Almost half of transgender people have attempted suicide

In a truly distressing new report, National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force claimed that not only are transgender people harassed, discriminated against, denied medical care and mistreated by the police, they have a suicide rate that is 26 times higher than the average American. It's even higher than people with chronic depression or members of the military.

41 percent of the more than 6,400 respondents reported having attempted suicide, and 90 percent said that they had been harassed or discriminated against. They also had double the rate of unemployment and compared to the general population, were four times more likely to live in extreme poverty, with a household income of less than $10,000 a year. 47 percent said that they had experienced discriminary workplace treatment, like being fired or denied a promotion, because of their gender identification.

Writing for the American Prospect, Nancy Goldstein highlights one of the many shocking stories of trans abuse:

"In 1995, D.C. resident Tyra Hunter died from entirely treatable injuries incurred in a car accident. First, the firefighters who arrived at the scene stopped emergency medical treatment once they cut away her clothes to discover male genitalia...Once they stopped joking around and got her to the emergency room, the doctor refused to treat her. She died there of blunt force trauma and medical negligence. Fifteen years after Hunter's death, the survey's numbers still stink: 19 percent of respondents reported being refused care because of their gender identity or expression, with even higher figures for respondents of color. Nearly 3 percent reported being attacked in emergency rooms."

Even in Washington D.C., which leads the country in transgender rights, the Department of Corrections was slow to act against this kind of horrific discrimination, and during initial steps, trans rights activists reported that officials were "openly mocking our requests and literally taking naps during meetings."

The report has suggestions for beginning to end injustice against trans people, starting with federal, state and local laws against discrimination and individual company policies. Family acceptance was also crucial, though, for the study respondents, a stunning 57 percent of whom had experienced family rejection.

The executive summary concludes, "This report is a call to action for all of us, especially for those who pass laws and set policies and practices...And everyone else, from those who drive buses or teach our children to those who sit on the judicial bench or write prescriptions, must also take up the call for human rights for transgender and gender non-conforming people, and confront this pattern of abuse and injustice."

From this perspective, we could all be doing more to end discrimination against people who don't conform to the male/female gender binary. So although legislation is a crucial part of the equation, much of the obligation for changing the facts in this horrifying report rests with us.

Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
Care2...

Christian chiropodist accused of shunning gay patients and attempting to palm off HIV

'Failed to give a full assessment':Steve Hardie at the London Health Professions Council today

A Christian chiropodist asked a colleague to swap patients with him because he believed the HIV positive man was homosexual, a hearing heard today.

Steve Hardie is also accused of 'rude and obnoxious' behaviour towards two male patients he believed to be a gay couple, and of displaying bigotry towards one patient because he found him to be an 'effeminate man'.

A fitness to practise hearing heard that Hardie, who worked for Peterborough Community Services, treated a high-risk diabetic patient who had an ulcer on his foot in May 2005.

But he failed to give him a full assessment and gave him a follow-up appointment that was too far in the future to be 'in keeping with usual practice', the hearing heard.

Hardie later explained his actions to his line manager, Joanna Hood, by saying the patient was an 'effeminate man', the tribunal at London's Health Profession Council was told.

Vicky Lord, representing the council, said: 'Miss Hood was aware he didn't approve of homosexuality.

'He had quoted his Christian faith as a reason for his views.'

She added: 'He said he wanted to get him out of the clinic as quickly as possible.'

Hardie is also accused of walking out of a child protection training session in June 2006 because he believed the trainer had 'made passes' at him, including an incident where the man smiled at him with 'eyes twinkling'.

'The council says his feeling of being uncomfortable was down to the fact his colleague was homosexual and not as a result of any passes being made,' Miss Lord said.

'It was training he needed to complete and because of his attitude towards people of a different sexuality he declined to do so. That, the council says, is not acceptable.'

In a further incident, Hardie has admitted to refusing to go into a clinic in February 2007 with a work colleague because of the man's sexual orientation.

In August 2007, one patient, known as Patient B, complained that Hardie had been 'rude and obnoxious in his manner' and turned his back on him during an appointment.

