J. Matt Barber, board member of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, has no problem with being gay. Being “gay,” on the other hand, is a serious cause for concern.

Read More “Anti-Gay Activists Putting “Gay” In Scare Quotes Now” »

Also not catching on as face of AIDS: Scorpions.

Some people believe that every human being has the right to a full and healthy life. Others believe that every human being has a right to a full and healthy life—as long as they aren’t gay, addicted to drugs, or a prostitute.

And then, there are those who believe that only pre-born babies are innocent enough to deserve a full and healthy life. These people are the reason that the campaign against AIDS has to focus on infected pregnant women—instead of infected pregnant women, infected drug users, infected prostitutes, and infected gay men.

Read More “Why the Face of AIDS Isn’t a Gay Prostitute on Drugs” »

Today, “New Delhi’s highest court decriminalized homosexuality,” the New York Times reports. The decision, which overturned an 1861 law banning “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal,” marks the first decision from an Indian court to “directly address rights for gay men and lesbians.”

Indians are intensely divided over the issue, and both supporters and detractors have flooded Internet message boards with their thoughts on the ruling. It seems absurd that anyone would object to erasing a law that would punish a private sex act between consenting adults. Yet as One Yahoo! India message board on the issue reveals, many of the conversations occurring in New Delhi today look pretty similar to U.S. debates over legalizing gay marriage.

Read More “Indians Divided Over End to Gay Sex Ban” »

Yesterday, Jezebel pointed to a recent study which argued that Disney films were guilty of “elevating heterosexuality” with their butterfly-laden, musical-accompanied girl-meets-boy match-ups:

“Characters in love are surrounded by music, flowers, candles, magic, fire, balloons, fancy dresses, dim lights, dancing and elaborate dinners,” the researchers observed. “Fireflies, butterflies, sunsets, wind and the beauty and power of nature often provide the setting for-and a link to the naturalness of-hetero-romantic love.”

The hetero-romanticism, Jezebel reasoned, could help teach young viewers that “heterosexuality is normal, and homosexuality is abnormal, unusual and unexpected.” But as any grown-up fan of the Disney canon knows, these heterosexual love stories are often accompanied by an obvious undercurrent of homoeroticism. Disney has written its fair share of gay characters into its animated and live-action history—it just has yet to write them out of the closet.

Read More “Disney’s Closeted Gay Agenda” »

Yep, nearly every species of animal on God’s green earth engages in “same-sex sexual behavior,” UC Riverside researcher Nathan Bailey reports. In a review published yesterday, Bailey and co-researcher Marlene Zuk found that while homosexual behavior spans the Animal Kingdom, the behavior manifests itself differently across species:

“For example, male fruit flies may court other males because they are lacking a gene that enables them to discriminate between the sexes,” Bailey said. “But that is very different from male bottlenose dolphins, who engage in same-sex interactions to facilitate group bonding, or female Laysan Albatross that can remain pair-bonded for life and cooperatively rear young.”

So, fruit flies don’t know they’re gay, bottlenose dolphins are socially gay, the Laysan Albatross are lifelong gays, and human homosexuals are demonized as “unnatural.” These findings probably won’t change the minds of homophobes who delight in comparing homosexuality to bestiality, but it may do something to fight the argument that gay sex somehow defies nature.

West Point graduate Lt. Dan Choi appeared on the Rachel Maddow show in March, announced he was gay, had his audio swiftly cut off, reappeared on the show the next day, then received a letter announcing he was out for “telling.”

This is the letter the military sends you when you admit you’re gay:

This is to inform you that sufficient basis exists to initiate action for withdrawal of Federal Recognition in the Army National Guard for moral or professional dereliction. Specifically, you admitted publicly that you are a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct. Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.

Choi reiterates that he’s only one of the 12,500 soldiers who have been kicked out of the army in the 15 years of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” It’s a shame that Choi was dismissed, but I think it’s a good sign when officers start telling, publicly, just to reveal the utter ridiculousness of the rule. Here’s to hoping he’s the last, President Obama.

This week, I wrote a cover story for the paper on the sex life at the Catholic University of America, the official U.S. university of the Catholic Church. The Washington, D.C. school bans all behavior that is “inconsistent with the teaching and moral values of the Catholic Church”—including premarital sex, condom use, masturbation, and sexual assault.

Every year, Catholic’s coeds manage to successfully compromise the university policies—and their own chastity—within the school’s residence halls (and, according to one student, in the student center). The difficulty, for students and administrators, is acknowledging that sex happens. Consistent with Catholic tradition, sex isn’t sex at the Catholic University of America if nobody knows about it.

You can pick up the story on newsstands tomorrow.

Illustration by Doug Boehm

Ted Haggard, the evangelical minister of Colorado Springs’ New Life Church who was outed in 2006 as the client of a male prostitute, doesn’t believe in labels. “I think of myself as a heterosexual but with issues,” Haggard said in an interview. “Those labels just don’t work, and from the research, they don’t work for most people. The boxes don’t work for me,” he said.

Is Haggard taking a progressive stance here in asserting that dividing the spectrum of sexuality into two opposing camps (heterosexual; homosexual) serves only to condemn those members we deem to be “deviant,” and repress all others into sexual conformity? Or does he just not want to admit that he might be gay?