This is another funny video that deals with the LGBT community. In this video two gay guys are in denial about their sexual preferences. They make-out several times and but still insist that they are straight. At some point they come close to admitting their homosexuality but then they right back into denial. The video is pretty funny, check it out for yourself here.
Sometimes we just have to take a step back and have a good laugh about our misfortunes. This is what this video makes us do in regards to the LGBT community. This is funny clip about gay protest signs. Even if not everything’s going as well as planned we can still have a good laugh about what is being done. Also like the clip’s description reads we can be “Fighting ignorance with humor”.
Before I took this course I had no idea that there was such a thing as gay churches. In my mind religion and homosexuality were as far apart as they could be. However, once I did learn about them I was very interested and I wanted to find out more. I did some research and found out that gay churches are very much like regular churches. There is not a large difference at all. To see what I mean see this site.
There couldn’t be a video that exemplifies more the term of acceptance than this. This is Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful and it depicts how all individuals are beautiful regardless of what others think. Whether society accepts them or not doesn’t matter, like Christina says, “'Cause you are beautiful no matter what they say/Words can't bring you down, oh no/You are beautiful in every single way/Yes, words can't bring you down, oh no/So don't you bring me down today”. Check the video out!
Throughout this whole semester I had been hearing a lot about the promises our current president, Barack Obama, made to the LGBT community before he was elected. I wasn’t sure of all that he had promised so I decided to do some research. Something that I found was this very interesting clip. In it Obama speaks for gay rights and about what he plans to do for the LGBT community. I recommend you take a look at it.
This weekend I saw a great movie, La Mujer de mi Hermano (My Brother's Wife). This movie is about a woman, Zoe, who cheats on her husband, Ignacio, with her husband’s brother, Gonzalo. Ignacio neglects her, always keeping himself busy with work and designating Saturday as the only day out of the week when they have sex. Because of this Zoe turns to his brother, who gives her sex and temporary comfort. At first Zoe is lost as to why her husband neglects so much. She believes it might have to do with the existence of another woman. However, at the end of the movie she learns that the reason of her husband’s neglect isn’t the result of the existence of another woman, but instead of another man. This is a great movie with many surprising twists and turns. I strongly recommend everyone to watch it. If you want to learn more about it, here’s the trailer.
Before I took this course I didn’t understand the difference between marriage and civil unions. I always wondered why the LGBT community was so persistent about legalizing same-sex marriage when it could just opt for civil unions. However, after taking this course I have learned that there IS a difference between marriage and civil unions.
To begin with, marriages are recognized across countries, cultures, and religions; civil unions are not. Civil unions are not recognized in all states. This means that if a couple gets a civil union in state and moves to another state, that state might not recognize the civil union. This depends on the state’s policy. Also, in a marriage a citizen can sponsor his or her spouse for immigration into the U.S. Citizens with a civil union can’t do this. Lastly, the federal government doesn’t recognize civil unions. This means that couples that get civil unions aren’t able to file joint-tax returns. They have to file individual tax returns. They’re also not are eligible for tax breaks or protections that the government provides married couples with.
These are the reasons why the LGBT community will not conform to civil unions. If you want to see a more extensive explanation on the differences between marriages and civil unions see this helpful article.
Lady Gaga is a very powerful advocate for the LGBT community. Since the start of her career and throughout her rise to fame she has supported the LGBT community. In this clip she is challenging Obama and his administration to fulfill the promises that they made to the LGBT community. She also promises that she will not tolerate misogynistic or homophobic behavior in the music industry at all.
During the summer I attended the Lady Gaga after party in the Houston House of Blues that took place after her concert. While I was at the party I noticed that there was a large number of LGBT individuals. I then realized that Lady Gaga has a huge number of LGBT fans. This is because Lady Gaga is so accepting and respectful of the LGBT community and is a bisexual herself. She has supported the LGBT community since the birth of her career becoming one of the most important advocates for it.
In fact, Lady Gaga hosted an event back in January 16 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This event was called Hands Up for Marriage Equality and its purpose was to support same-sex marriage to be legalized in the United States. Check out more things that she’s done in this article.
Openly gay Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), who co-sponsored SB 1716, started his opening statement at 5:17 p.m on Tuesday. "Once in every generation," he said, "legislatures across the country have a chance to advance the cause of liberty and justice for all."
The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (SB 1716) which passed to cheers in the chamber with a 61-52 majority vote, received support from the Democratic leadership in Springfield, including Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who was present.
[...]
Conservative groups, including the Catholic Conference of Illinois and Washington D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage (NOM), lobbied hard against the bill.