Patients B and C had both booked separate 30-minute appointments, but he saw them both within 25 minutes, the hearing heard.

When challenged by Miss Hood, Hardie said he had noted the two men shared the same address but 'just did my job', and had not treated them any differently from other patients.

On another occasion, in June 2009, Hardie asked a colleague to swap a patient, known as Patient D, who was HIV positive.

When challenged, he said that 'everyone's beliefs were respected except his, and that Patient D's lifestyle was not in keeping with his beliefs because Patient D was "you know",' Miss Lord said.

'He thought that because he was HIV positive he was also gay.'

In a further allegation of misconduct, Hardie is said to have refused to declare to the trust that he was also undertaking private podiatry work in Peterborough.

The hearing continues.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Gay couple harassed before home burnt down

WRAL.com

Neighbours of a gay couple victimised by arson in Clayton, North Carolina say the men were harassed about their sexuality for at least a year before the fire destroyed their home.

WRAL.com reports: "A neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of backlash, said there have been at least three separate incidents of anti-gay harassment at the home over the past year. The neighbour said the couple had their tires slashed, a gay slur was written on their home in marker and they also received a note with a gay slur in their mailbox telling them to move.

The couple was out of town at the time of the early morning fire and is now staying at a hotel.

Police are investigating the theft of lawnmowers from the home in the days before the fire.

WRAL.com says despite the neighbour's claims the couple was harassed, authorities said that investigators are close to determining that the fire does not fit the state's criteria for a hate crime.

By GayNZ.com Daily News staff

Larry Kramer at the Advocate Last year: Adolf Reagan

COMMENTARY: The following piece was originally published in The Advocate issue dated July 6th, 2004.

Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even. In all the tributes to his passing, as I write this two days after his death, not one that I have seen has mentioned this. The hateful New York Times (“all the news that’s fit to print”) of course said nothing about this. We still are not fit to write about with total honesty in their pages. Not really. Just as we were not fit for Ronald Reagan to talk about us. What kind of president is that?

I have been writing a long work of history which I call The American People. I chose this title because in every speech he ever made, Reagan went on and on about “the American People.” We of course were never a part of his American People. And we knew it. Year after year of his hateful and endless reign we knew we were not a part of the American People he was President of. He would never talk about us, of course, or do anything for us except murder us. There were no social services for us. There was no research into our health. Even as we were dying like flies. How could he not have seen us dying? The answer is he did see us dying and he chose to do nothing. There was no representation in his government of us. There was never anything for us but his ignoble dismissal of us. All of Washington, indeed the world, knew that Reagan hated us. How could they not? Most of them did, too. And when Daddy doesn’t love you, who is there who will stand up to Daddy? This is a trick that Hitler used and which I believe the young Reagan learned from him. He never had to say much out loud himself about his hatreds; but everyone knew what they were. Gays were as hated under Reagan as Jews were under Hitler. It is a trick that both George Bushes have carbon-copied. We have not been included among their American people either.

I could never understand why Reagan’s hatred of us was so intense and manifest and never-ending. Some of Nancy Reagan’s best friends were gay, the self-loathing Jerry Zipkin, at one time her principle “walker,” chief among them. It is said he taught her how to dress. In my play, Just Say No, I dramatized my own theory of why she and her husband kept gays off their agenda as if we were the plague, which of course, as in some hideous self-fulfilling prophecy, we became. Ron Reagan, Jr. That is why. It was no secret in an ever-widening circle that Ron Reagan, Jr. was suspected of being gay. In his freshman year at Yale (I believe this was his only year there; perhaps there were two), I have been told he had numerous gay experiences. I am well known at Yale. Indeed, I have established the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale to document the evil acts that American “history” has performed on us.

