Which States are More Gay Curious?

OK Cupid runs a massive dating site for both gay and straight users. Based on the activities of their users, a map of the lower continental USA and Canada was developed which is described as follows (red is more gay curious while blue represents less gay curious):
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Using the incredible power of computers, we were able to break down this question geographically. Here are straight people who either have had or would like to have a same-sex experience in the continental U.S. and lower Canada. You can see some sharp geographic divides. . . . Even in the yellow and blue areas, you can see pockets of gay curiosity in interesting places: Austin, Madison, Asheville.
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Oh and for those insecure straight guys who like to think that every gay guy wants them, some bad news. You're deluding yourself:
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Gay people are not sexually interested in straights. The subtext to a lot of homophobic thinking is the idea that gays will try to get straight people into bed at the first opportunity, or that gays are looking to "convert" straights. Freud called this concept schwanzangst; the U.S. Army calls it Don't Ask Don't Tell. We combed through over 4 million match searches, and found virtually no evidence of it.
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And lastly, the Christianists like to claim that gays are promiscuous. Once again not so - just another myth our enemies like to disseminate:
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Another common myth about gay people is that they sleep around, but the statistical reality is that gay people as a group aren't any more slutty than straights. Median Reported Sex Partners: straight men: 6; gay men: 6; straight women: 6; gay women: 6.

:Enormous Consequences - Not

The Christofascists of the far right "family values" organizations and the bigoted, antiquated fossils in the Department of Defense are wetting themselves over Judge Phillips' injunction against discharges under DADT. While the Liar-in-Chief's (a/k/a Barack Obama) DOJ has filed a notice of appeal and will seek a stay of the injunction, for the time being the stay remains in effect and no gays can be discharged under DADT. To listen to the Christianists and Robert Gates, et al, one would think the world was ending. In point of fact, I suspect that their real worry is that absolutely no problems will occur during the duration of the stay, whatever its ultimate length, which in turn would demonstrate that their hand wringing and doomsday talk would shown to be nothing more than a fabriicated lie not supported by real world experience. Of course, if real life experience reveals no problems associated with gay troops, many fence sitters will side against the Christianists and fossils and their anti-gay jihad will be lost. To follow up on this concept, The Palm Center has established a new website to track Gates's "Chicken Little" prediction about gay troops in the U.S. military. Here are highlights from a press release from the Palm Center:
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The Palm Center has established a website to track Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s prediction that last week’s historic decision to suspend “don’t ask, don’t tell” would have “enormous consequences.” The website, www.enormousconsequences.com, includes all reported instances of harm to unit cohesion, discipline and privacy that have arisen during this period of open gay service. Palm scholars will update it regularly.
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Given the prediction of short term consequences, the absence of training, and the widespread presence of openly gay troops in the ranks, Palm Center scholars decided that it was essential to begin tracking these consequences immediately. Last week, a Pentagon official, Under Secretary of Defense Clifford Stanley, said that suspending the ban would “cause significant disruptions to the force in the short term."
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Palm Center Director Aaron Belkin said that “Secretary Gates’s prediction of ‘enormous consequences’ is no incidental, throwaway line. The assertion that these consequences would arise has been the justification for ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ for 17 years. Now that the ban has been suspended, we are searching vigilantly for such consequences, and we will use the new web site as a hub for reporting what we find.”
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Christopher Neff, Deputy Executive Director of the Palm Center, added, “This is about dealing with the facts on the ground. Thus far, the Services appear to have successfully adjusted to this temporary period without ‘don't ask, don't tell.’ I think the takeaway should be to give them credit, not to say that the sky is falling.”

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DADT has NEVER been about morale and/or unit cohesion. Rather, it has ALWAYS been about religious based discrimination and the goal of the Christianists to enact laws that discriminate against LGBT citizens which they can then point to as a justification for their own religious based bigotry. The absence of any significant problems while Judge Phillips' stay is in place will place a spotlight on the sorry lie that under girds DADT.

Broadway Stars Sing "It Gets Better"

A group of young Broadway stars came together to record a song with a theme from Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project in the hopes of calling further attention to the problem of suicide among LGBT youth. Among those involved are Marty Thomas of Xanadu and Kyle Kleiboeker of Hairspray who the boyfriend and I met last month in New York City at a party to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Our LGBT youth need as many positive messages as possible. Meanwhile, Republican Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck (pictured below) has compared homosexuality to alcoholism and says being gay is a "choice"and provides one more bit of proof that the Tea Party candidates are thinly disguised Christianist extremists. Here's a video of the Broadway group:
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As for Mr. Buck and his statements on Meet the Press, here's some of his disgusting batshitery that can only help push gay youths to consider suicide:
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GREGORY: In a debate last month, you expressed your support for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and you alluded to lifestyle choices. Do you believe that being gay is a choice?
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BUCK: I do.*
GREGORY: Based on what?
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BUCK: Based on what? I guess you can choose who your partner is.
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GREGORY: You don't think it's something that's determined at birth?
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BUCK: I think that birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things, but I think that basically, you have a choice.
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I guess to Buck, breathing is a choice too - after all you could stop breathing.

