LGBT Link Round Up 11.29.14

Russian Government Sanctions LGBT Support Group for Suggesting Gay Youths Are Brave

The founder of “Children-404,” an online support network for LGBT teens in Russia similar to the “It Gets Better” campaign in the United States, now stands formally accused of illegal “gay propaganda.” Lena Klimova first reported the case against her group last week, after investigators visited her home and then summoned her to a federal police building. Klimova was asked to appear in Moscow today, November 18, but she couldn’t make the trip, as she lives more than 1,100 miles away, in Nizhny Tagil. Police refused Klimova’s request to move the case closer to her home.

Writing on LiveJournal today, Klimova published some excerpts—what she calls the “tastiest bits”—from the government’s charges against Children-404. The following language is from the state’s case against Klimova’s community:

The materials [on Children-404] can cause children to believe that being gay means being a person who is brave, strong, confident, tenacious, and someone with a sense of dignity and self-respect.

The comments [on Children-404] are openly negative toward mothers who condemn their teenage homosexual kids.

This community contains almost no information about the fact that this [sexual] orientation is untraditional according to the norms, customs, and practices of the Russian Federation.

Being gay does not prevent anyone from being brave, strong, confident, tenacious, or possessed of dignity and self-respect.  It’s a good thing to instill this in children…to show them that they are just as normal and human as everyone else. As for the comments, of course they’re going to condemn homophobic mothers (what about the fathers?). It’s a support group.  What kind of support group would allow bigoted, hateful comments to sit side by side with messages of love and support? And why does Children-404 need to tell people that being gay is untraditional? There are already so many messages being sent to LGBT youth in Russia that there is something wrong with them.  This is a support network you rabidly homophobic shitspigots! Of course they’re going to treat homosexuality as being completely normal.

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Why straight women and bisexual men may not exist

‘Let’s look at female sexuality,’ said Rahman taking a sip of the glass of Spanish white wine that had been recommended by our waiter. ‘There is a general assumption that female sexuality is generally more fluidic than that of males, and the current research really supports this.

‘An interesting starting point is that the number of women that identify exclusively as lesbian is about 1.5%, that’s about half that of the number of gay men.’

‘Another interesting fact is that of the self-identified straight women, anything up to 35% to 40% of women report they have had some sort of same-sex sexual experience or arousal.’

Rahman is quick to point out that research based on self-reporting or identification has its limitations.

‘Research that looks at physical responses provides us with a different level of insight because we’re looking at the involuntary physical response of a woman’s genitals. While female physiology is complex, by using a tool called a vaginal photoplethysmograph we’re able to record vaginal lubrication which is a strong indicator of sexual attraction and arousal.’

Apparently how this works is that participants in the study are shown footage of sexual activity. They get to see same-sex activity between men and same-sex activity between females. Footage of ‘straight’ sex isn’t used as it wouldn’t give a clear reading as it wouldn’t be clear whether the arousal was in response to the male or female.

Rahman explains that: ‘When these types of studies have been done with men, what we see is quite a binary response – self-identified straight men are only aroused by watching sexual activity between women; self-identified gay men are only aroused by watching sexual activity between men.

‘Women that identify as lesbians are only aroused by watching sexual activity between women.

‘However women that self-identify as straight or bisexual will generally show a more fluid arousal response in that they are aroused by footage of same-sex activity between men, same-sex activity between women; and footage of straight sexual activity.’

There is still continuing debate as to why this might be the case or what this may mean.

‘While we know that greater exposure of a female foetus to testosterone increases the chances of the child being a lesbian,’ says Rahman, ‘there is some suggestion that non-lesbian women don’t actually have a sexual orientation, that they’re not limited by physiological orientation.

‘That their self-identified sexual attraction category doesn’t necessarily match up with their physiological orientation doesn’t necessarily make their self-identification invalid, but it is an interesting insight into human sexuality – the primary purpose of which (according to evolutionary principles) is reproduction.’

In other words, women can think of themselves as straight and act straight but deep down inside they’re all capable of being attracted to other women.

So if we’re saying, from a scientific perspective, that all females are in some way bisexual, what does this mean in terms of bisexuality in males?

‘When we look at self-identification studies, men will either identify as straight, gay or bisexual (meaning that they are equally attracted to the same and opposite sex). However the prevailing scientific view is that bisexuality in males doesn’t physiologically exist.

‘In physical response studies (using a recording tool called a penile plethysmograph), we find that self-identified straight men and self-identified gay men respond as you would expect with a category-specific response. So straight men are more aroused by watching footage of same-sex activity between women; gay men are more aroused by watching footage of same-sex activity between men.

‘However 95% of of self-identified bisexual men are only aroused by the footage of same-sex activity between men, the remaining 5% are only aroused by the footage of same-sex activity between women.’

So you’re saying that there is no such things as a bisexual male?

‘The point is that male sexuality appears to be category specific. Bisexual males may exist but it’s likely that the numbers may be so low that it’s almost impossible to identify them through the available research.’

Bisexual males do exist.  I have the number for one of them in my phone right now.  This article seems like it was written to erase the experiences of bisexual men and heterosexual women.

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Male Sex Workers Reveal The Truth About Their Lives And Clients

The book, edited by Australian academics Victor Minichiello and John Scott, takes an in-depth peek at the lives of male sex workers from all around the world, offering a fascinating and complex portrait of the men’s daily experiences, the criticisms they face from both mainstream society and the gay community, and the way they’ve utilized the internet to build their businesses.

Minichiello and Scott studied more than 250 men in countries ranging from China to Australia to Germany to Brazil. They say their hope is to break down the stereotype that all male sex workers are “deviants” or “crazy,” and instead show that many of them are smart, rational people who have made a conscious decision to enter the sex industry.

