Rick Santorum has been widely quoted as saying that homosexuality is “against nature”. In fact, he has said that any sex act that doesn’t involve procreation is against nature. Once again, science begs to differ:
Homosexuality is quite common in the animal kingdom, especially among herding animals. Many animals solve conflicts by practicing same gender sex.
The Norwegian Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo is hosting the first exhibition that focuses on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.
“One fundamental premise in social debates has been that homosexuality is unnatural. This premise is wrong. Homosexuality is both common and highly essential in the lives of a number of species,” explains Petter Boeckman, who is the academic advisor for the “Against Nature‘s Order?” exhibition.
The most well-known homosexual animal is the dwarf chimpanzee, one of humanity’s closes relatives. The entire species is bisexual. Sex plays an conspicuous role in all their activities and takes the focus away from violence, which is the most typical method of solving conflicts among primates and many other animals.
“Sex among dwarf chimpanzees is in fact the business of the whole family, and the cute little ones often lend a helping hand when they engage in oral sex with each other.”
Lions are also homosexual. Male lions often band together with their brothers to lead the pride. To ensure loyalty, they strengthen the bonds by often having sex with each other.
Homosexuality is also quite common among dolphins and killer whales. The pairing of males and females is fleeting, while between males, a pair can stay together for years. Homosexual sex between different species is not unusual either. Meetings between different dolphin species can be quite violent, but the tension is often broken by a “sex orgy”.
Homosexuality is a social phenomenon and is most widespread among animals with a complex herd life.
Among the apes it is the females that create the continuity within the group. The social network is maintained not only by sharing food and the child rearing, but also by having sex. Among many of the female apes the sex organs swell up. So they rub their abdomens against each other,” explains Petter Bockman and points out that animals have sex because they have the desire to, just like we humans.
Homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 animal species.
“We’re talking about everything from mammals to crabs and worms. The actual number is of course much higher. Among some animals homosexual behaviour is rare, some having sex with the same gender only a part of their life, while other animals, such as the dwarf chimpanzee, homosexuality is practiced throughout their lives.”
Animals that live a completely homosexual life can also be found. This occurs especially among birds that will pair with one partner for life, which is the case with geese and ducks. Four to five percent of the couples are homosexual. Single females will lay eggs in a homosexual pair’s nest. It has been observced that the homosexual couple are often better at raising the young than heterosexual couples.
When you see a colony of black-headed gulls, you can be sure that almost every tenth pair is lesbian. The females have no problems with being impregnated, although, according to Petter Boeckman they cannot be defined as bisexual.
“If a female has sex with a male one time, but thousands of times with another female, is she bisexual or homosexual? This is the same way to have children is not unknown among homosexual people.”
Five Transsexual MDs/Ministers Testify Before Congress
Now, before all my liberal readers jump to conclusions, I have been able to find little to no information about these five men. There were actually nine men scheduled to testify in this hearing led by Congressman Darrell Issa. It is about the intersection of – some would say conflict between – religious liberty and a woman’s need for available, affordable contraception. It’s difficult, from the photo, even to make out the names of these five who are testifying, so Googling to learn about them is impossible.
We could, of course, assume that these are all misogynists, representatives of the most patriarchal, fundamentalist branches of their respective religion. But we don’t know that. The fact that they are all men of the cloth does not preclude the possibility that they are each medical doctors and post-op transsexuals as well. We just don’t know. How the GOP could find nine transsexual MDs who are ALSO religious leaders is a story I hope will soon be told. I’m not saying that all of them are post-op transsexual MD ministers. Maybe only a plurality of them are. Or just a few. That would be more likely, even in a nation of over 300 million. It’s possible, I suppose, that none of them are, but that is highly unlikely. What would be the point of having nine natural born men, some of whom may be celibate – or even pedophiles, for Christ’s sake – testify about the intercourse between contraception and dogma, if the only thing they know about preventing conception is avoiding sex, or only having sex with those who are not likely to make you pregnant? That would be absurd or, potentially, obscene.