More Sunday Male Beauty

U.S. Allies in Iraq Rejoining Al Qaeda

From the moment I watched the Chimperator announce the launch of the invasion of Iraq I have always sensed that the entire endeavor was a fool's errand motivated by the Chimperator's personal psychological issues and Emperor Palpatine Cheney's greed to enrich Haliburton and the oil industry. Thousands of Americans have died - not to mention that tens of thousands of Iraqis have died - and they nation's deficit has sky rocketed. And it has all been largely for nothing. The New York Times is reporting that America's so called "allies" in Iraq are rejoining Al Qaeda. I could have predicted as much. I cannot help but wonder what families who lost loved ones must/will be feeling as the realization sets in that their loved one died for nothing. Here are some disturbing story highlights:
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Although there are no firm figures, security and political officials say hundreds of the well-disciplined fighters — many of whom have gained extensive knowledge about the American military — appear to have rejoined Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Beyond that, officials say that even many of the Awakening fighters still on the Iraqi government payroll, possibly thousands of them, covertly aid the insurgency.
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The Awakening members’ switch in loyalties poses a new threat to Iraq’s tenuous social and political balance during the country’s ongoing political crisis and as the United States military prepares to withdraw next year.
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As part of the militants’ unusual, though often convincing strategy, Awakening members that Al Qaeda fails to kill are then sought out to rejoin the insurgency. They are offered larger paychecks than their $300 a month government pay and told that they would be far safer.
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The government, which says it is trying to integrate the Awakening into broader Iraqi society, has further angered the group recently by confiscating its weapons, saying Awakening fighters lack proper permits, and stripping some fighters of their ranks, which the government says were not properly earned.
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Leaders of the Awakening, who so far do not appear to be among those leaving, say they are not surprised about the defections given what they call the group’s marginalization by the government and its abandonment by the American military.
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One Awakening leader in Diyala, Bakr Karkhi, said during an interview that nearly two dozen of his fighters had rejoined Al Qaeda during the past few weeks, a process he said had been occurring throughout Sunni areas of Iraq.
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Awakening fighters say recent entreaties by Al Qaeda — messages that have been passed along by relatives or posted on Internet Web sites — have included pledges not to disrupt tribal traditions, one of the issues that drove a wedge between the majority of Sunni tribes and the insurgency.

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The USA made a bad situation far worse and now the fruits of the misadventure may soon come clear. Meanwhile, Bush and Cheney escape from facing any consequences for taking the nation to war on fabricated evidence. Oh, and did I forget to mention war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions?

Why Don't the State Bars Enforce Ethics Rules Against Introducing False Evidence?

At yesterday's Equality Virginia legal seminar at the University of Richmond, during the course of the discussion of legitimate medical and mental health research in the context of litigation, the point was brought up about the fraudulent testimony and false research introduced in lawsuits by Christianist attorneys like Matt Staver and his kindred religious zealots at Liberty Council (an institution that I view as an ongoing blight on Virginia). Time and time again, the Christianists introduce evidence and false evidence from bogus "experts" some of which tracks to Paul Cameron. Staver has to know the proffered evidence and deliberately distorted studies are false. Cameron was thrown out of every legitimate association he once belonged to for fraudulent research and one federal judge even opined in a decision that the only fraudulent evidence before him was the testimony of Cameron. Yet Staver and others - including now Charles Cooper in Perry v. Schwarzenegger - continue to introduce the same false evidence. In Virginia, Rule 3.3 of the Code of Professional Responsibility provides in relevant part:
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Rule 3.3 Candor Toward The Tribunal
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(a) A lawyer shall not knowingly:
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. . .(4) offer evidence that the lawyer knows to be false. If a lawyer has offered material evidence and comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures.
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(d) A lawyer who receives information clearly establishing that a person other than a client has perpetrated a fraud upon a tribunal shall promptly reveal the fraud to the tribunal.
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The comments to the rule describe what constitutes remedial action:

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When evidence that a lawyer knows to be false is provided by a person who is not the client, the lawyer must refuse to offer it regardless of the client's wishes. . . . Upon ascertaining that material evidence is false, the lawyer should seek to persuade the client that the evidence should not be offered or, if it has been offered, that its false character should immediately be disclosed.
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Yet the introduction of bogus testimony held out as scientific fact (as opposed to the mere religious belief that it is under the most deferential analysis) goes on and on by Christianist counsel. When are the state bars going to start disciplining those like Staver who are knowingly seeking to work a fraud on the Courts time and time again with false testimony and false evidence? It's past time that the constant deference to religious based lies stop.

