Laud Humphreys was studying to be an Episcopal priest in the mid-1950s when he learned, shortly after his father's death, that his father, Oklahoma State Representative Ira D. Humphreys, took trips to New Orleans to have sex with other men. After being dismissed as an Episcopal priest in the 1960s, Laud Humphreys then enrolled as a sociology grad student where he completed a dissertation about men who had sex with other men in public bathrooms in St. Louis, which Humphreys researched by agreeing to serve as a "watch queen", looking out for the police. After writing down the license plate numbers of the men having sex, Humphreys traced the men's addresses and contacted them in disguise, claiming to be collecting data for a public health survey. The research, which was condemned as unethical for its use of covert methods, was published in 1970 as Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places.
posted on Sep 8, 2007 - View this thread

Jewsfilter: Rabbinic Council of America bans smoking for all Orthodox Jews "Jewish law is fully able to incorporate new realities, recognize new and reliable scientific findings, and embrace the need to change heretofore acceptable behavior." Read the full technical legal opinion here. [pdf] Now if only the Orthodox Union would stand up for the LBGT community in same the way that it has for Darfur, stem cell research, heck, even global warming...
posted on Jul 7, 2006 - View this thread

Why Doesn't Uncle Sam Want These Troops? Perhaps because even wounded heroes get discharged for being gay, like Sgt. Robert Stout. When don't ask, don't tell is costing the military valuable talent and more than a quarter-billion dollars, veterans, partners and the at least 63% of the public are calling for the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'.
posted on Jun 1, 2005 - View this thread

What Jesus Would Do? "...And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died." Jimmy Swaggart (no stranger to scandal and improper behavior in the past) is at it again, this time regarding marriage and gays. Maybe he should stay away from Paul Crouch, Trinity Broadcasting Network's head, currently embroiled in a gay sex scandal. Was Jesus this hypocritical and violent?
posted on Sep 19, 2004 - View this thread

MSNBC reports that NJ Gov. James McGreevey is to resign as of November 15th because of an affair he had with another man. A crazy day in politics for both Democrats and Republicans.
posted on Aug 12, 2004 - View this thread

New Jersey became the fifth state to recognize same-sex partnerships. The law extends health insurance, inheritance and hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples. Marriage is still illegal, but it's a success for NJ in 2003. I've lived here all my life and this is the first time the toll booth state has left me genuinely impressed and feelin proud.
posted on Jan 14, 2004 - View this thread

The Longevity of Homosexuals - Life insurance companies advertise lower rates for lifestyle choices that positively effect mortality. No smoking. No drugs. No scuba diving and crop dusting. No criminal record. Should they be able to offer better prices to heterosexuals versus homosexuals?
posted on Dec 31, 2003 - View this thread

Jeb Bush, comedian. "It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country."
posted on Nov 13, 2003 - View this thread

Supreme Court wisely rules that you can't legislate morality and that privacy between consenting adults is a-ok as the Texas sodomy law (that applies to homosexuals only) is struck down. Ruling invalidates other remaining sodomy laws on the books. Dancing in the streets ensues. And as usual, Scalia gets to add his wisecracks in the dissent. [via SCOTUSblog]
posted on Jun 26, 2003 - View this thread

Cutting-Edge Critique of TV or Just a Lot of Guys with No Shirt On? Exhaustive website of TV shows from the 1950s to the present with discussion of overt gay and lesbian content. Also a lot of coverage of hidden homoerotic content that could be viewed as a parody of academic interpretive overreaching. On the other hand, that didn't stop Jerry Falwell from denouncing Tinky Winky's alleged sexual orientation.
posted on Dec 6, 2002 - View this thread

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Matter If You Are Fluent In Arabic, Despite Our Serious Need For That.... This story hits very close to home. This is a friend from college (Emory) who was just thrown out of the army when they discovered he had a boyfriend. Particularly ridiculous is the fact that he had just achieved fluency in Arabic and would have been (among other gay soldiers) extremely useful to the cause at present. Apparently, heterosexual couples discovered coupled in their rooms at the same inspection were given 10 days restriction and extra duty.
posted on Nov 13, 2002 - View this thread

