Category: Warren Throckmorton

A dog that moos?

The new advertising effort designed to convince Americans that gayness is determined pre-birth features a dog named Norman who moos like a cow. Don’t know any dogs that moo, do you? Sounds like a good start for a Dr. Suess book though.

I will say that it is a slick website. However, the borndifferent.com designers need a better science advisor.

Here is what they say about identical twins and homosexuality:

“If one twin is born gay, there is a higher chance (52%) that the other will be gay as well.”

“Since identical twins share DNA, this tells us that genetics plays a part in sexual orientation.”

“That means some people are born gay.”

Leaving aside the faulty logic, the website quotes a decade old study that has been widely criticized. A newer more representative study in the year 2000 found that 11% of male identical twins and 14% of female twins shared homosexual orientation.

This website also waddles out Julio and Fabio the new penguin pride icons. According to the website, these two penguins “mate exclusively with each other.” Have the borndifferent folks forgotten about Silo and Roy? Silo and Roy are chinstrap penguins who used to be in love but Silo is now “ex-gay.” Just last year after I wrote about Silo’s conversion, spokeswoman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Roberta Sklar said in the New York Times: “There’s almost an obsession with questions such as, ‘Is sexual orientation a birthright or a choice?’ And looking at the behavior of two penguins in captivity is not a way to answer that question.”

Someone call the born different folks. They must have missed the memo.

Sometimes reader and commenter Jim Burroway tells me he is also from the fair city of Portsmouth, Ohio. A great place to be from, eh Jim?

Got me all nostalgic so I thought up these tests to see if you might be from Portsmouth.

1. When people ask you where you’re from, you say, “Porchmuth, Ahia.”

2. You know where the Stadium is.

3. You know where the Shoelace Capital of the World is: Porchmuth, Ahia.

4. You can identify yourself as a “river rat” or a “hilltopper.”

5. You know what a “double-dip” and a “pickle-dip” hamburger is (hint: grease is involved).

6. Your car or truck probably costs as much or more than your house is worth.

7. You have gone sled riding on a levee.

8. You know at least three “Kentuckyen jokes.”

9. You know who Al Oliver, Larry Hisle and Don Gullett are.

10. You know where Southern hospitality begins.

Jim and anyone else from Porchmuth: Feel free to add some of yer own on. (Note: Previous sentence ends in a preposition. If you’re from Porchmuth, you don’t see any problem with the place that preposition is at.)

Well, not that much of a wrap up really.

The original resolution language that drew the ire of the American Family Association was not passed. However, the substitute language was passed. It will be reported in the press two ways: one, that the language was sent back to committee at the request of the Alabama delegation and two, that the substitute language supporting civil unions and gay marriage in the states already recognizing them did pass. Both apparently are true. Only in the NEA can something pass and still be referred to committee after it passed. I am told that is what happened in this case. Here is my guess: The AL leaders needed something to offset a rebellion back in Sweet Home.

No word as yet from Wayne Besen with his accounting of the fracas on the convention floor last Saturday. Strange to me that Wayne has not commented. Here is a pic of Wayne (left) and Greg (right) discussing things.

A sampling of big doings at the NEA confab:

1. I blogged earlier this week about a change in language regarding gay marriage that was to be voted on at the convention. Resolution B-8 was submitted by the NEA’s GLBT Caucus but was later the NEA Resolutions Committee. The change would put the NEA on record as supporting same-sex unions in the seven U.S. states where they are now legal. The update is that the Resolutions Committee has advanced the original resolution (B-8) and the revised resolution (B-10) as amendments to be voted on by the NEA Representative Assembly. So if both passed the NEA would be able to have its wedding cake and eat it too.

2. Wayne Besen’s group, TruthWinsOut and a couple of other advocacy groups had a news conference in front of the Orlando Convention Center protesting the presence of the ex-gay educator caucus. Today’s Orlando Sentinel reports on the news conference and reaction from the ex-gay educators caucus.

3. A little later, there was a verbal dispute near the ex-gay educator’s caucus booth, one result of which was Wayne being escorted out of the convention center by some of Orlando’s finest law enforcement. Word is that the F-word was flying. Be interested in Wayne’s account of the fracas.

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.