And just as damning of the son’s reputation, of course, because it could not be hidden, was that Ron Reagan, Jr. was a ballet dancer. This did not look good and was obviously exceedingly embarrassing to a father who rode so many horses. So off with the tutu and on with a wedding ring. Junior was married off and sent to far-off places in positions of low visibility. I have gay friends in Hollywood, equally closeted, who knew him and know him and protect him. To know him is to be sworn to some sort of pact of secrecy. What a hideous life Ron, Jr. must have led all these years. To be denied a life and to have been so utterly gutless about fighting back. (Well, we know all about that.) While his own mother was gallivanting around with some of the biggest fairies in the world. What hateful parents to have had in the prime of your life, “the great communicator” of a father out there communicating how much he hated you and his wife out there going along with this. I suspect by now Ron Reagan, Jr. actually believes he is straight. By now he may very well be. He may well have been all along. He just looked so suspicious, and of course it was this perceived suspicion that, one way or the other, is what caused his father to murder so many of us. Why does history not recognize this monstrous and never-ending history of hatred and the inestimable number of deaths it continues to cause? 

People magazine called me for a quote Reagan’s death. “I wish he had died before he was elected” is what I told them. I wonder what they will run.

It is remarkable that two of the so-called “greatest presidents” have also allowed the greatest perpetrations and perpetuations of mass murder. Franklin D. Roosevelt was shamefully inept in dealing with “the Jewish question,” (see my play The Normal Heart), most ironically since so many Jews were his most loyal supporters, the Jerry Zipkins of their day. No one really writes about this. Roosevelt is one of history’s great gods. Just as no one really writes about Reagan and “the gay question.” These two major murderers so far have gotten away with helping to cause the two major holocausts of modern history. Just as Jews are asked to never forget their Holocaust, I implore all gay people never to forget our holocaust and who caused it and why. Ronald Reagan did not even say the word “AIDS” out loud for the first seven years of his reign. Because of this, some 70 million people, so far, have become infected with HIV/AIDS. I wonder what it feels like to be the son and the wife of a man responsible for over 70 million people so far becoming infected with a virus that has killed over half of us so far. I wonder what it felt like while he was alive to ponder this. For surely he must have thought about it. How could he not? He has been called the consummate actor who came to believe all his lines. Does this not make his legacy even more grotesque? It should.

Hitler knew what he was doing. How could Ronald Reagan not have known what he was doing?

But of course, no one is writing about this. Reagan too is one of history's gods.

So far he has gotten away with murder.

Ron Reagan Jr. says he tried to Explain That Whole AIDS Thing To His Father

  

I don't think I was really able to persuade him much on issues. And for the most part, no, I don't think the things we disagreed about we just continued to disagree about. No, I can't come up with one. I can say that my mother and I both began talking to him about the AIDS crisis at a certain point when we realized that the administration just really was kind of dragging its feet on this and ignoring what was going on. So, we talked to him about that and tried to explain how serious this was. Whether that was responsible for the administration kind of getting it together about AIDS, I don't know. But, certainly made the effort.

—Ron Reagan, son of America's 40th president, reflects on the legacy of his would-be 100-year-old father (as part of promoting his new book Ron Reagan: My Father at 100) 

 http://www.queerty.com

A Christian doctor who co-wrote a paper linking gays to paedophilia has been sacked

Dr Hans-Christian Raabe claimed he had been “sacrificed on the altar of political correctness” but the Home Office said he had been fired because he failed to mention the controversial work in interviews.

The Manchester GP is a member of the Maranatha Community, a Christian movement which believes homosexuality can be cured.

He was appointed to the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) last month, which is an unpaid, three-year post.

The Home Office said he was asked in interviews for the post whether there was anything about his professional or personal history that could cause embarrassment to the government or the advisory panel and did not mention the work.

Dr Raabe is a medical co-ordinator of the Council for Health and Wholeness (CHW), a Christian organisation based within the Maranatha Community.

In briefing documents from 2005 written by Dr Raabe for the CHW, homosexuality is described as “destructive” and is associated with disease and drug use.

One states: “The media and the gay movement portray the homosexual lifestyle as happy, healthy and fulfilled. However, the homosexual lifestyle is associated with a large number of very serious physical and emotional health consequences.”

It adds: “A high proportion of homosexual men engage in a destructive lifestyle, for example contracting HIV/Aids or other STIs, and develop addictions to drugs or alcohol. There is a higher burden of depression, [and] attempted or completed suicide among the ‘gay population’.”