Sunday Male Beauty

Almost 60 Percent of Chicago Parishes Had An Accused Predator Priest

As a former Catholic who left the Church in disgust over the sex abuse scandal, I continue to be dismayed by the number of well intentioned people who continue to mindlessly remain in the Catholic Church and by their donations underwrite the utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt Church hierarchy. Perhaps many like to think the sex abuse scandal "happened somewhere else" or some other fabricated justification that allows them to avoid what they ought to be doing: demanding a top to bottom reform of the Catholic Church and voting with their feet if their demands are not met. Membership numbers, and most importantly, money are the only things that truly matter to the bitter old men at the Vatican. A new report that looks at parishes in the Chicago area found that almost SIXTY PERCENT of parishes had house a predatory priest at some point. The problem is NOT conveniently some where else in all too many instances. Meanwhile, NO ONE in the Church hierarchy - including Benedict XVI - has been held truly accountable for their criminal cover ups. I can't help but ask myself WTF is wrong with the Catholic laity? Here are highlights from the Chicago Tribune:
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More than half of Chicago's Roman Catholic parishes have had a priest accused of sexually abusing a child working there at some point, according to a study released today that was quickly questioned by the Chicago Archdiocese.
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In some cases, multiple priests accused of misconduct worked at the same church, according to the study, conducted by reform groups Voice of the Faithful, African American Advocates for Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "In almost 60 percent of the parishes, an accused predator worked there," said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP.
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For example, from 1980 to 1990, 57.7% of Chicago parishes had an accused priest working there, said Bob Kopp, one of the study's researchers and vice president of Chicagoland Voice of the Faithful. Other decades examined in the study had similar percentages of affected parishes, he said.
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She is calling for victims to speak up. "Silence protects predators." "We need to start talking about this and ... not bury it under the carpet," Kopp said.
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Numerous churches, including Saint Leonard Parish in Berwyn, Saint Aloysius Church in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood and Saint Christina Parish in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood, had multiple accused priests come through in various years, according to the study.
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A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese said she had not seen the report and could not comment.

The Kids are Just Fine - Charlotte Patterson and UVA's Ground Breaking Pro-LGBT Parenting Research

Given the near deep depression I was feeling after seeing LGBT Americans thrown under the bus and run over repeatedly on Friday by Barack Obama - who hence forth I will simply refer to as "Liar-in-Chief much as I called George W. Bush "the Chimperator" - it was a good thing that I attended Equality Virginia's first ever legal seminars at which I was also a presenter. Among the other presenters were Professor Charlotte J. Patterson from the University of Virginia (pictured at right) and Nathalie Gilfoyle, General Counsel for the American Psychological Association. Dr. Patterson has been a leader in research on how children in homes headed by LGBT couples develop and thrive compared to children raised in heterosexual couple headed homes. The good news is that LGBT parented children do as well - in a few areas even better - than their counterparts in the straight couple headed homes worshipped by the Christianist liars who whine that children will be harmed by gay marriage. Ms. Gilfoyle has been actively involved in the amicus briefs the APA has filed in a number of high profile cases, including Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The goal of these women is to put forth REAL scientific and mental health knowledge and facts to counter the fabricated crap - there's really no other name for it - that the Christianists try to put in as evidence in these cases. The Chicago Tribune has a piece that looks at some of the work of Dr. Patterson which demolishes the Christianists disingenuous lying:
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The consensus from a flurry of recent studies has been that children raised by same-sex couples are no worse off than kids raised by straight parents. In the August issue of the journal Applied Developmental Science, University of Virginia and George Washington researchers who studied preschoolers adopted at birth by lesbian, gay male and heterosexual couples concluded that the sexual orientation of the parents has nothing to do with the psychological health of the child. It's the quality of the parenting that counts.
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Other studies have found that children raised by gay or lesbian parents show more empathy for social diversity and are more likely to defy gender stereotypes in their play and job aspirations.
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Where kids suffer, then, is not being raised by gay parents, but in grappling with teasing, gay slurs dropped in casual conversation and the social messages that their families are less valid than others.
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"The reason that kids of LGBTQ parents need support isn't because they have gay parents, it's because they have gay parents in a homophobic society," said Fakhrid-Deen, who from 2001-2008 ran the Chicago chapter of COLAGE, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, a national organization that connects the kids of gay parents so they can share their experiences.
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[I]t's still a pervasive problem, especially in towns and neighborhoods that are less gay-friendly.
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When Lakeesha Harris and Janean Watkins took their six children to church for a special Black History Month program earlier this year, the pastor denounced their family for being gay in the middle of his sermon, and they were run out of the church under hissing from the congregation. "It's really bad to feel like a whole room of people, like 100 people, are all against you," said their 11-year-old son Malcom Murray, who threw up on his way out because he was so upset.
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The real evil is not LGBT parents - it's religion which seems to generate more hate and bigotry than anything else. As Gene Robinson stated, to the extent there are "good Christians," they need to get off their asses and speak out and counter the nonstop hate from the Christianists. Silence equals death for many LGBT youth (and some adults too).