The bill does not recognize same-sex marriages, but will provide the same spousal rights to same-sex partners when it comes to surrogate decision-making for medical treatment, survivorship, adoptions, and accident and health insurance.
California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington have passed laws allowing same sex civil unions. Same-sex couples can marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington D.C. and Iowa.
The two new lawsuits, which involve plaintiffs from New York, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire, expand the attack geographically and also encompass more of the 1,138 federal laws and regulations that the Defense of Marriage Act potentially affects — including the insurance costs amounting to several hundred dollars a month in the case of Ms. Pedersen and Ms. Meitzen, and a $350,0000 estate tax payment in the A.C.L.U. case.
The civil liberties union filed suit on behalf of Edith S. Windsor, whose spouse, Thea C. Spyer, died last year of aortic stenosis. The two women, New Yorkers who had been together for 44 years, married in Toronto in 2007. New York officially recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other states. Had the two been man and wife, there would have been no federal estate tax to pay.
“It’s just so unfair,” said Ms. Windsor, who is 81.
Taken together, said Mary Bonauto, the director of the Civil Rights Project for the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the cases show same-sex couples “are falling through the safety net other people count on.”
Traditionally, Ms. Bonauto noted, the federal government has left the definition of marriage to the states. “The federal government has respected those determinations, except in the instance of gay and lesbian couples marrying,” she said. The result, she said, is a violation of constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
THERE is no better place to witness the growing pains of pop music than on the video-sharing site YouTube, where for the past year Josh Erdman, 20, and Bill Klute, 19, both sophomores at Occidental College in Los Angeles [emphasis added], have been posting clips of themselves singing covers of pop songs by Miley Cyrus, B.o.B, Kelly Clarkson and other Top 40 regulars. Shot mostly in Mr. Erdman’s dormitory room, where the walls are adorned with posters of Lady Gaga and from the television series “True Blood,” the videos have the simplicity and sincerity of a campfire singalong. After several of the clips received over 100,000 views, the two men began to add a small stamp to the videos that reads “Legalize Gay,” a line that Mr. Klute cribbed from a T-shirt he bought at American Apparel.
“We weren’t sure if we were going to express our orientation with these videos,” said Mr. Erdman, a member of Occidental’s Queer Straight Alliance. “But we wanted people like us to know we’re out there.”
After finding “We R Who We R” on a music-sharing Web site a couple of weeks ago, they updated the stamp to read, “Legalize Gay ’Cause We Are Who We Are.”
“The lyrics obviously spoke to us,” Mr. Klute said. “What these artists are doing means the world to the gay community.”
Thoughts? Does anyone think that such "enlightened" views about how heterosexual masculinity can be constructed will ever cross the pond and reach the United States?
Based on in-depth interviews of 145 British university and high-school students, Anderson and his colleagues discovered that 89 percent had kissed a male heterosexual friend on the lips at some point. A total of 37 percent had engaged in "sustained" kissing with another man, Anderson said. The men all identified as straight, and they didn't see the kisses as sexual."These men have lost their homophobia," Anderson said. "They're no longer afraid to be thought gay by their behaviors, and they enjoy intimacy with their friends, just the same as women."[...]The United Kingdom is less homophobic as a whole than the United States, Anderson said, but Americans should expect acceptance of men kissing on our shores soon enough. Research on American college soccer players suggests that 20 percent of those men have kissed another man, which is a harbinger of the trend, Anderson said.It's not yet known how the trend of men kissing extends to non-University segments of the British population. Anderson plans to extend the research to minority men and low-income men who aren't in college.Growing acceptance of same-sex kissing doesn't mean that homophobia is gone, just that masculine ideals are changing, Anderson said. His theory, put forth in his book, "Inclusive Masculinity: The Changing Nature of Masculinities" (Routledge, 2009), is that in times of homophobia, men police their behavior to avoid being seen as gay. When homophobia fades, men can relax and explore behaviors that don't jive with the traditional masculine ideal."Decrease in homophobia has positive effects for heterosexual men as well," Anderson said.
Data from the 2008 General Social Survey (GSS) indicate that nearly 9% of adults either identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual or report having had same‐sex sexual experiences as an adult. Although 90% of LGB people are out about their identity to other people, only 25% report being out to all of their coworkers in the workplace. The data show that bisexuals differ in several ways from those who identify as gay or lesbian, including being much less likely to be out or have a high school diploma and being much more likely to be women and/or racial or ethnic minorities.
Surveys that ask questions about sexual orientation and behavior are rare. Among the few surveys that ask these questions, few are representative of the US population. Even rarer is information about the coming out process from such surveys. As a result, little is known about how and if thinking of oneself as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, or experiencing same‐sex sexual behaviors and telling others about one’s sexual orientation or behavior varies by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment.