Another paper, co-authored by Dr Raabe, claimed: “While the majority of homosexuals are not involved in paedophilia, it is of grave concern that there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among paedophiles and an overlap between the gay movement and the movement to make paedophilia acceptable.”

It also stated: “Despite the impression given by the media, the actual number of homosexuals is quite small. Essentially all surveys show the number of homosexuals to be only 1-3 per cent of the population.”

Dr Raabe told the Daily Mail today: “I have been discriminated against because of my opinions and beliefs which are in keeping with the teaching of the major Churches. This sets a dangerous precedent: Are we saying that being a Christian is now a bar to public office?’

He added: “My appointment has been revoked based on the wrong perception that I could potentially discriminate against gay people – something I have never done; neither in my private nor professional life. Even the Home Office has not questioned my knowledge and expertise in matters relating to substance misuse and drug policy.”

PinkNews.coUK

FOLLOW UP: Iman of NYC's Ground Zero mosque steps down after anti-gay comment

The man who was the Islamic head of  New York city's so-called Ground Zero Mosque has stepped down – after claiming gay people were child abuse victims.

Iman Abdallah Adhami, who suggested that homosexuality is mainly caused by emotional or sexual abuse, was a senior adviser to the Park 51 project.

However after just three weeks in the position, the imam has been forced to quit after stirring up yet more negative publicity for the much-maligned proposal.

Adhami, who in one of his numerous lectures said that homosexuality is a result of a “painful trial” caused by past trauma, has stated he now intends to work on a book that will aid English-speaking readers “in understanding and facilitating the language of the Koran,” according to the New York Times.

Despite this latest embarrassment, plans are still going ahead to raise the $100 million (£63 million) needed to make the 13-story Muslim community center – set to be located two blocks from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan – a reality.

According to The New York Observer, Park 51 developer Sharif El-Gamal made the announcement that Adhami was to be replaced, saying: “We have been humbled by Imam Adhami’s contributions to this project over the past few months,

Despite Adhami's openly-homophobic comments, he added: “His teachings and scholarly work on the Islamic faith remain an important part of our community. We look forward to him, God willing, leading prayers informally for Park51 in the near future.”


by Lyndsey Clark http://news.pinkpaper.com

Centrist Democratic Leadership Council To Close: Politico

Stephan Savoia/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Former President Bill Clinton under a Democratic Leadership Council banner, December 2006.

The Democratic Leadership Council which then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and other Democrats in the 1980s and 1990s used to stake out the political center is reportedly soon to shut its doors, having run out of money.

Politico.com's Ben Smith is reporting that the organization, once the bastion of New Democrats who rejected the liberal orthodoxy of the party's base may close down as soon as Monday. An excerpt:

The DLC, a network of Democratic elected officials and policy intellectuals had long been fading from its mid-'90s political relevance, tarred by the left as a symbol of "triangulation" at a moment when there's little appetite for intra-party warfare on the center-right. The group tried— but has failed — to remake itself in the summer of 2009, when its founder, Al From, stepped down as president.

 

The DLC had many enemies in the Democratic Party because of its centrism and its often heated criticism of the liberal Democratic ideas. So there will likely be no shortage of Democrats dancing on its grave.

(I wrote the above sentence, then thought I should check out DailyKos to see what Markos Moulitsas was saying about the end the of DLC. I claim no psychic powers but he wrote: "Where is the grave, so I can go dance on it?" Am I good, or what?)

The organization has had one foot in that grave for years. In 2005, Ari Berman profiled the organization's difficulties for The Nation.

An excerpt:

After dominating the party in the 1990s, the DLC is struggling to maintain its identity and influence in a party beset by losses and determined to oppose George W. Bush. Prominent New Democrats no longer refer to themselves as such. The New Democratic movement of pro-free market moderates, which helped catapult Bill Clinton into the White House in 1992, has splintered, transformed by a reinvigoration of grassroots energy ..."It's not that the DLC changed," says Kenneth Baer, who wrote a history of the organization. "It's that the world changed around the DLC."

