Tag Archives: homosexuality

mormon church tackles the gay?

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The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.

http://www.mormonsandgays.org

 

I’m not sure what I think about this, still. My two sides are taking on discourse in my head. It’s a little too aversion therapy for me. Yeah you can be gay, but don’t actually be gay, m’kay? Feel badly about who you are and that which you cannot change and avoid it to the point of internal crisis and depression. But from a religious perspective, it’s something. It’s compassion from their standpoint. It’s progress from their standpoint. That doesn’t make it right, or okay, but it’s something, I suppose.

What do you think?

what’s new in the news?

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This little girl is fierce, period.

Your Brain on Holiday Shopping

Smells make a direct hit to emotional centers of our brain. They have a unique ability to evoke moods and memories. It’s no surprise that Bloomingdale’s, Jimmy Choo, Hugo Boss, Victoria’s Secret and scores of other retailers use scents to stimulate positive and associative moods and enhance our perception of their brands and products.

Studies have show that the right scent can increase our perception of the quality of a product and get people to shop longer.

Will Clinton speak out about Abortion in Ireland?

The renewed look at Ireland’s abortion laws come in the aftermath of the tragic death of an Indian citizen living in Ireland, Savita Halappanavar, due to complications from her pregnancy and the refusal of her hospital to perform an abortion. Ireland maintains some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, but has pledged to reexamine them following global interest in Halappanavar’s story.

 

 

Saying something is a sin is a form of judgment. It doesn’t matter who the statement is coming from, or why. It doesn’t matter what “kind” of judgement you think it is. It’s still a judgement. You can choose not to judge yourself, but knowing that the judgement is there in the form of a sin is acknowledging that you believe that judgement exists. Judgey judgey judgey judge.

I judge too. At least I own up to it. Douchenozzles.

Marriages V. Other

There are marriages, domestic partnerships and civil unions. At the start of my Family Studies course this term the teacher scrawled them on the board, writing them in order of what he thought was most to least in terms of rights and recognition. It was on the same day that we discussed solidarity. Someone in the class asked “Why would someone not want to get married (heterosexual) just because their (homosexual) friends can’t get married?” It’s a common question, which is why I think it fits. The teacher responded by saying solidarity. Why would you get married, celebrate your relationship, if some of the people you were inviting to your wedding were unable to have those same rights? He compared it to segregation. Would you have gone into a movie theater without your black friends if they weren’t allowed in? Certainly the example doesn’t resonate with everyone.

But for some people, it’s big.

A domestic partnership is great, but it’s still not a marriage, and it still doesn’t change the fact that same-sex couples can’t get married in most places. Or in reference to the example above “Hey… you can’t come in this movie theater with us, but there’s a really great one next door that’s basically the same. Catch ya later.”

There is some basic information about what a domestic partnership means on Wikipedia which is broken down in a fairly easy to understand way. In Oregon, for example, same-sex couples could register for domestic partnership in 2008. The various states that allow/offer domestic partnership registration vary in what that actually means. Because it goes state-by-state it would behoove anyone reading to look up their own state to learn more about the availabilities of such things and what they would mean. One important point to make is that the rights that you get in a domestic partnership are only valid within the state that you get… domestic-partnered in. If I were to get all domesticy in Oregon and hopped up on over to Washington, no such luck. Marriage offers full rights no matter where you are and it offers them to anyone who wants to get married, just so long as they are of the opposite sex.

That’s the big difference, IMO. We’ve got civil unions and domestic partnerships but they’re all these whacky various laws that are really just trying to make up something “separate but equal but not really equal” just so they can prevent people of the same sex from getting married.

Since the legality really depends on where you live I would again suggest looking up your state to see what the laws are. You might also want to read this from freedom to marry. And here is a link to the wiki site on domestic partnership for more information.

Have a question? Hit “ASK” at the top.

Gay Experiences

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i have a suspicion my boyfriend has had gay experiences. i heard a rumor and confronted him about it. he denied it- but wasn’t as convincing as you’d expect a straight man would be with that accusation. he obviously doesn’t want to admit it if it’s true so should I just let it go and just accept that I may never know? it bothers me so maybe I’m better off not knowing but i don’t necessarily think it’s a dealbreaker for us either. there are no other clues that he’s attracted to men as far as I can see.

How convincing does one have to be to deny gay experiences? I only ask, because most of my friends who have had to deny their gay experience the opposite effect. The more they deny it, the more people suspect that they are, in fact, gay. It’s a pretty sucky situation. The difficult thing with homosexuality is that the only person who can know whether or not someone is gay is the person who is gay. That means it doesn’t matter how many “gay experiences” he has or hasn’t had. If he doesn’t consider himself gay, he doesn’t consider himself gay. Case closed.

It would be unfortunate if he had those experiences and they were a part of who he is now and he didn’t feel comfortable sharing them with you. I can understand wanting to know his sexual history, and wanting to understand it, and know what he likes. But I also think that if it is true, it’s something very personal, and perhaps something he doesn’t feel comfortable or ready to share.

I would sit down with him one last time and express your apologies about taking part in a rumor, but that you were curious and you wanted to know more about him. I would also include that it wouldn’t matter whether or not he had experiences with other men. Then let it be. If they are true, he may then decide to share more with you if he feels comfortable in doing so. He may not. Either way it doesn’t seem (from what you’ve said) that it is putting a negative impact on your relationship. Continue on, happily so, until/if  problems arise.

gay bashing

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Appearing yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Osteen told host Chris Wallace, “I believe the Scripture says that being gay is a sin. But, you know, every time I say that, Chris … people say, well, you are a gay hater and you’re a gay basher. I’m not. I don’t — I don’t dislike anybody. Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world. But my faith is based on what I believe the Scripture says, and that’s the way I read the Scripture.”

– [source]

What do you think? Does believing homosexuality is wrong mean that you are a “gay basher?” I only left two options in the poll, I suppose only reply if you have strong feelings either way. There is a whole lot of room in the middle to debate what exactly it means, and that can be done in the comments!