are looking for is orgasm .... It's pure sexuality. It's almost like pure heroin. It's such a rush. . . . Marital sex tends toward the boring end. Generally, it doesn't deliver the kind of sheer sexual pleasure that homosexual sex does."posted by ericb at 11:46 AM on August 13, 2012 [25 favorites]
8:00 a.m. Wake up. Wonder where you are.posted by ericb at 2:35 PM on August 13, 2012 [6 favorites]
8:01 a.m. Realize you are laying on 100% Egyptian cotton sheets of at least ‘300-count,’ so don’t panic; you’re not slumming.
8:02 a.m. Realize you are actually in your own bed in Dupont Circle (for a change). Wake stranger next to you and tell him you are late for work, so you won’t be able to cook breakfast for him. Mutter ‘sorry’ as you help him look for his far-flung underwear. You realize that you tore his boxers off him last night, so you ‘loan’ him a pair of tighty-white briefs, but not the new 2Xist ones because you never intend to see him again.
8:05 a.m. Tell the stranger, whose name eludes you, ‘It was fun. I’ll give you a call,’ as you usher him out the door, avoiding his egregious morning-breath.
8:06 a.m. Crumple and dispose of the piece of paper with his telephone number on it when you get to the kitchen.
8:07 a.m. Make a high-protein breakfast shake while watching CNN. Wonder if the stories you’ve heard about Anderson Cooper are true. Decide they must be.
8:30 a.m. Black or grey suit? Decide to go with black, the only shirt that is clean and the ubiquitous red-striped rep tie.
8:45 a.m. Climb into BMW, trying not to look too much like Barbie driving one of her accessories, as you pull out of your underground parking. Chanel or Armani sunglasses? Go with Armani. Save the Chanel for Rehobeth this weekend.
9:35 a.m. Stroll into The Russell Senate Office Building.
9:36 a.m. Close door to office and call best friend and laugh about the guy who spent the night at your condo. Point out something annoying about best friend’s boyfriend but quickly add ‘It doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, just as long as you love him.’
10:15 a.m. Leave office, telling your secretary you are ‘meeting with some of your boss’s constituents.’ Pretend not to notice her insubordinate roll of the eyes (or the cloying ‘poem’ she has tacked to her cubicle wall).
10:30 a.m. Hair appointment for highlights and trim. Purchase Aveda anti-humectant pomade.
11:30 a.m. Run into personal trainer at gym. Pester him about getting you ‘Human Growth Hormones.’ Spend 30-minutes talking to friends on your cell phone. Cardio for 30-minutes; lift weights for 20.
12:50 p.m. Tan. Schedule back-waxing in time for Saturday party where you know you will end up shirtless.
1:05 p.m. Pay trainer for anabolic steroids and schedule a workout. Shower, dry and dress while taking ten minutes to knot your red-striped rep tie while you check-out your best friend’s boyfriend undress with the calculation of someone used to wearing a ‘g-string thong’ and having dollars stuffed in his crotch.
1:40 p.m. Meet someone for whom you only know his waist, chest and penis size from Manhunt for lunch at the ‘hot, new restaurant.’ Because the maître d’ recognizes you from the The Crew Club, you are whisked past the Christian heterosexual couples who have been waiting patiently for a table since 1:00 p.m.
2:30 p.m. ‘Dessert at your place.’ Find out, once again, people lie on Manhunt.
3:33 p.m. Make your way to Capitol Hill. Make sure the senator for whom you are an aide votes ‘lock-step’ against your personal interests.
5:00 p.m. Take a disco-nap to prevent facial wrinkles from being so ‘terribly witty.’
6:00 p.m. Open a fabulous new bottle of Pinot Grigio.
6:47 P.M. Bake Ketamine for the weekend. Test recipe. Call ‘Juan’ to score some ‘X’ and ‘White Lady’ (really, just for friends) tomorrow before heading to Delaware for the weekend.
7:00 P.M. Go to Abercrombie & Fitch and announce in a loud voice, ‘Over! So way over!’
7:40 P.M. Stop looking at the A&F photographic displays and the ‘hottie’ retail-boys and go to ‘cool store’ to shop for a new bathing suit (“Does this make me look fat?”) for the weekend in Rehobeth.
8:30 p.m. Light dinner with ‘catty’ homosexual friends at a restaurant you will be ‘over’ by the time it gets its first review in the ‘Washington Blade.’
10:30 p.m. Cocktails at JR’s, trying to avoid alcoholic queens who can’t navigate a crowd with a Stoli in a cheap plastic cup. Get plastered. Invite one of the alcoholic queens home with you.
12:00 a.m. ‘Nightcap at your place.’ Find out that people lie in bars, too.”
Rinse-and-repeat.
Romney said he could not unilaterally exempt them, but he floated the idea of a new religious-exemption law that would enable him to do so. Legislative leaders said such a proposal would never pass the Legislature. Seeing little chance of any immediate legal remedy and on the verge of processing more gay adoptions this year, Catholic Charities of Boston announced on March 10 that it would shut down its century-old adoption service. Within hours of the announcement, the governor filed the bill requested by Catholic leaders. *Of course, it went no where.
Seven members of the Catholic Charities Board resigned Wednesday to protest the Massachusetts Roman Catholic bishops' request that Catholic social service agencies be exempted from a law requiring them to place some adoptive children in gay households.posted by ericb at 9:42 AM on August 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
In a statement, the seven board members said they were "deeply troubled" by the bishops' request, and said it "undermines our moral priority of helping vulnerable children find loving homes.
"We also cannot participate in an effort to pursue legal permission to discriminate against Massachusetts citizens who want to play a part in building strong families," the statement read.
"The course the Bishops have charted threatens the very essence of our Christian mission. For the sake of the poor we serve, we pray they will reconsider."
Fundamentally, the historic Christian take on this is that it doesn't matter to whom you are sexually attracted. The doctrine is that there is only one kind of relationship--heterosexual marriage--which can ethically have a sexual component, and that everyone not in that kind of relationship is to refrain from sexual activity. Period. Desire doesn't enter into it.Only if you take that "historic Christian take" at all seriously, which would be a mistake. The obsession with people's fiddly bits and what we do with it is very much a modern obsession, just like the "Evangelic Christian" stance on abortion was manufactured in the seventies to get the fundies voting Republican.
Just one in a long list of reasons why Christianity is poisonous to humanity on a fundamental level.
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posted by jaduncan at 10:00 AM on August 13, 2012 [43 favorites]