The General Social Survey (GSS), conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, has monitored social and demographic changes in the United States since 1972. The 2008 GSS marks the first time that survey participants were asked about their sexual orientation (prior surveys had only asked about same‐sex sexual behavior). The 2008 survey also includes a module of questions (added with the financial support of the Williams Institute) directed at sexual minorities that ask about the experience of coming out, relationship status and family structure, workplace and housing discrimination, and health insurance coverage.
· 1.7% of adults self-identified as gay or lesbian and 1.1% self-identified as bisexual
· More than 3 in 4 lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) adults say that they were first attracted to someone of the same-sex before they were 18 years old.
· Women are more likely than men to be LGB (4.6% vs. 2.9%). They are twice as likely to be bisexual than men (1.9% v. 0.7%, respectively).
· Younger people are more likely to be LGB. 7.2% of those aged 18-30 are LGB compared with 3.8% of those aged 30-54 and 1.4% of those aged 55 and older. (emphasis added)
· Gay men and lesbians are more likely than bisexuals to be out to at least some people (96% vs. 75%, respectively).
· Older people are much more likely to be in the closet . Adults over the age of 55 are 83 times more likely than those under 30 to have never come out to another person.
The author of the report is Williams Distinguished Scholar Dr. Gary Gates who says:· Bisexuals are more likely to be a racial/ethnic minority than heterosexuals, gay men, or lesbians. More than half of bisexuals are non-white compared to approximately 30% of heterosexuals, gay men and lesbian. The racial and ethnic characteristics of gay men, lesbians, and heterosexuals are similar to each other.
"These provocative findings demonstrate the challenge in understanding thecomplex relationship between sexual orientation identity and behavior.Given that nearly half of Americans still believe that homosexualrelationships are morally wrong, it is not surprising to find ambiguitybetween how people behave sexually and how they identify their sexualorientation."
The death of University student Tyler Clementi might have been properly mourned if it were not for the massive rallies and aggressive news coverage that altered the nature of the situation. The truth is that an 18-year-old boy killed himself - he was a student just like the rest of us, someone just trying to receive an education. Yet people's relentless agendas took his death and turned it into a cause based on false pretenses.
A crowd of more than 20 people ended up lying outside the entrance of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus the first night of the news breaking. The chants were, "We're here. We're queer. We want safety in our homes." The mistake was that Clementi's death should not have been turned into a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender protest for gay rights and safe spaces at the University. Robert O'Brien, Department of Anthropology assistant instructor, led the rally as he chanted, "Not safe in dorms, not safe at Rutgers." Essentially, an angry mob fending for their rights turned the death of a young boy into a cause for "safe spaces" for gays across the University - all the while, these spaces already existed. We have groups across campus that deal with students' psychological difficulties - 17 Seconds is one that deals with suicides - as well as groups that address their sexual orientation. We have these spaces, and the University community is diverse enough to provide students with whatever it is they need.
The focal point of Clementi's tragic death should have been a boy's inability to deal with the hardships of life. And yet the news and certain organizations picked this up and carried it into the ranks of general causes for major social groups - for their profit. Did Tyler really feel unsafe after all? Do we know the reason behind his suicide? Do we know if he, himself, would take part in the movement behind his death - the push for safe spaces?
It is disappointing that everyone from news to celebrities picked up the story. Actress Brittany Snow and actor Neil Patrick-Harris are just two of the many celebrities belittling Clementi's death - forcing his remembrance into a cause rather than a proper mourning.
We did not know Tyler. It was barely three weeks into his first year at the University, and most of his neighbors in his residence hall barely knew him. Turning his death into a push for gay rights is a fallacy. Homosexuality is not the only reason for which people kill themselves. In this case, it might have pushed Clementi over the edge, but the fact that he was gay should by no means turn his death into a march for safe spaces. These groups want to be heard. They want the attention. They want their agendas to shine in the limelight.
Instead, we should address that the signs of a suicidal 18-year-old kid were unseen and went unnoticed, not "We want safety in our homes." We have the safety, or as much of it as we together as a University community can in today's world. What we need is to notice those of us who need help and help them. Entertainers stay away. O'Brien leave the issue alone. Let us - family, friends and the University together - mourn for Clementi, and just for him, rather than using him as a martyr for a cause that has yet to be proven.To me, this appears to be an example of what USC Politics Professor Ange-Marie Hancock called "willful blindness" and "defiant ignorance." Willful blindness is the deliberate action by one group to not acknowledge or care about the oppression faced by another group. Defiant ignorance is the unwillingness of one group to be informed or educated about the oppression faced by another group.
