Category: sexual orientation

Church coalition files FCC complaint over suicide of Brent Dugan

David Blakeslee posted in January about Reverend Brent Dugan’s tragic death in Mercer, PA hotel room. Now, a coalition of Pittsburgh area church denominations have filed a complaint with the FCC surrounding the reporting of KDKA – Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted a complete copy of the letter filed by the “Christian Associates, a regional ecumenical association representing 15 Christian denominations.”

I will be adding background and information on this matter as I find it. Local paper, the Sharon Herald filed this report. In November of 2006, the Post-Gazette provided some depth on the KDKA report. The Post-Gazette posted a report of Reverend Dugan’s death on November 4, the same day Ted Haggard was dismissed from New Life Church.

Scent of a man

Another smell study, this time examining hormone and mood responses among straight women to male sweat.

This passage from an article in the London Daily Mail is provocative:

Dr Claire Wyart, of the University of California, said: “This is the first time anyone has demonstrated that a change in women’s hormonal levels is induced by sniffing an identified compound of male sweat.

“This male chemical signal, androstadienone, does cause hormonal as well as physiological and psychological changes in women.”

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience is, however, not the first to show that male sweat holds a certain appeal for the opposite sex.

A study carried out at the University of Northumbria showed that a whiff of sweat has the ability to turn a frog into a prince.

Researchers asked a group of female students to judge the attractiveness of men shown in photos. A second group of women were set the same task, but this time, unknown to them, a cloth soaked in male sweat was hidden nearby.

The women under the influence of the pheromones – released by glands including those under our arms – rated all the men as being more attractive.

Those judged as being the least attractive by the first group of women showed the biggest jump in sex appeal, with the women rating them as being almost as appealing as the best-looking men.

The only women to resist the effect of sweat were those taking the contraceptive pill.

It is thought the hormones in the Pill stop women from responding as strongly to natural signals of attraction.

Sweat also plays another important role in the mating game, with scientists believing we seek out partners whose body odour is different to our own.

Has the real Donnie Davies finally stood up?

This email purports to speak for the “real” Donnie Davies (is it you Joey?) with the low down on the whole gig.

Thanks to “arlopop,” a commenter here for this link.

UPDATE: 2/9/07 – Early today, this YouTube video showed up with a “hot tub interview” of the Donnie Davies crew. I am not enbedding it here because it gets a little risque in a place or two. So watch at your own risk.

If you don’t want to watch it, essentially you have YouTube user “bsnation” providing webcam interviews of those who are purported to be the people behind the Donnie Davies episode. They were surprised anyone took it seriously and intended it as a lampoon of groups like Westboro Baptist. I will admit I was not sure it was a hoax at first which is somewhat unsettling.

The folks at Brainfood (or wherever) continued the hoax well past the initial reveal. “Donnie” continued to correspond with me up until a couple of days ago, once writing:

Hi Warren. Have you been following Ted Haggard’s recovery? Its a rather amazing demonstration of reparative therapy, don’t you agree? What do you know about Tim Ralph?

And then this from Joey Oglesby in a Feb 4th email on his feelings about Donnie Davies:

As for Mister Davies, if he isn’t real, it would appear to me to be taking a shot at those who preach hate in the name of Christianity. And those that would have audacity to protest a fallen soldiers funeral or a funeral of a mass killing in an Amish community.

John Amaechi, former NBA player, comes out

John Amaechi, British import to the NBA, recently publicly declared he is gay. His story is fascinating and his plans for British basketball are ambitious. Watch this video for more information on this interesting fellow. There is a Wikipedia entry about him as well (…raised by his mother, you know what that means…). His first TV interview on this subject will be on ESPN’s Outside the Lines program at 9:30am, 2/11/07.

David Jones, a Patriot-News writer who knows Amaechi from his Penn State University days provides an in-depth report.

His disclosures and the ESPN coverage is sure to raise the profile of homosexuality in sports. Watch the video on the ESPN website about the possible prevalence of gay athletes and the issues raised if a current player came out of the closet.

UPDATE: 2/17/07 – In a move toward Donnie Davies, NBA star Tim Hardaway disparaged gays in an interview and is reaping what he sowed. He later apologized but has been banned from All Star weekend.

I thought Mary Buckheit had an appropriate response.

CNN segment on Ted Haggard

I may add some additional comments later but I wanted to post the transcript of the Anderson Cooper CNN segment (scroll a bit over half way down the page) this evening regarding Ted Haggard’s rehabilitation.

The report was quite interesting with several points worthy of discussion. I felt Alan’s tone and responses were reasonable and quite consistent with the sexual identity paradigm. The stance of the Human Rights Campaign representative was less so in my judgment.

COOPER: Mark, you know people who have been through this kind of therapy. Some call it reparative therapy. In your experience, does it work?

SHIELDS: Again, absolutely not. Every bit of evidence we’ve seen is that it does not work. And at the Human Rights Campaign, we believe the only choice there is about being gay is, you know, whether or not you choose to be open and honest about it, if that’s how you were born.

I think that people have the choice that they can try and hide that or try and deny that piece of themselves, but ultimately, that’s not healthy for them or for their loved ones.

COOPER: But Mark, if someone is not happy being gay, as Alan clearly wasn’t as a child, what’s wrong with him trying to change?

SHIELDS: You know, again, the mental health professionals tell us that, in trying to change or fix something that’s not broken, you can actually cause a great deal of harm to yourself and ultimately to those that are around you.

You know, I wonder if Ted Haggard had been told as a child that it was OK to be gay and that he could have a rich, full life, if his life story wouldn’t have been less painful and contorted

Here is an example where the Shidlo and Schroeder study of possible harm relating to reorientation is referred to but not cited. Also, the real picture regarding research on etiology of sexual orientation and outcomes of sexual identity integration efforts is of course much more complex than depicted by Mr. Shields.

Another interesting point was the agreement between Alan and Mr. Shields that being gay does not preclude happiness. When I said this in the October, 2006 LA Times article regarding the NARTH controversies, I was the target of some conservative fire. I wonder how things will go for Alan.