The Bard's sexuality comes into question, again, on his birthday. 'The portrait already has considerable intrinsic historical interest, and if you believe that the young man addressed in the sonnets was Henry Wriothesley there is the additional thrill that this could be the face that Shakespeare fell in love with, perhaps wishing its owner was a girl. The magnitude of the thrill depends on how much you think the identity of the young person matters to the poems. Many think it matters a lot.'
posted on Apr 24, 2002 - View this thread

Artificial womb. Goodbye women, hello complex ethical debates. ... artificial wombs raise the prospect that gay couples could give 'birth' to their own children. 'This would no doubt horrify right-wingers, while the implications for abortion law might well please them,' he added.
posted on Feb 10, 2002 - View this thread

The End of Gay Culture. In a nutshell, the author is saying that the next generation of homosexuals is discarding gay culture after being accepted into society for its financial clout. What do you think? Is this good, bad or way off base?
posted on Nov 28, 2001 - View this thread

Evangelist Franklin Graham, stands by his statements that Islam is "wicked, violent".

"It wasn't Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn't Lutherans," Graham told NBC. "It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith."

Is it strange that the son of the popular and eloquent Billy Graham hasn’t come under much fire for his anti-Islamic statements while the goofy duo of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are still being roasted for their own inflammatory 9.11 statements against liberals and gays?
posted on Nov 19, 2001 - View this thread

Voters in Five U.S. Cities to Decide Gay Rights Issues Tuesday: Out of the closet and onto the ballot! Traverse City, Kalamazoo, and Huntington Woods in Michigan, Miami Beach, Houston, and a lawsuit in Maryland.
posted on Nov 4, 2001 - View this thread

Operation: Enduring Homophobia
posted on Oct 15, 2001 - View this thread

Rev. Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson, f*cking lunatics.

'gays, feminists, "pagans," and a host of liberal advocacy groups have made "God mad" and must share the blame for the terrorist attacks'

posted on Sep 14, 2001 - View this thread

"Lesbianism" on the rise in Fiji
    Women are said to find this a more attractive option over domestic violence. Be prepared for a rise in the divorce rate, as many "businesswomen" are also becoming lesbians.
    (On the way back, I discovered a new portal for Fiji, hellofiji.com, which offers paid subscriptions to Fijilive.com articles, especially news coverage of the May 19 coup. Also this picture gallery of eligible singles! A full-blown Fijian web renaissance.)
posted on Jul 26, 2001 - View this thread

Latest David Horowitz trolling op-ed piece, this time on gays in the military. With his usual obliviousness to irony, he presumes in this piece that anyone who disagrees with him must be the knee-jerk PC police. Question: does posting a link to a troll constitute trolling in and of itself? Discuss.
posted on Jun 25, 2001 - View this thread

Who is Brendan Lemon's secret baseball player lover? And will professional sports ever be the same if he comes out?
posted on May 26, 2001 - View this thread

Some Straights Can Go Gay, Study Says.

Just as I've always suspected.
posted on May 18, 2001 - View this thread

Boy Scouts: 1 Gay Memebers: 0 Court Says Boy Scouts Can Bar Gays, which is slightly troubling, in that a psuedo-national organization can make rules that go against government policy. I don't see how a scoutmaster being gay has anything to do with teaching kids how to tie knots and go camping though.
posted on Jun 28, 2000 - View this thread

Another Penatagon report indicates that there is no forseeable relief for gays in the military? When 85% of respondents (of the 71,500 U.S. military service personnel polled worldwide) state that they believe that anti-gay words and behavior is tolerated and 80% claim that they've heard an offensive remark (in the ranks) about homosexuals in the past year, is another onslaught of talking heads and pointless summits the answer? will it take another barry winchell to shake this administration into real action?
posted on Mar 25, 2000 - View this thread