Over 100 men arrested for "conduct against public morality" in Bahrain

Translated and adapted by Nedal Aziz, GME Arabic Editor 05.02.11 Muharraq District, Manama, Bahrain According to Al Wasat News Bahrainian police arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning (February 3, 2011) a group of over 100 young men, mostly from Bahrain and GCC countries (another article in Al Ayam claimed that in fact the number was 127 people, including a Syrian and Lebanese).   One source mentioned (quoted by Al Wasat News) that the police was tipped off by local area residents complaining about noise levels emanating from the Rayan Hall in the el Had Sport Club.  Following the tip off, police immediately raided the party and arrested the men. Some were allegedly drunk, and others were described as wearing women’s’ clothing and make up. El had is a neighbourhood in Muharraq well known as being very devout, religious and conservative. The attorney of Muharraq District, Nauef Yousef Mahmoud mentioned that group was arrested on the charge of conduct against public morals and will be referred to the Bahrain General Attorney.   Al Ayam further claimed that the police is now engaged in a separation of the guests from the organisers of the party, and checking if any have a history of “debauchery or sodomy”.  Al Ayam also remarked that the process will take up to forty eight hours after which the embassies of the different nationalities will be informed. At the time of publication of this article there were 144 extremely homophobic comments on the Al Wasat News article, using derogatory language and calling to apply the harshest penalties on the "sinners". Traditionally Bahrain is known as relatively open minded and as the playground for the GCC – where people can relax, drink and enjoy prostitution. This is the second incident in less than three months where the police raided such establishments. These incidents raise questions if this is a change of policy and of the traditional tolerance in Bahrain. Article in Al Wasat News Article in Al Ayam

What's the best thing about tonight's 'Glee'?

By Nick Levine, Music Editor

It's 'The Rocky Horror Glee Show' tonight, and to that end Cory Monteith and Matthew Morrison both flash a bit of flesh, but they're outstripped - quite literally, as it happens - by Chord Overstreet.

© Fox

© Fox

E4. 9pm. Don't watch with Mother.

Blog Talk Radio For Everyone- You be the guest

Date: Saturday February 19, 2011

Time: 6:30 PM to 7 PM

Place: www.blogtalkradio.com 

Title of show: Equality and Rights For All

Topics of Discussion: GLBT issues, Disability issues, Housing issues, Education issues, Political issues, and so much more!

Instructions: All that people have to do is go to the website, create an account, then search for the title of my show and join in the conversation in the chat room. Best part of it all is that everything is totally for free.

Information provided by Antony Lorito, Community Worker.

The Police Department in Ft. Worth is implementing a policy prohibiting "bias(gay looking)-based policing

BY DEANNA BOYD

dboyd@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH -- The Police Department is implementing a policy prohibiting "bias-based policing," and officials say that officers who violate it 

will likely be fired.

A special order signed Friday by Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead prohibits police employees from taking into consideration "race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, disability, economic status, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, transgender status, membership in a cultural group or other individual characteristics or distinctions" while performing police duty.

Lt. Paul Henderson, a police spokesman, said those who violate the policy will face harsh discipline "in the form of termination in most cases."

"This policy differs from racial profiling, which is mainly directed at prohibiting traffic stops based on race," Henderson said. "The bias-based policing policy prohibits any prejudice from entering into the decision-making process. We may not be able to change a person's behavior at work completely, but we sure can change their employment status if they bring their prejudices to the workplace."

Halstead said Friday that he hopes the policy will make it easier for employees to report abuses to their supervisors.

"I want to open up the minds and understanding that yes, this can occur here," Halstead said. "I want the employees to take self-ownership that they will not allow what has occurred, or could occur, in their private life to ever come into their police practices."

The policy, copies of which will be distributed to employees next week, takes effect immediately, Henderson said.

Jon Nelson, a founder of Fairness Fort Worth, said the new policy "speaks volumes" about Halstead.

"This policy would not exist but for the chief of police. He sets the tone and he made this decision and I think that this Police Department is significantly different because of his leadership," Nelson said.

 

Ecologist wants to change sex studies to include nature and culture

Lizards are homebodies.