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One point that was stressed by both women and Greg Nevins of Lambda Legal is that when potentially confronted with bogus "experts" offered by Christianists in lawsuits, it is imparative to get real experts involved to shoot down the lies that the "pro-family" liars may try to introduce as evidence. Believe it or not, Paul Cameron's "research" which was discredited 25 years ago is still being foisted on courts by Liberty Counsel and similar "Christian law firms."

New York Times: Don’t Stay the ‘Don’t Ask’ Ruling - As Obama Uses FOTF Talking Points

I continue to be furious with the liar-in-chief's decision to appeal the rulings in Log Cabin Republicans . v. United States and, based on the calls into Michelangelo Signorile's show on Friday which I listened to yesterday, my anger seems to be the norm. Personally, I believe that I will NEVER, EVER support Obama again. The man is a liar and a spineless bastard. As Michelangelo noted, there WERE warning signs that too many of us, including myself, ignored. Yes, Obama/Biden is better than McCain/Palin, but in retrospect we should have seen the betrayals coming. His spinelessness and failure to deliver on promises in my view was a major cause of the GOP sweep in Virginia last year and I suspect we will see the same thing in Congress within a few weeks. We voted for a leader and got a weak kneed follower instead. Now, the liar-in-chief wants to stay the injunction against discharges under DADT and uses talking points straight from Focus on the Family as part of the justification. The New York Times makes a case for why the injunction should not be stayed. Here are highlights:
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The Obama administration has conjured up some inflated fears to justify its decision to appeal an injunction that brought a screeching halt to investigations and discharges of gay men and women serving in the military.
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To hear the administration tell it, lifting the prohibition on gay men and lesbians openly serving in uniform would undermine global combat operations. In truth, the real potential for harm is to gay service members if the injunction is held in abeyance.
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As justification, the administration made overheated claims that a precipitous change in wartime would have adverse effects on morale, good order, discipline and unit cohesion. Those are the same specious arguments used to justify the benighted policy in the first place. The administration wants to leave it in place while it finishes a study on how to carry out a repeal.
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Clifford Stanley, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a court filing that ending the antigay policy would require training, and reworking regulations on issues like housing, benefits and standards of conduct. He said the Army had to consider the “rights and obligations of the chaplain corps.” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the military had to consider whether barracks should be segregated and whether partners of gay soldiers should have benefits. This sounds disturbingly like the creation of a “separate but equal” system.
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Judge Phillips has hit on a simpler, more equitable solution: just stop enforcing “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It has done more to harm military readiness than her injunction possibly could.
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Meanwhile, a piece in the Christian Post gives us an idea of who Obama is really favoring in his Judas like behavior, and it's not the folks that put his sorry ass in office. Words do not adequately express how over I am of Christianist having special rights that trump all else. Here's a sampling of the bullshit Obama and the Department of Defense are favoring and in some cases parroting:
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Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family, said the appeal is “mixed good news” because he fears for the future protection of DADT.
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Hausknecht fears that a federal ruling in favor of repealing DADT will hamper military chaplains and Christian soldiers from expressing their faith.
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“Any kind of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal puts the religious liberties of chaplains at risk,” he highlighted.
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In an openly gay and lesbian military, he said chaplains may be forced to adopt a condoning stance to homosexuality or face discipline. Similarly, Hausknecht said of soldiers, “If they talk about their faith with other soldiers, will those soldiers be disciplined?”
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He believes DADT attacks are “establishing a new religion [in the military] that is pro-homosexuality.” A permanent injunction, he said, will give homosexuality “a moral rubber stamp of approval from the U.S. government.”
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Yes, that's right. Obama's DOD is using Focus on the Family talking points to justify staying Judge Phillips' injunction. Things don't get much more fucked up than that.