Category Archives: Society

Boy with partially covered face

Barriers to Authentic Sexuality

Sexually intact and emotionally healthy people really don’t care what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes! And sexually intact and emotionally healthy people don’t in any way demean Gay people or seek to deprive Gay people of civil rights that accrue

Boy with partially covered face

Homophobia Stems from the Unconscious

It might seem strange that my major intellectual influence has been Sigmund Freud. Although I don’t place much faith in his therapeutic modality, psychoanalysis, as being any more or less effective than any other therapeutic modality, particularly since it resists empirical study and possible verification

Wedding rings on dictionary

Marriage: Where Are We Now?

With November’s poll results, marriage equality continues to fail when put on the ballot. We can’t ignore the progress that’s been made, but the American people remain an easy mark for those who claim protecting marriage involves denying it to LGBT people. If we use

Black man playing with a magnifying glass

Unnatural Acts

On May 4, 2009 the BBC’s top stories included the headline “‘Gay man’ disinterred in Senegal.” The article told how a gay man died and was buried in a Muslim cemetery, only to be disinterred twice. In the first instance his body was left outside

Adult boy in building

Santa Sightings!

Here he comes again…that robust, jolly fellow with his sleigh full of gifts! We all know (spoiler alert!) that Santa isn’t “real.” That our gifts really come from people who love us. But in their own way, they, too, are a manifestation of the love

Polling station

The ‘Yuck’ Vote Strikes Again

Well, the dark forces have prevailed again, this time in Maine. Voters there, by a narrow margin, vetoed marriage rights for same-sex couples. The narrowness of our loss is not much comfort. The “Yuck” Vote strikes again. Basically, the argument of the anti-equality crowd was

Hands waving

Keeping the Religious Right Wing Alive

Almost 80 million people voted for a Barack Obama that talked about real change including single-payer healthcare and the end of Wall Street and other corporations pulling the strings in Washington. A march of – at most – 60,000 in Washington in September should mean

Man holding American flag

‘Tis the Season of More Mythology

The Norman Rockwell-style American Thanksgiving is a feast of mythology about pilgrims and Indians sitting down like buddies giving thanks to the Christian god for a successful harvest. Add the picture of the perfect American family, every member home for the holiday, sitting down together

Silence

Will What the Professionals Say Finally Matter?

Over a quarter of a century ago, in January 1975, the American Psychological Association urged “all mental health professionals to take the lead in removing the sigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations.” On August 14, 1997, it adopted a

Wedding rings on dictionary

The Institution of Marriage

How should we define and think about marriage today? There’s been a lot of controversy and confusion over what many refer to as “the sacred institution of heterosexual marriage.” But what’s been the actual history of marriage? Going back to the time of the Roman