New Study: Majority of Blacks thinks Being Gay is a Choice

In the report, called “Public Opinion and Discourse on the Intersection of LGBT Issues and Race,” we learn some more sad mess.

According to them, a majority of Black folks think being gay is a choice.
From Atlanta BlackStar:

Just 36 percent of the country believes that being gay is a choice, but the report found that 47 percent of Black Americans believe homosexuality to be a choice. More Latinos believed that people are born gay than the total sample, the report said, with 52 percent of Latinos believing people are born gay, compared with 42 percent overall. 

Demonstrating the influence of religion on this issue, people who go to church weekly are far less likely to be pro-LGBT—24 percent of weekly church-goers support marriage equality compared with 57 percent of people who rarely or never attend worship services.

Mess! See, this is why I do what I do.

Somebody has to be out and about in the Black community, telling the truth. And the first truth to tell is this: Being Gay is not a Choice.

A new report reveals the Depths of Discrimination against Transgendered People

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality has released a new report, “Injustice at Every Turn". This shows the levels of discrimination against transgender people in a wide range of areas.

Please check out the Executive Summary
NTDS Exec Summary THIS STUDY FINDS PERVASIVE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
the full report is here

Lesbians Mothers are Great Mothers

A 20-plus year study found that kids from Lesbian mothers are well-adjusted.

The findings also indicate that their kids may have fewer behavioral problems than kids from traditional families.

U.S. News reports:

The nearly 20-year study has followed 78 teens since their lesbian mothers were planning their pregnancies, and concluded that these children "demonstrate healthy psychological adjustment." These findings stand in contrast to what some vocal opponents of gay or lesbian parents might have expected.

"One of the things that opponents of the equalities of gays and lesbians -- in marriage, parenting, adoption and foster care -- often bring up is the so-called gold standard of parenting, which defined by them is the traditional family where children are conceived in traditional ways and not through insemination or surrogates. But, when we compared the adolescents in our study to the so-called gold standard, we found the teens with lesbian mothers were actually doing better," said study author Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the Williams Distinguished Scholar at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

As to why these teens are doing better, Gartrell said, "Moms in the lesbian family are very committed, very involved parents."

Gartrell said she expects that these findings would also translate to the children of gay male parents as well. "Gay male parents are another group of very committed parents, and really, [among gay male couples] only economically privileged gay men have access to the opportunity to become parents right now," she said.

Family therapist Andrew Roffman, at the New York University Langone Medical Center, wasn't surprised by the findings and agreed that such results would likely be similar for gay male parents.

Well, you knew somebody had to get mad and clown. Miss Wendy from Concerned Heifers of America is calling the research "biased".

Wendy Wright, president of the Concerned Women for America, a group that supports biblical values, questioned the legitimacy of the findings from a study funded by gay advocacy groups.

"That proves the prejudice and bias of the study," she said. "This study was clearly designed to come out with one outcome -- to attempt to sway people that children are not detrimentally affected in a homosexual household."

Wendy, just face it, Lesbians can be great mothers too.

source

Gates is Sticking to his Plan for DADT

Please watch


I know some folks are mad at him, but I understand his point. This will only make the repeal effort stronger. I have always said this needs to be done right and done smart.

Also, Gates took the time to address some concerns that has fueled many activists' fire about DADT. He said this study is not a tactic to deny the repeal, he also said he is dedicated to make this work. Gates supports this change and he wants to DADT to end. We have no reason not to trust him, so why are we so scared?

Study says Gay Youth are highly likely to be tormented

A Harvard study reveals news we are way too familiar with:

Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and Children’s Hospital found that gays, bisexuals and heterosexuals who have had a same-sex partner are 1 to two times as likely to experience violence, especially in childhood, and have double the risk of experiencing PTSD as a result.

“It’s really appalling,” said lead author Andrea Roberts, a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at Harvard.

The researchers cite several factors behind the increased rates of victimization and PTSD, including:

Hate crimes (almost one-third of sexual minority adults in the U.S. report being victims of such a crime), Gender non-conforming behavior in childhood, which increases risk of being bullied, and Social isolation and discrimination.

Gibbs: Waiting on the completion of the DADT repeal implementation study before moving on

WATCH:

A Happy Gay Marriage is an Open one?

An interesting study claims that successful gay marriages are open?

New research at San Francisco State University reveals just how common open relationships are among gay men and lesbians in the Bay Area. The Gay Couples Study has followed 556 male couples for three years — about 50 percent of those surveyed have sex outside their relationships, with the knowledge and approval of their partners.

That consent is key. “With straight people, it’s called affairs or cheating,” said Colleen Hoff, the study’s principal investigator, “but with gay people it does not have such negative connotations.”

The study also found open gay couples just as happy in their relationships as pairs in sexually exclusive unions, Dr. Hoff said. A different study, published in 1985, concluded that open gay relationships actually lasted longer.

None of this is news in the gay community, but few will speak publicly about it. Of the dozen people in open relationships contacted for this column, no one would agree to use his or her full name, citing privacy concerns. They also worried that discussing the subject could undermine the legal fight for same-sex marriage.

According to the research, open relationships almost always have rules.

This isn't news to most of us, but I always thought when you marry, it's all about you and him. I couldn't do it, but if it works for some, it works. But some folks think this a bad road to go down.

I'm very curious to hear what y'all think about this?

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A new study on the Sexual Networks of Black Teens

In the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases, a study noted the structure of the sexual networks of urban black adolescents in an area with moderate endemic rates of sexually transmitted diseases. But since I can's speak science, here's the better version.

In the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood of San Francisco, random-digit calling was used to recruit a household sample of African-American adolescents. Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants’ recent partners and the partners of partners. Testing for current gonorrhea or chlamydia infection was conducted using biologic samples. Social network analysis methods were used to describe the resulting social networks’ characteristics.

The results indicated that 166 sexually active participants were connected to 388 network members in 159 separate network components. A relatively high prevalence of bacterial STDs was found (13%); however, components were small (3.5 people on average, and half involving only two people), linear, and acyclic. Compared to males, females were less central in their networks by local measures but were just as central when overall structure was taken into account. “Our results confirm, in a new setting, previous observations that sexual network structures necessary for endemic transmission of gonorrhea and chlamydia are sparsely connected,” the study authors concluded.