And now the *GOOD* news: Things are shifting, people. Even Bill freakin’ O’Reilly is supporting Ellen, comparing the “Million (actually 40K) Moms” to McCarthy. This is just thrilling, wonderful news:
The LGBT community owes a great big thanks to the “One Million Moms” (actually, closer to 40,000) for launching the best LGBT-friendly public relations blitz the community has seen in ages, and battering Christian conservative’s image in a way the LGBT community could never hope to do.
DeGeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store. The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there. The small percentage of customers they are attempting to satisfy will not offset their loss in sales.
JC Penney has made a poor decision and must correct their mistake fast to retain loyal customers and not turn away potential new, conservative shoppers with the company’s new vision.
…
By jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon, JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these years.The irony is rich in another part of their release: “Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war then their brand transformation will be unsuccessful.” JCPenney can only demonstrate their “neutrality” by firing Ellen for being gay? If that’s neutral, what’s gay-hostile?
In this move the One Million 40,000 Moms have demonstrated that these days, the term “traditional values,” as defined by the religious right, is really just code for capricious, indiscriminate cruelty, bigotry, divisiveness, and cowardice. And America saw it as exactly that.
Now, one doesn’t get named to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups without constantly taking cheap and ugly shots at someone or something. And this latest poutage over yet another sign of the impending apocalypse (lesbians shilling t-shirts for a family department store!) could have gone mostly unnoticed by mainstream culture, as have their wars on Walgreens and Macy’s.
But it it was the absolute absurdity of casting the innocuous, likable, almost painfully inoffensive DeGeneres as some sort of radical warrior in the deviant homosexuals’ nefarious plan to destroy all things wholesome and American that really made America stop, take notice for just a moment and say, “WTF are these crazy people talking about?! Ellen? They hate Ellen? Really?! Ellen?!“
Now, admittedly, the One Million 40,000 Moms got a little help from GLAAD, who swiftly launched a“Stand Up for Ellen” campaign. This likely drew more attention to the story than the moms could have ever have hoped to draw themselves.
Though GLAAD’s ostensible call to action was to persuade JCPenney not to fire Ellen, there may have been an ulterior motive. It’s entirely possible that the crew at GLAAD didn’t seriously worry about Ellen’s continued employment with JCPenney. Ellen would be fine either way: she’s rich, she’s famous. But GLAAD’s messaging picked up on the fact that what the moms were calling for, firing someone for being LGBT, is perfectly legal in most of the United States for those of us who aren’t rich and famous already (despite polls showing 90 percent of Americans believe it is illegal). It was a “teachable moment” for America.
We certainly can thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for cooking up a scheme that had enormous amounts of Fail baked right into it from the start. I’m sure JCPenney knew Ellen was a lesbian when they hired her; it isn’t a state secret. It’s probably a safe bet they actually thought that through before they inked the deal.
Ellen’s LGBT activism, like her humor, has always come with soft edges. It’s hard to imagine in 2012 what a brave act it was for her to come out in 1997, when she was the star of a major network sitcom. But she was executing the simple act of activism that Harvey Milk tasked LGBT people to do two decades before: “come out.” She told Diane Sawyer at the time, “For me, this has been the most freeing experience, because people can’t hurt me anymore.” And it was that act, by her — and millions of others — that inoculated her from this attack. There was a time no major sponsor would touch a gay star. But those days are long gone.
There never was any doubt that JCPenney would brush off the One Million 40,000 Moms. WhenJCPenney CEO Ron Johnson spoke to CBS News, he called it a “no-brainer” and dismissed that there was even a controversy to be debated. The Moms couldn’t have looked smaller or more irrelevant when Johnson said, “[W]e stand squarely behind Ellen as our spokesperson, and that’s a great thing. Because she shares the same values that we do in our company. Our company was founded 110 years ago on The Golden Rule, which is about treating people fair and square, just like you would like to be treated yourself.”
We can also thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for not being as bright as the average high school bully. Even teenage high school bullies know that if you’re going to pick on someone, pick on someone no one likes (because you’ll get away with it a lot longer). And America wasn’t going to let the One Million 40,000 Moms get away with this.