After meeting their mates, the monogamous reptiles stake out small territories near other lizard couples. They're close to being suburban, Joan Roughgarden, a Stanford University ecologist, said.

Studying the mating habits of lizards isn't so different from studying the mating habits of humans, she thinks. Yet the former is the domain of scientists, the latter the pursuit of anthropologists.

Roughgarden wants to change that historic academic division that separates the way we study sex. She is leading an effort to bring the academic camps together in the hope that one day research will examine the scientific and cultural forces that shape gender and sexuality.

Sex scholarship isn't offered at many universities, said Debbie Herbenich, a spokesperson at the Kinsey Institute, which is affiliated with Indiana University. When universities do offer programs, they are often housed in the humanities department and have little interaction with science.

Stanford, for instance, offers some gender and sexuality courses through its feminist studies program, but they usually do not incorporate science.

"It reflects a fundamental different notion of where sex happens," said Paul Robinson, a Stanford history professor who also teaches a seminar on gay autobiographies. "One believes there is a biological logic to sexuality, and the humanities people who study it think it's more in the mind. Is it mental, or is it physical?"

It's both. Roughgarden is a member of the Committee on Cultural and Biological Diversity. The committee has initiated a yearlong colloquium in which professors and students consider topics like female masculinity and the ecological aspects of gender and sexuality.

The series of discussions are the first steps to deciding what, if any, new gender and sexuality programs Stanford should offer. Committee members say a new program - whether it's a major, minor or research center - would be fundamentally different from queer-studies courses offered at most universities because the academic scope would include the study of animals as well as humans, and would touch on scientific, legal, cultural and policy aspects.

Such a course is much needed, Roughgarden argues, because the topic of sexuality is so prevalent in society. We argue over whether the Boy Scouts and the military should allow gays, whether churches should wed same-sex couples and then if insurance should cover both spouses and whether sex changes are a medical necessity. Yet there is little research to support or counter the claims made on both sides, Roughgarden said.

"I think somebody has to be brain-dead not to realize there's a lot of confusion about gender and sexuality," she said.

Diversity that includes more than gender and race is highlighted during the discussions. Roughgarden, who discusses in her upcoming book, among other things, how she started life as John Roughgarden, is impatient with what she calls binaries. There are more options than straight men and women having babies, she said.

She's especially interested in how genders express themselves. For instance, there are birds, fish and lizards that have three versions of male within the same species, she said. Within the same species, she said, the males have different sizes, colors and birth and death rates.

Roughgarden suspects it's the same with humans, but the "intermediaries are thrown out." That is, people who don't fit into tidy categories have historically been treated as aberrations and ignored.

The colloquiums discuss such differences. A recent speaker at the colloquium was Judith Halberstam, an English professor from the University of California-San Diego, who discussed "female masculinity."

"Everyone was completely and totally engaged," Lisa Moore, assistant director at the Women's Community Center at Stanford, said. "There was real interest in trying to understand people who try to play with gender and understanding that gender is something to be played with."

Students want more academic venues to explore gender and sexuality issues, said Ben Davidson, assistant dean of students and director of the gay, lesbian, bisexual center on campus. Stanford has done a good job providing support services and social opportunities for students, he said, but "I see a real hunger for academic venues - teaching opportunities, courses, research opportunities - so they can look at the range of issues which touch on their personal lives."

Student Caitlin Kalinowski, who describes herself as queer, has taken some courses on gender and wants the university to offer more. She says the rising visibility of gays, drag kings, and transgenders should force academics to realize that sex is more than "an id impulse."

"Diversity is not about academic boundaries. It's about race; it's about biology; it's about animals," Kalinowski, a junior product design major, said. "I think it's huge. I think this is a groundbreaking way to look at gender."

By Kim Vo | KRTCampus

Biblical assumptions about homosexuality are not always accurate

REV . Steve Brown, brings truths to light that ignorant people who like to quote the bible but do not notice or care to notice.