Here are just some of the things Minichiello and Scott uncovered in their research:

Prostitution is a young person’s game.

Most male sex workers skew younger, usually between 20 to 30 years old. They tend to describe themselves as “fit” and “good-looking.” A large number of them call themselves “Jake,” and more often than not have brown hair and brown eyes.

“To succeed, these young men need to be skilled negotiators, small business operators, engaging conversationalists and fit, active and appealing,” Scott says.

Most clients are older, married men.

Clients tend to be predominantly middle-aged, married men who identify as “straight.”

“I discovered a side of my personality that I didn’t know existed,” one male client revealed in an interview. “And I discovered that I love to be sexually dominated by another man. For a long time, I was in relationships with women and had what I would call ‘traditional sex’, but somehow with time this stopped working for me.”

The majority of male sex workers are entrepreneurs.

“Street workers” represent very small portion of male sex workers. Some of the men work in brothels, though this requires paying brothel owners a commission. As a result, many of the men work independently.

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Marriage Equality In Mississippi! Can It Get Any More Inevitable Than That?

You’d have thought that you’d see a Muslim governor in Mississippi before you’d see marriage equality, but it turns out you’d be wrong. A federal court has ruled that the state’s ban on marriage is unconstitutional. Just to underline how inevitable marriage equality has become even in the South, a federal judge in Arkansas struck down that state’s ban just hours before.

The ruling is on hold for two weeks while the state prepares an appeal. There are now 35 states where marriage equality is the law or been found constitutional.

Judge Carlton Reeves determined that Mississippi’s ban on same-sex marriage amounted to “state-sanctioned discrimination” and concluded that “same-sex couples should be allowed to share in the benefits, and burdens, for better or for worse, of marriage.” Reeves also addressed the state’s decades-long history of homophobia, calling Mississippi out for “a constellation of state laws that treat gay and lesbian Mississippians as lesser, ‘other’ people.”

It’s worth noting that both Reeves and Kristine Baker, the judge in the Arkansas case, were appointed to the bench by Obama. (Just in case you ever wonder about the consequences of elections.) It’s also worth noting that the lawyer representing the couples challenging the law was Roberta Kaplan, who represented Edie Windsor before the Supreme Court.

(bolding mine) I’m glad this was mentioned bc I’m sick of people claiming that voting Democrat is the same as voting Republican.  Yes there are huge problems with Obama’s administration (the ramping up of drone attacks overseas and the continued invasion into the private lives of Americans being two big problems), but positive developments have occurred under President Obama that would likely never have happened under a Republican administration.  For one thing we’d have never gotten the Affordable Care Act under a Republican presidency, and that act brought healthcare to millions of Americans who previously didn’t have it.  And yes, as the above article points out, the two judges who struck down the bans on same-sex marriage were Obama appointees. That wouldn’t have happened under a Republican presidency.

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UK Politician: Gay ‘Deathstyle’ Brings 500–20,000 Sexual Partners And ‘Short, Miserable Lives’

Lord Christopher Monckton is the former UKIP deputy leader and was a Special Advisor to the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But the 62-year old climate change denialist has been spreading his wings – and hate – across the pond, here to the U.S.

Claiming – though not naming – an “expert in non-heterosexual lifestyles” had confirmed that gay people, whom he calls, among other names, “the QWERTYs” are “far more promiscuous than the heterosexual community,” Monckton writes in the equally vile World Net Daily (WND) conservative website,

Lord Christopher Monckton is the former UKIP deputy leader and was a Special Advisor to the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But the 62-year old climate change denialist has been spreading his wings – and hate – across the pond, here to the U.S.

Claiming – though not naming – an “expert in non-heterosexual lifestyles” had confirmed that gay people, whom he calls, among other names, “the QWERTYs” are “far more promiscuous than the heterosexual community,” Monckton writes in the equally vile World Net Daily (WND) conservative website,

Official survey after official survey had shown that homosexuals had an average of 500-1,000 partners in their sexually active lifetime, and that some had as many as 20,000. One wonders how they found time for anything else.

Monckton also claims – falsely – that “QWERTYs – who represent about 0.5 percent of the population – have brilliantly promoted themselves by carefully shifting the debate away from what homosexuals actually do to each other (just ask any proctologist: all of them are heartily sick of trying to repair the gross damage caused by deviant sexual practices) and on to “celebrating” what is misleadingly presented as a ‘valid alternative lifestyle.’ Deathstyle, more like.”

“And why have homosexuals – most of whose partners last as little as a few hours – been so keen to promote the lifetime promises of so-called ‘gay’ so-called ‘marriage’? The reason, of course, is that they cannot produce children, so they want to adopt them. Is this fair to the children?,” Monckton asks. “The answer is no.”

I was initially going to say that I needed a citation for all the claims this fuckwad makes, but y’know what? Fuck that.  He’s spewing lies.  First off, he’s limiting his discussion of “homosexuals” to gay men, when lesbians are also homosexual.  Secondly, I know plenty of gay men that have relationships lasting months, years, and decades.  Thirdly, yes, adopting children to give them a good and loving home is fair to them. Fourthly, what is up with bigots and their obsession with gay sex?! I get it. You don’t like fellatio or anal sex. But guess what? No one is asking you to engage in either activity, so what’s your fucking problem. What I do…what any gay person does in the bedroom is none of your fucking concern. It doesn’t affect others and as long as it is consensual between two adults, no one should give a flying fuck about the sex lives of gay people.

But I really do want to see a citation for the claim that “Official survey after official survey had shown that homosexuals had an average of 500-1,000 partners in their sexually active lifetime“. Not bc I think it’s true (believe me, I don’t). I’m just curious where he’s getting his “facts” from.

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LGBT Link Round Up 11.29.14
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