That is another immense level of Fail the One Million 40,000 Moms really should have seen coming. Just last year the New York Times reported that it isn’t just the LGBT community that likes Ellen; America likes her. A lot. A whole lot. The Times described how Warner Brothers and NBC, in mapping out the future of daytime TV in 2010, conducted research into Ellen’s market popularity. They knew they had a winner in Ellen, but still, her popularity as measured by a media research firm “startled” them: “The 52-year-old Ms. DeGeneres is seen as relaxed and relatable. Already, she is seen as more likable than Ms. Winfrey, according to the Q Scores Company, which measures consumer preferences.” Moreover:
“When the Magid panelists were surveyed about their attitudes toward daytime hosts, Ms. DeGeneres was in a virtual tie with Ms. Winfrey, even though there is a ratings lag, according to Steve Ridge, president of the media strategy group for Magid.
“Ellen already has equity with daytime viewers, which is worth its weight in gold,” he said.Oh, one suspects the folks over at GLAAD might not have worried as much about Ellen’s future with JCPenney as about seizing an opportunity to demonstrate to America just how very much the far right Christian conservative base really does hate gay people: “Look, America, you can be Ellen DeGeneres, the queen of nice comedy, and they still hate you and want you to be fired.”
And in short while, the LGBT community rushed to Ellen’s defense, but not just them. And we can thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for rallying people left, right, and center to the cause of defending Ellen and condemning this sort of divisive, hateful rhetoric.
Very popular radio host Howard Stern described himself as “outraged” at the One Million 40,000 Moms’ action and threatened to organize a boycott of JCPenney if they caved. In a 12-minute rant he asked, “What do you want these [gay] people to do? Do you really want Ellen to go away? Do you want her to die? You want a public flogging of this woman?” Co-host Robin Quivers added, “You want her to force herself to be with a man to make you happy?” (That would be yes, yes, yes, and yes, please.)
Not ordinarily known for sensitivity, Stern and Quivers discuss at great length the plight of LGBT teens suffering at the hands of bullies. They mention Tyler Clementi and other teens driven to suicide, and lay the blame on groups like the Moms. Stern takes no prisoners, saying the president should just come out for marriage equality. And then in Stern’s typically bombastic style, he goes full-on Godwin on the country’s most notorious homophobes:
This Michele Bachman and Rick Santorum, they’re the two worst people on the planet. They get up wherever they can, they still feel comfortable getting up in front of an audience in 2012, and fuckin’ saying shit about gays, about how they shouldn’t be getting married, they feel no qualm about putting out this kind of bigotry. Now, Hitler put this kind of shit out pre-World War II in Germany in beer halls, if the entire beer hall had gotten up and beaten they shit out of Hitler and kicked him in the face, you wouldn’t have had World War II, and you wouldn’t have had any problems.He goes on to say they should be “drummed out of the country,” “spat upon,” and “ignored, shunned, and treated as lunatics.”
This language is unlikely to be adopted by any LGBT rights groups, like Human Rights Campaign, anytime soon — and for good reason. But we can thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for prompting our straight ally Howard Stern for saying what responsible LGBT activists would not.
From the right, we can thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for recruiting the most unlikely of LGBT allies to come to DeGeneres’ defense: Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. Bill’s segment begins with a snarky introduction that draws America’s attention to the inherent cowardice of the anti-gay movement, their reluctance to come out of the closet with their hate: “Now we tried to get one of the One Million Moms to come on the Factor tonight. But we could not. Apparently, all the million moms are busy tonight.” Their cowardice was also reflected in their decision to delete their Facebook posting when the story became widely known. The group has made no media appearances to defend themselves or their actions.
O’Reilly chats instead with Fox News contributor Sandy Rios, who attempts to defend the One Million40,000 Moms. But Bill-O isn’t really having it; it’s a very combative session, and Rios comes out looking pretty bad. Perhaps it’s a libertarian streak in him, but his objections are placed in the Republican frame of free-market captialism; he essentially argues that JCPenney has the right to hire whoever they want, and the One Million 40,000 Moms are conducting a “witch hunt,” and worse, “McCarthyism.” He asks, “What is the difference between the McCarthy era of the ’50s and the One Million Moms saying, ‘Hey, JCPenney and all you other stores, don’t you hire any gay people. Don’t you dare’? What is the difference?” One Million 40,000 Moms? Something went really wrong with your plan when you prompted Fox News’ highest-rated commentator to stick up for a lesbian and compare you to one of the most notorious names in American history, Senator Joe McCarthy.
