Gay Couples as Committed as Straight Couples

While the findings of the studies described in this news article (http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKN2140631220080122) should come as a surprise no one other than the Christianists who persist in trying to depict us as alcoholic, drug using bed hoppers who will have sex with anything breathing, it is nonetheless nice to have the truth supported by research and disseminated by the news media. It is also worth noting that marriage and civil unions added stability to same-sex couples' relationaships. No surprise there in my view. Here are article highlights:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gay and lesbian couples are just as committed in their relationships as heterosexuals and the legal status of their union doesn't impact their happiness, according to new research. In two new studies that compared same-sex and heterosexual couples using different factors and methods to assess their happiness, scientists found few differences.

"Among the committed couples, there were very few differences that we were able to identify either in terms of how satisfied these couples were, how effectively they interacted with one another or how their bodies responded physiologically while they were interacting with one another," Glenn I. Roisman, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, said in an interview.

They found that regardless of sexual orientation, as the level of commitment increased, so did the ability to resolve conflict -- debunking the myth that same-sex relationships are not built on the same level of commitment as heterosexual ones.

In the second study . . . The researchers from the University of Washington, San Diego State University and the University of Vermont found that same-sex couples, regardless of their legal status, were more satisfied with their relationships and reported more positive feelings toward their partners and less conflict than heterosexual married couples.

But gay and lesbian couples not in civil unions were more likely than same-sex couples in civil unions or heterosexuals who were married to end their relationships, according to the study.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

May he rest in peace.

Heath Ledger Found Dead

OMG! Last week it was Brad Renfro, now Heath Ledger. He was only 28. I always liked Heath Ledger as an actor, not only in Broke Back Mountain, but as far back as during my closeted days when he was in a short lived Fox TV series called "Roar." What makes it even worse is that police are saying it may have been a suicide. It is hard to imagine what would make someone with his looks - yes I always found him very sexy - and talent and professional success take such a desperate step. What could have been so unbearable? It is likely that no one will ever know for certain. What a sad and tragic loss. I particulary identified with his torment as Ennis in Brokeback Mountain in the scenes where he is trying to deal with who he is and at the same time having a wife and children. It brought tears to my eyes. Here is what MSNBC is reporting so far:

MSNBC News Services (updated 21 minutes ago) NEW YORK - Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28. According to the New York Times, Ledger was found naked and unconscious with pills strewn all around him in an apartment owned by actress Mary-Kate Olsen. Police sources told the Times that the death appeared to be a suicide.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the apartment. The housekeeper, who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, found him unconscious at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET, according to the New York Times. After receiving no response from the actor after shaking him, they called authorities.

“We are investigating the possibility of an overdose,” Browne said. “There were pills within the vicinity of the bed.” The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for “Brokeback Mountain,” where he met actress Michelle Williams, in 2005. Ledger and Williams had lived in Brooklyn with their 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, until they split up last year.

The New York Times adds the following:

The police said they did not suspect foul play. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office of the city’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, said that employees of the office were at the apartment and that an autopsy would be conducted on Wednesday.

Police officials have said that the apartment was owned by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen,Officials said they believed Ms. Olsen, 21, was in California and that Mr. Ledger had been living in her apartment. Ms. Olsen attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, for the premiere of “The Wackness,” a film in which she stars with the actor Ben Kingsley. It was not clear where she went after the film screening.

U. S. Financial Market Lack of Regulation Poisons Foreign Markets

As this Washington Post story indicates (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/22/AR2008012200518_pf.html), the mismanagement and failure to regulate the U. S. financial markets is now causing the export of financial malaise worldwide. Not only has the regime of the Chimperator financial fuc*** over the American public and economy, but he has also exported the mess overseas as well. His "anything goes" mindset which allowed his buddies to make huge profits is now reaping the whirlwind. He truly has to rate as the worst president in U. S. history on numerous fronts. Here are some highlights:

The Federal Reserve today slashed the short-term interest rate it controls by three-quarters of a percentage point, a surprise move meant to keep plummeting stock markets around the world from threatening the underpinnings of the international economy.

