Cool Blast from the Past

Well, at least I think it is.

I am at the Exodus conference today. While I was eating lunch a man approaches me and says, “Hi, I’m Rich, and you counselled my mom when I was in the lifestyle.” Long story short, in my former private practice in Portsmouth, OH, I counselled this man’s mother who sought my help for a variety of issues, one of which was how to respond to her gay son. For instance, I supported her decision to go to his gay men’s chorus concerts which meant a lot to him. Eventually, he went through a religious renewal, one consequence of which was a desire to align his behavior with his beliefs. He now directs an Exodus member ministry and says he has finally found what he wants his life to be about. His mom is also doing well. Nice unexpected blast from the past.

NEA not happy about leaks

Word from the NEA is that Reg Weaver, NEA prez, is not happy about the press reports regarding the NEA support for gay marriage. Someone on site reports are that he is using foul language from the podium in expressing his ire over the matter. The NEA flip-flop is stunning given the fact that the union should experience no difficulty getting supportive language passed at their Delegate Assembly. At least one gay blogger seems to think the NEA has caved but I suspect the original language will return.

UPDATE: An eye witness on the scene in Orlando tells me that NEA president, Reg Weaver, in a public meeting, today held up a copy of the American Family Association newsletter announcing the NEA resolution language supporting gay marriage and said, “This is a crock of s–t!” Very strange. All the delegates have to do is look at their resolutions book and see that the new resolution language has changed.

NEA running from original stance on gay marriage.

As reported below, the NEA seems to have created a firestorm of resistance in some quarters over the proposed resolution to support gay marriage.

The original resolution was delivered to delegates at their winter meeting, Feb 23-25 of this year. There was no fuss until a delegate alerted the American Family Association and then all of a sudden the language was changed.

The Alabama Education Association seems to read things differently than the Ohio EA . And in contrast to NEA president Reg Weaver’s statement that the NEA has no position on gay marriage, the CA Education Association does.

Older brothers and gay little brothers

Anthony Bogaert has a new study out today about the older brother theory. Well, technically tomorrow, since it is not out on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science website yet. This study seems to leave the “feared older brother” theory looking pretty shabby. However, the hype over the study is sure to overlook Blanchard and Bogaert’s estimates that only about 15% of gay men owe their attractions to this effect.

I have been reviewing prior work in this area today. About half of the studies looking for a birth order effect have found it. The studies have either found no effect or an elevated ratio of brothers to sisters of gay men. One study examined the feminity hypothesis. Anthony Bogaert looked for a birth order effect in a general sample of homosexual men and then in very feminine men. He found it in very feminine gay men but not in a general sample, even among more feminine (but non – gender identity disordered) gay men. I would like to see a general study of cross gender behavior and sex ratio but this was not examined. In any case, cross gender behavior in childhood does explain some of the orientation in extremely feminine cases but not in all cases.

This study like most biological studies is a challenge for the media to report. Here a potentially very misleading statement from the LA Times writer: “In an analysis of 905 men and their siblings, Canadian psychologist Anthony Bogaert found no evidence that social interactions among family members play any role in determining whether a man is gay or straight.” Of course it is correct; the authors found no evidence, but the statement leaves the impression that the authors looked for all possible “social interactions between family members” and didn’t find anything. It appears they only looked a birth order.