The first problem in discussing homosexuality and the Bible concerns language and history. “Homosexuality” is not a biblical word. It first appeared translated from German into English in 1892. One New Testament scholar notes there is not “an exact equivalent for ‘homosexual’ in either Greek or Hebrew.” “Homophobia” is another new word, coined in 1972, whose meaning is the fear and hatred of homosexuals.

There is the Greek word “malakos,” which refers to soft clothes or garments, as in Matthew 11:8 where Jesus asks, “What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.” A second definition of “malakos” is applied to soft or effeminate boys or men who may or may not allow themselves to be used in sexual ways by other males.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10, the Greek word “arsenkoites” is translated as “sodomites,” depending on which Bible one is using. Here the problem is that it is difficult to know how to interpret what it really means. Why? Because this is the first time this word has been used in either Greek or Jewish literature, which causes one Bible scholar to say that apparently the apostle Paul just made up the word “arsenkoites.” Although in Greek “arsen” means “male” and “koites” means “bed,” it isn’t valid linguistically to say that this new made-up word means men having sex with men.

Another problem is that anti-homosexual individuals often want to appeal to natural law or assumptions about human nature that most people in a given culture accept as “gospel.” Thus, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell appeared on “Meet the Press” a few years ago and compared human with animal behavior. He said it was natural among animals, males have sexual relations with females. Therefore, it is only natural that a man should be married to a woman.

However, it turns out that biologist Bruce Bagemihl has documented homosexual relations in 450 species in the animal world. And their behavior includes not only having sex but also courtship and parental activities.

A further consideration is that out of the thousands of verses of text in Hebrew and Christian scripture, there are at most only eight texts that pertain to what some might think of as homosexuality. None of these texts is about Jesus and none includes any of his words because he was silent on the matter of homosexuality.

The so-called sin of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:1-29 is not about homosexuality. It is about sexual violence against men and women, brutality against persons (and angels?) the community ought to protect and inhospitality. And the passage from Romans 1:26-27, another key passage along with Genesis 19, needs to be interpreted in the larger context of that entire Chapter 1 where Paul’s laundry list of concerns points not to homosexuality but to idolatry.

Since our culture is far removed in time from that of Jesus’ and Paul’s, it is not legitimate simply to take a word or phrase from the Bible, slap it on a bumper sticker and expect that to be the final authoritative word: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” That kind of biblical triumphalism often is hurled at the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in various forms. It needs to stop because for centuries the GLBT community has lived with the reality of judgment, ridicule, hatred, cruelty, threats, bullying and murder.

We cannot take first century cultural assumptions about homosexuality and apply them to our own cultural assumptions, nor vice versa. Robin Scroggs, professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, summarizes his scholarly book on homosexuality in this one sentence: “Biblical judgments against homosexuality are not relevant to today’s debate.” Remember, too, that the Bible is a product of patriarchy and looks at human sexuality through male-dominated lens.

The Rev. Steve Brown is a pastor emeritus at the Family of Christ Presbyterian Church, Greeley. 

greeleytribune.com

adamfoxie*

What I learned working in mainly straight porn store

I don't judge my customers for watching adult movies. I judge them for the shifty, strange ways they shop

BY JASON PARNELL

•  

Jason Parnell is the pen name of an adult film store employee who lives in Philadelphia.

It starts with the way they open the door. Some press their faces against the outside glass of our large storefront window and pretend to look at the mundane Hollywood films while surreptitiously angling their eyes to the room marked "Adult XXX." Some try to sneak in, shoulders down and head to the side. My station is right next to the entrance and, knowing they've been caught, they reel around and greet me with a laugh not unlike a hyena. Some burst in, yelling their demands before the door has even banged into the opposite wall. A constant trickle of men in their mid- to late 30s, heterosexual, varied ethnic and economic demographics bound by one thing -- pornography. Whatever their way of announcing themselves in this Philadelphia sex shop, two things are certain:

1. They are too stupid, or too old-fashioned, to download their porn.

2. Their behavior is far more telling, and disturbing, than their purchases.

Well, maybe three things. Whoever they are, they want virgins. Untouched, unopened movies with their cellophane intact: They want to be first to break the seal.