A day after stock markets in all major world economies plunged, the U.S. market followed, but suffered much less damage than markets in other large countries. After initially falling nearly 450 points this morning, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 157 points at 10:45 a.m., or about 1.3 percent. In comparison, over the course of yesterday and today, the Japanese stock market fell 9.3 percent. Analysts attributed the relatively minimal decline in the U.S. markets to the Fed's rate cut.

"There is a growing sense of panic among central bankers about the course of the economy and both the widening and deepening of the credit crisis," said David Shulman, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast. Speaking about 15 minutes after U.S. markets opened, he said: "If the Fed hadn't acted, it would be a lot uglier. But the day is still very young and we're going to have quite a bit of volatility."

Today's declines in Asia were even more severe than those yesterday, and several markets hit multiyear lows. Indian shares plunged so quickly -- nearly 11 percent -- that its stock markets halted trading soon after opening. In South Korea, volatile futures prices prompted the main Kospi market to briefly suspend program selling orders at midday. The Australian market suffered its worst one-day fall ever, while Japan's Nikkei fell 5.65 percent to its lowest point since 2005. It is down nearly 18 percent this year. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was down 8.65 percent today, after dropping 5.49 percent yesterday. It's off 19 percent this year and is 30 percent lower than a peak in late October.

The markets fell as fears spread that massive losses on loans made to U.S. home buyers would cascade through the world financial system. Some of the firms that play important, but usually invisible, roles in the global financial architecture are turning out to be exposed to the downturn in the housing market in such a way that their ability to function is threatened. The companies that insure bond investors against defaults are having to make massive payouts. One, ACA Financial, owes $60 billion that it cannot afford to pay and has been taken over by the Maryland insurance regulator. Its credit rating has been lowered.

Tuesday Male Beauty

New Push in Virginia for Employment Non-Discrimination (for State Employees Only)

Northern Virginia Delegate, Adam Ebbin, has introduced HR 1493 in the Virginia House of Delegates. The text of the amendatory language reads as follows:

Employment discrimination prohibited.
No state agency, institution, board, bureau, commission, council, or instrumentality of the Commonwealth shall discriminate in employment based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, or status as a special disabled veteran or other veteran covered by the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Act of 1974, as amended.

"Sexual orientation" means a person's actual or perceived heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, or gender identity or expression. This definition does not protect any person whose attraction is towards persons with whom sexual conduct would be illegal due to the age of the parties.

A similar bill failed to pass last year and I will not hold my breath waiting for passage this year. No doubt Victoria Cobb from Daddy Dobson's affiliate, The Family Foundation, will be shrieking and frothing at the mouth about the horrors of men in dresses and high heels running unchecked throughout Virginia's state government offices. Meanwhile, even if the bill passes into law, the rest of us non-state employees in Virginia are left to the often vicious and anti-gay whims of employers. Job performance, competence, and reliability all mean nothing if your employer turns out to be an anti-gay bigot. Such is life in the wonderful Commonwealth of Virginia.

My message to progressive employers - tell state officials and legislators that Virginia's anti-gay environment is barring them from relocating to or expanding operations in Virginia. While they love to kiss the ass of bigots like Ms. Cobb, the Virginia legislators love money even more.

The Suicidal Democrat Base

I watched the Democrat debate last night and was a bit put off by Hillary's efforts to once again misstate Obama's statements about Reagan and about his "present" votes in the Illinois legislature since they show that Hillary will lie to win - NOT what I want in a president, particularly after seven years of the Chimperator's endless lying. Andrew Sullivan has posted an e-mail from one his readers that largely sums up my reaction to the Democratic primary to date. It likewise sums up the views of some of the party goers from the other night when we were talking about the presidential race. I continue to fear that the Democrat base is acting like the GOP base - focusing on who they like or feel they owe pay backs to rather than who can win in November. Every Republican that I know continues to salivate at the thought of Hillary as the Democrat nominee because they know with her as the opponent, their fractured party will come together under the mantra "Anyone but Hillary." Here's Andrew's quote from the reader e-mail:

The Clintons are like the arsonist firefighter in the movie Backdraft -- using their political skills to create divisive and destructive fires in an attempt to dominate their opposition, and then immediately promoting themselves as the only firefighters that will put them out. They did it in the White House by making Bill's indiscretions a partisan issue, and now they're doing it with the gender and race issue. And it baffles me how willing Hillary supporters are to continue to participate in this cynical and destructive mechanism.