Again, better O’Reilly should call these anti-gay bigots “McCartheyesque witch hunters” than the LGBT community. And we can thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for prompting him to do so. Surely a few Fox News viewers’ heads exploded that evening.
The LGBT community themselves could never have planned an action that would prompt personalities as disparate as Howard Stern, Bill O’Reilly, Ron Johnson, and all the other voices, big and small, to chime in and express disgust and outrage at anti-gay bigotry and condemn yet another overreach of the religious right.
We can thank the One Million 40K Moms for that.
For too long the Christian right has presumed to speak on behalf of people who have “values.” And for too long, too many people took them at their word that they represented “good Christian values.” We can thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for tearing off the mask off that façade before a very wide audience.
Under the guise of “religious freedom,” they assert their right to say God hates gays. However, in the case of Ellen, God seems to be smiling on her. She has a loving and lovely wife, extraordinary talent, a long, very distinguished career, and great wealth, and she has endeared herself to millions. So, since God has, thus far, failed to act on his scorn for Ellen, the One Million 40,000 Moms have taken it upon themselves to act on his behalf. They want to be sure God’s punishment is meted out in this lifetime, where they can watch.
We can thank the One Million 40,000 Moms for kickstarting another round of conversation about what our “values” are. Ellen has long demonstrated in her career that “meanness” is not among hers. In an era that has increasingly rewarded comedians that belittle, degrade, and ridicule, Ellen never went there. Her brand is as a “nice” comedian, someone who makes you laugh but never at the expense of others. If Ellen takes a shot at anyone, it is at herself, a humble, self-effacing teasing that says, despite her fortune and fame, “I’m really not special.”
Which makes her the perfect foil for that cabal of Americans who really do think they are special. TheOne Million 40,000 Moms think they are the ones who get to decide the best values for JCPenney, the country, and everyone.
Ellen herself eventually spoke on the controversy, and she got the opportunity to address the One Million 40,000 Mom’s condemnation of her “values.” She said, “Here are the values I stand for: I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated, and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That’s what I stand for.” The studio audience cheered uproariously in agreement. They know she not only speaks but lives those values, like the time, just the previous week, when her show arranged a $100,000 donation to a struggling Pennsylvania school.
It’s certainly presumptuous to say anyone “speaks for the LGBT community.” But in that moment, I think it’s safe to say that Ellen spoke very well for the LGBT community, and she made us, and every kind-hearted American, proud.
And the One Million 40,000 Moms? We can thank them for creating a national jump-the-shark moment for the protectors of “traditional values.”
Well, it’s about time. After hundreds of years of heteros debauching, deceiving, and divorcing, we’re only half-way to destroying “traditional” marriage. According to Fox, we finally have a lesbian strong enough to single-handedly take it down once and for all.
But I’m confused by Fox and friends. I know my embracing of Ellen DeGeneres has me racing to start my queer, polyamorous, gender-bending leather family (we have dogs and cats living together – it’s mass hysteria!).
But I don’t get why these Fox people are going to follow suit. I know they have good traditional american marriages just like Newt Gingrich, so maybe they realize just how weak their own relationships really are. Or maybe they’ve been listening to the Pope telling everyone that gay marriage will end the human race, because he’s sure that if men were allowed to we’d all go 100% gay. No more sperm for women, ever! I wonder how he got *that* idea?
I swear, these people have got to be dumber than a bagful of hammers.
So Prop 8 is dead for now. And before I say anything else – WOO HOO! – this is great news – it’s another step in the right direction. But, speaking of a step in the right direction, next stop is the Supreme Court:
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California’s same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for likely consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.
So, the real question here is, will it go to the big court this fall? THAT decision would have a great effect on the election, and I think we’re seeing this year that it’s a losing issue for the GOP at large.