You can't judge someone for watching porn. I don't, at least. Before I became a clerk at an adult video store I purchased porn myself. We've all got our weird kinks: I've sold foot fetish to the businessmen who come in on lunch break and soft-core, couples-oriented films to the thug in a blue bandanna. Tastes are private, and I would not want to be judged for my fantasy world. But it's not what my customers watch that concerns me; it's how they shop.

Maybe they'll wait outside before the store opens and rush in, hoarding the fresh nubile boxes in both arms like some depraved farmer picking strawberries. I asked a customer once why he had over 20 boxes in his arms. He gave me a look as if I'd just asked him why the stars shine and answered, "So no one else gets them."

If customers can't afford every new title they will hide a few away in the dark recesses, away from the light and touch of another man until some of the most beautiful virgins can be found in the depths of the rarely shopped Gay Male section. After squirreling their quarry away in the Gay Male shelf they'll return another day to find it untouched by their heterosexual competitors.

"What do you have that's not on the floor?" they'll ask me. The returned videos, yet to be reshelved, are clearly visible through the bulletproof glass. "That one, on top there. What's that?" they'll demand. As I pass them the movie through the slot they offer a giddy leer. They know for sure this movie hasn't been handled by any other man today.

They make their way into my space uninvited, paw at my boxes of future inventory like they're inspecting a show dog. I'm never asked, "Is this one erotic?" or "Do people like this?" or "Do you have videos with such-and-such a sex act?" The most common question is, "Who has had it before me?" Much like a woman under Sharia law, the movies lose value when touched by another man.

The thing about my customers is they are not perverts. My store doesn't even offer the most hardcore titles available from our competitors. Porn retailers in Philadelphia are plentiful, after all, and we all serve a different clientele. While others skate the edge of legal pornography, we play it safe. When actress/director Belladonna's movies made headlines in an obscenity trial we quietly removed the titles in question. Our fetish section is as vanilla as your evening sitcom. Sure, part of my daily routine involves explaining why bestiality is illegal in Pennsylvania and occasionally flaunting my porn-history chops by decoding what someone means by "The original 'New Wave Hookers'" (the film Traci Lords starred in at the age of 17, rereleased with a Ginger Lynn scene replacing Lords') and kicking them out for the subtle reference to child pornography. But the faces that ask those questions rarely turn up again. No, our regulars are more concerned with the promiscuous acquisition of porn, rather than the content therein.

"There's no anal sex in this, right?" they ask a lot. A large number of my regulars are turned off by it. The average man in my store would rather enjoy a bone-dry film with premium production value and the stereotypical bleached-blond implant diva from the '90s (see: Jenna Jameson). In short, they don't seek out anything particularly nasty or deviant. However, the manner in which they hide and hanker after untouched boxes is a fetish all its own.

I didn't understand this covetous behavior at first. I thought maybe they were just compulsive. Maybe they too were creeped out by the other customers. But after a while, I began to realize what a personal, strange connection these men had to the women in the movies, the women they didn't want to rent or stream online but pay money to possess.

A friend of mine moved to Los Angeles for a brief time, making a go of becoming a male adult film actor. I had my doubts, but one day he sent me a picture of him and his girlfriend. The caption was, "Look familiar?"

Indeed, I'd just put her newest flick in inventory and she was posed artificially, buck naked, on a box cover right in front of me. I sent an image of the box right back to him and laughed off the coincidence. Later that day one of my regulars picked it up and plunked it down on my counter.

"Good-looking girl, right?" I'd asked.

"Uh-huh." He seemed grumpy that I was holding up the transaction with conversation.

"My friend's dating her. Check it out." I held up my phone and shared the image of a girl without makeup or hair extensions with her arm around a young man in a button-up shirt.

He returned the film to the shelf, coming back to the checkout with a box displaying an exotic girl I couldn't possibly know. He seemed to be angry that I'd put a personality on that girl. The men in the videos, as empty as the shells with which they fornicate, were merely tools for the scene. Now I'd shown her with another man, a man who wasn't my customer. I'd tainted the girl. Spoiled her. I'd made her real.

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