Weddings and sentiments about same sex marriages unveiled February 19, 2013

Wedding photographer Anne Almasy submitted an ad to Weddings Unveiled and it got rejected.

The reason it got rejected was because Anne chose a picture of a same sex couple in her ad.

She wrote a letter to the editors and posted it on her blog (here) and this post went a bit viral and I wanted to write about it, and now that I have time to do that, I found that there’s an update!

Weddings Unveiled apologised on their blog (here) and will publish the advertisement after all. Jolly good.

I was surprised to read in the comments that people thought the picture was selected because of shock value.

Marriage Equality in the UK: Big Progress February 5, 2013

It’s passed the House of Commons by a huge majority. Now on to the House of Lords. Of course, philosopher Roger Scruton was on the wrong side of this one, with the argument that “gay marriage is homophobic”.

Note: this post has been updated in light of the excellent point made in the first comment!

A first for Ontario, a first for Canada January 27, 2013

First woman premier in Ontario, first openly gay premier in Canada! And the final two candidates for the post were both women.

A Snark-Filled Checklist for Sexuality Research December 17, 2012

Does anyone else get sort of bored reading articles on scientific research into sexuality?  It seems like the scientists and journalists involved are…unimaginative (/unobservant).  It’s like they all stick to the same weird checklist.  Below, I try to recreate what I think that checklist is.  Please feel free to add, comment, or correct (since I might slip into my own unwarranted assumptions on this.)

This project came into being after reading this article:  “What We Know and Don’t Know About the Biology of Homosexuality.”  It’s actually pretty decent as far as reporting on scientific research in general goes, but again I was just struck by all the suppositions and the weirdly narrow framework that seem to go into this sort of research and reporting.

A Checklist for Doing Scientific Research on Sexuality:

–Assuming that homosexuality is a variation of a heterosexual default: check
–Assuming that homosexuality is essentially just one sex taking on the other sex’s normal behavior/traits: check
(i.e. male homosexuality is when men are biologically feminized)
–Being completely ignorant of / uninterested in transsexuality and the sexuality of people who are transgender: check
–Pathologizing homosexuality even while acknowledging the arbritrariness of the concept “normal” in this context: check
–Linking genitals to sexual orientation as if there’s clearly a strong, un-contentious connection between the two: check
–Erasing the possibility of a coherent sexuality for people who are intersexed: check
–Erasing bisexuality, pansexuality, and asexuality as categories: check
–Talking about the evolutionary advantages or disadvantages of different sexualities as if that is automatically relevant to what our current social attitudes towards them should be: check
–Thinking about sexuality research by asking questions like, “What factors contribute to heterosexuality in humans?” or “Is there a straight gene?” or “Does our biology even support the notion of having a sexual orientation?”: uncheck

Has everyone run across research or reporting on sexuality that doesn’t make this laundry list of assumptions?

The best hate-filled speech you’ll ever hear October 20, 2012

Check out this pastor’s anti-gay speech, and please please keep listening to the end.

There’s also a description of the speech at the link.

Facebook Group for LGBTQ Philosophers October 2, 2012

Rebecca Kukla writes: “I just started a facebook group for LGBTQ-identified philosophers. It will only be cool if it has lots of members. Please get in touch if you’d like to join, and please have others – particularly grad students – friend me and let me know they are interested. It is a ‘secret group’ so no one can see it on your timeline. Anyone who self-identifies as a philosopher with a nonstandard or marginalized sexual or gender identity or orientation of any sort is welcome.”

It’s open to all philosophers, including students, but at the moment it’s not open to allies. If you’d like to join, find Rebecca on FB and send her a request!

Update: Apparently there’s more than one Rebecca Kukla on FB. She writes: “I list myself as at Georgetown, in Washington DC, and my facebook profile pic is a Hello Kitty version of Alex from Clockwork Orange.”

First Openly Pansexual US Politician August 13, 2012

In Texas, of all places.

Mary Gonzalez

Mary Gonzalez broke barriers when she became her state’s only openly lesbian lawmaker when she was elected to the Texas House of Representatives.Now, however, Gonzalez is going even further, telling the Dallas Voice that she instead identifies herself as “pansexual.” As ThinkProgress notes, Gonzalez’s admission makes her perhaps the only openly pansexual elected U.S. official.

Though many might describe Gonzalez’s orientation as bisexual, pansexuals don’t believe in a “gender binary,” and hence can be attracted to all gender identities.

Gonzalez specified to the Voice that she doesn’t believe in a gender binary because “gender identity isn’t the defining part of my attraction,” and that she never fully embraced the term “lesbian.” Although she came out as bisexual at age 21, Gonzalez said she has also dated transgender and “gender-queer” people, in addition to women.

Sally Ride’s partner August 6, 2012

Amidst all the remembrances of Sally Ride’s accomplishments, one thing that was missed was the shoddy way her partner has been treated.

Unfortunately, Ride’s domestic partner of 27 years Tam O’Shaughnessy, under federal law, will not receive the survivor annuity, death benefits, or Social Security payments that are given to family members of heterosexual astronauts. 

There’s a petition you can sign here.  Obviously, the petition is too limited— it focuses just on Ride’s partner.  But presumably the hope is that calling attention to this case will change the law, thus helping others as well.

(Thanks Jender-Mom!)

A fight for LGBT rights in Lincoln, Nebraska June 8, 2012

Reader DL draws our attention to an ongoing conflict over LGBT rights in Lincoln, Nebraska (state capital, population 250 000+). It all started when the city council passed a “fairness ordinance” granting gay and transgender people anti-discrimination protection in employment, housing and public accommodation. 21 states and some 140 cities in the US already have legislation like this on the books, so you might think that that would be the end of the story.

However, local law allows for a vote on any new ordinance if sufficient petitioners demand it quickly enough, and an impressively well-organised reactionary campaign managed to garner the 10 000 signatures required within the 15 days allowed. Due to the complexities of the laws governing petitions and  votes on them, the city mayor has responded by recommending that the legislation be repealed, and the protections instead be put to the vote as an amendment to the city charter (he remains himself very much committed to the idea of somehow ensuring anti-discrimination rights are guaranteed for his LGBT citizens). This vote is likely to be in November.

The issue has naturally occasioned much local debate, including some cheeringly moderate contributions and some, err, less well-reasoned and not so moderate arguments. But the vote is also likely to attract national attention.The petition drive was led by two organisations: the Nebraska Family Council and Family First. The latter is affiliated to Focus on the Family, a national evangelical campaigning group founded by the worryingly irrational James Dobson. No doubt FotF and other such organisations will be making their muscular financial presence felt in the run-up to the charter vote. The national press is also starting to pick up on the story, with the Huffington Post columnist Clay Farris claiming (perhaps a touch hyperbolically) that Lincoln can become the “Gettysburg of gay rights”. If he’s to be proved right, there may have to be some sort of counter-balance to the pressure that FotF can bring to bear on the voters of Lincoln; though, like their mayor, I’m hopeful that the vast majority of the city’s citizens are fair-minded enough to resist bigoted influences and vote the right way. One to keep an eye on.

 

Cynthia Nixon, on choosing to be gay January 24, 2012

I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.’ And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me.

For more, go here.