I'm a very politically interested Dem in a large family of moderate to conservative Republicans and Independants. I can, and have, made a good case with them for Obama, but there's no way I can justify a Hillary nomination to myself, much less to them. If the Dems are short-sighted and suicidal enough to give a Hillary the nomination instead of seizing the opportunity with Obama to create a once-in-a-lifetime historical political realignment in this country, they can count me, my family, and many of my Dem friends out this Nov.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=34239589

Final Monday Male Beauty

Catholic Church Admits "complicity" in Sex Abuse Case

I nearly had to steady myself and grab some smelling salts after reading this story that I found via Civil Commotion (see my blog roll). The Catholic Church is actually admitting that it had some "complicity" in the sexual abuse of minors. This case involves a Swiss priest who was moved to France by superiors who knew he had already sexually abused at least one child. I for one am not going to hold my breath that this is the beginning of a new trend in honesty on the part of the Church. Likewise, I am not going to hold my breath waiting to see any high Church official punished for such misdeeds. Here are some story highlights (http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Church_admits_complicity_in_sex_abuse_case.html?siteSect=105&sid=8648354&cKey=1200940713000&ty=st):

On Monday the Swiss Bishops Conference announced it would review its directives for handling suspected cases of paedophile crimes by priests. It comes after a high-ranking church official described as "complicit" the Church's failure to denounce the priest to civil authorities when it became aware as early as 1989 that he was a paedophile.

In an interview with Le Matin newspaper on Sunday, Nicolas Betticher of the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, explained how the Church moved the priest from Switzerland to Grenoble in France, where he admits sexually touching at least one child, his then 12-year-old nephew, in 1992. French authorities are now investigating the 67-year-old Capuchin priest, who has lived in the Montcroix monastery in Delémont, northern Switzerland, for two years. He has not yet been arrested.

He is not the only paedophile priest identified in French-speaking Switzerland. Betticher said there were three other cases "to our knowledge". In December the diocese made three of them public, including the current case, and paid compensation to the victims. It is believed the victim in the fourth case never made a formal claim for compensation.

Walter Müller, spokesman for the Swiss Bishops Conference, admitted the Church simply had swept the assaults "under the carpet". "We accepted a promise from those involved [not to repeat the offence] and just moved them elsewhere – as in the current case."

Military Ouster of Gays Plunges

It's a funny thing that if, as alleged by the Christianists and reactionaries in the U. S. military, gays break down unit cohesiveness, etc., that more gays are not being discharged in this time of war than in more peaceful periods. When would morale and unit cohesiveness be more important? The fact that the number of discharges under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is way down exposes the disingenuousness of the Christianist argument and demonstrates that gays in the military poses none of the alleged unwanted circumstances.

Even the Washington Times is taking note of this reality. No doubt this story will cause a number of delusional, wingnut Christianist (e.g., Elaine Donnelly) to get their panties in a wad. If Ms. Donnelly thinks there are fewer gays in the military, I challenge her to go out with me some weekend so she can see all those Navy boys and Marines in the local gay clubs. The woman needs serious medication (and psychiatric treatment, in my opinion. Also, why does she always look like she just passed gas in her photos?) Here are story highlights (http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080121/NATION/466140525/1001):

The U.S. military says it is enforcing the ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, as it has for decades, in the face of statistics that show a sharp drop in the number of discharged homosexuals as wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue.

Homosexual rights advocates cite the plunge as evidence that the military is losing interest in enforcement and lets openly homosexual men and women serve because commanders need every able-bodied troop. "Truth be told, I don't think the Pentagon is a big fan of the law anymore," said Steve Ralls, spokesman for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which is pushing for the ban's demise.

"Our policy implements the law Congress passed after prolonged research and debate," said Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez. Ms. Lainez said "we can't speculate as to why the number of discharges has declined" from 1,273 in 2001 to 612 in 2006. Mr. Ralls understands the decline as "clear evidence that traditionally during a time of war lesbian and gay discharges decline," he said. "Commanders recognize the value of having good quality service members on the job regardless of what their sexual orientation may be."

Elaine Donnelly, who runs the Center for Military Readiness, said no comprehensive evidence supports that theory. She thinks fewer homosexuals are joining the military.