The bigots weren’t in the Armed Forces. The bigots were in the GOP and sitting in front of computers in the offices of anti-gay “Christian” organizations fap-fap-fapping about all the awful things that might happen in the showers—and haven’t happened—once DADT was repealed.
The exact same bigots who predicted that the sky would fall if DADT was repealed make the exact same claims about marriage equality. The media shouldn’t just repeat their lies. Anti-gay bigots have earned a credibility problem. Reporters should challenge the bigots: They were 100% wrong about the “danger” of repealing DADT—why should anyone believe them when they warn about the “danger” of repealing DOMA? Their doom-and-gloom warnings on ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military were completely unfounded. Why should anyone take their doom-and-gloom warnings about ending the ban on same-sex marriage seriously?
And, man, I’d like to see Rick Perry tell that platoon leader—and his men—that he’s not fit to serve because he’s gay.
For some reason WordPress makes me go through vodpod to post this MSNBC link below:
The “war on religion” theme is a drum that Fox (and so I assume the GOP king-makers) have been banging for some time, and I think Perry just co-opted it. Luke Johnson in the Huffington Post reports:
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry pledges to end “[President Barack] Obama’s war on religion” in a new television ad airing in Iowa, railing against open service of gays and lesbians in the military and the prohibition against prayer in public schools.
“I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Christian,” says Perry. “But you don’t need to be in the pews every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”
“As president, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion and I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage,” the Texas governor continues. “Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.”
Really Rick? Our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas? Still, it’s a genius twist to connect Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to prayer in public schools in one sentence. I’m sure Perry couldn’t have come up with it himself; he must have really Machiavellian advisers.
All the buzzwords are there, and Perry is certainly more Christian than Newt Gingrich. Will it be enough to make GOP voters forget all his gaffes? Pandering to the Christian right might bump his numbers in the polls, but remember Iowa is a state that legalized marriage equality. I wonder if enough Iowans get the hypocrisy of not letting gays serve openly too. But then, as P.T. Barnum once said, “Nobody ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence or taste of the American public.” Or lost votes.
As conflicted as I am about giving these sociopaths an ounce of publicity, I’m going to err on the side of shining a light on them for the cockroaches that they are. They are an excellent example of how fundamentalist religion can be used to hate on an extreme level.
When I lived in Indiana, they came to protest at the funeral of a local soldier; when we went to protest them (primarily to shield the mourners from them) we were warned by the law enforcement not to get too close, as their sole mission was really to generate lawsuits – for the money. It’s the family business. Here’s Dugan Arnett’s story of the next generation:
In an ordinary town, in a quiet neighborhood, in a beige two-story house, a girl named Megan lives with her parents and eight siblings.
She is 25, with a cheeky smile. Tall and tan and athletic, she has long, curly hair that tumbles down her shoulders in thick locks. Her voice is bubbly, with a pinch of country twang, and when she is talking about something she likes, she leans forward in her seat and says “Ohmygosh!” before unleashing a stream of syllables that come pouring out on top of each other. She is polite. If you were to stop by the house some afternoon, she would probably ask if you wanted to stay for pizza that night.
She loves her iPhone and the band Mumford & Sons and the Showtime series “Dexter,” which is about a blood-splatter specialist for the Miami Metro Police Department who also happens to be a serial killer — a complex character both good and evil. She went to high school at Topeka West and got straight A’s. She went to college at Washburn University and got straight A’s. She thought about going to law school, sat down to write her admissions essay and decided she wasn’t all that keen on becoming a lawyer. So she joined the family business.
She is peppy, goofy and, by all accounts, happy.
Oh, and one other thing about Megan: She wants to make it perfectly clear that you and the rest of this filthy, perverted nation will be spending a long, fiery eternity burning in hell.
Homosexuality is quite common in the animal kingdom, especially among herding animals. Many animals solve conflicts by practicing same gender sex.
So 
Dan Savage
In an ordinary town, in a quiet neighborhood, in a beige two-story house, a girl named Megan lives with her parents and eight siblings.
Jack Jamison
John McAndrew
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