Monday, December 03, 2012

JET Magazine celebrates marriage of African-American gay couple

There is nothing more invigorating than opening your computer and being hit in the face with good news:

According to GLAAD:

JET Magazine, the nation’s preeminent African-American biweekly magazine, in its December 10th issue, featured Dr. Ravi Perry and Paris Prince as part of its December JET LOVE wedding series.
Ravi, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Mississippi State University, and Paris, a licensed real estate broker and anti-discrimination compliance expert, were married in August at their home in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The biweekly feature, which traditionally showcases straight couples, includes a short bio of the couple and explains how the couple fell in love.

"We are excited and honored to have our wedding featured in the historic yet ever-current JET Magazine.  Long the hallmark in publishing news, culture, and events pertaining to the Black American experience, Jet's publishing of our union is historic" said Ravi and Paris.

 As part of our year-round work to raise visibility of LGBT people of color in the media and to grow acceptance of LGBT people in these communities, GLAAD worked closely with Ravi and Paris to help them shape their story and also worked with JET to feature the couple.

Over the years, GLAAD has highlighted the work of JET Magazine, including drawing attention to their coverage of LGBT stories such as their feature on Kye Allums, a former George Washington University student who made history as the first Division I college basketball player to come out as transgender while competing, and  applaud JET Magazine for continuing to recognize that all loving and committed couples deserve respect. Last year, JET Magazine featured its first lesbian wedding, telling the beautiful story of Nyema Vernon and Dr. Tenika Jackson.

I'm sure there will be haters but who cares? Let 'em hate. To this gay black man right here who is writing this post, something like this in JET Magazine is long overdue.

And the visibility is very much needed in the black community.

'Anti-gay groups taking lies to international audiences' and other Monday midday news briefs

Video: In this one, Brian Brown takes on an affected accent to speak to an intl audience - This ain't good. They are losing in America so our opposition is taking their lies to an international audience. We remember how that went over in Uganda. 

APA Revises Manual: Being Transgender Is No Longer A Mental Disorder - And it should have never been considered as such. One more religious right lie shot to pieces.  

Joyous historic events: first same-sex weddings at West Point - And the sky didn't fall. That should tell folks something.  

Harvey: 'Homosexual Marriage is Wrong Because Homosexuality is Wrong' - No matter how low I may feel, I can always count on Linda Harvey to make me feel morally superior.

A new low for the anti-gay right - 'Jerry Sandusky bill?'

Matt Barber
On his Americans for Truth webpage, Peter LaBarbera features a column by the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber which can probably be considered a scientific breakthrough in that it proves that things lower than snakes can put together a column.

It was originally featured on World Net Daily, but since I ran out of holy water, I have avoided that site.

And this column proves that holy water is needed.

Allow me give some background. In California, the legislature passed SB1172, which keeps minors from being exposed to the fraudulent "reparative therapy," or therapy which would attempt to turn them from gay to straight. Several medical groups, including the American Psychological Association, have called "reparative therapy" useless and dangerous. CA Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill in September.

However, since the religious right have never let anything such as truth stand in their way, they have been vocal in opposing SB1172. Barber's organization, the Liberty Counsel, is suing against the law.

According to Barber, in his column, "reparative therapy" is important because:

Thousands of people, many of whom once identified as “gay,” have received positive, life-changing benefits from such counseling. Yet, among other things, the fact that people can, and do, leave homosexuality bulldozes the politically motivated, scientifically discredited “born that way” meme.

Naturally, Barber doesn't provide any proof for this. Barber, by the way, is not a medical professional. He has no degree nor any background in medical research. He is a failed insurance salesman who lucked into his status in religious right groups.

Subsequently, that's probably why he didn't provide proof of the above claim. Barber is unable to. Rather, he relies on written vitriol to shock his readers. Such as the following claim that SB1172 will expose children to being molested:

Despite intense, politically motivated denials from many on the left, research has established the astonishing frequency to which a “gay identity” or “sexual orientation” stems from childhood sexual abuse.   Sandusky Laws abuse these children all over again.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for instance, found that “gay” men are “at least three times more likely to report CSA (childhood sexual abuse).”

The Archives of Sexual Behavior determined in a 2001 study that nearly half of all “gay”-identified men were molested by a homosexual pedophile: “46 percent of homosexual men and 22 percent of homosexual women reported having been molested by a person of the same gender. This contrasts to only 7 percent of heterosexual men and 1 percent of heterosexual women reporting having been molested by a person of the same gender.”

The connection between homosexual abuse and “gay identity” is undeniable.

It doesn't take a palm reader to figure out that Barber is misrepresenting several studies. First of all, he gives the impression that the CDC is saying that child sexual abuse leads to a gay identity. The CDC has not at any time ever connected the gay identity with child sexual abuse.

Furthermore, check out how Barber describes the 2001 Archives of Sexual Behavior study. This how he describes the results of the study:

The Archives of Sexual Behavior determined in a 2001 study that nearly half of all “gay”-identified men were molested by a homosexual pedophile:

Then he tells us what the study actually said:

“46 percent of homosexual men and 22 percent of homosexual women reported having been molested by a person of the same gender. This contrasts to only 7 percent of heterosexual men and 1 percent of heterosexual women reporting having been molested by a person of the same gender.”

The phrase "homosexual pedophile" in this case seems to be a creation of Barber's. We don't know if the perpetrator in this case identified themselves as gay or if they molested other children of a different gender.

Barber is implying that if a molester abuses a child of the same gender, that automatically makes him/her gay. This is simply not true. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center:

According to the American Psychological Association, "homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are." Gregory Herek, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who is one of the nation's leading researchers on prejudice against sexual minorities, reviewed a series of studies and found no evidence that gay men molest children at higher rates than heterosexual men.

Anti-gay activists who make that claim allege that all men who molest male children should be seen as homosexual. But research by A. Nicholas Groth, a pioneer in the field of sexual abuse of children, shows that is not so. Groth found that there are two types of child molesters: fixated and regressive. The fixated child molester — the stereotypical pedophile — cannot be considered homosexual or heterosexual because "he often finds adults of either sex repulsive" and often molests children of both sexes. Regressive child molesters are generally attracted to other adults, but may "regress" to focusing on children when confronted with stressful situations. Groth found that the majority of regressed offenders were heterosexual in their adult relationships.

It is clear that Barber's attempt to turn a phrase in describing SB1172 as a "Jerry Sandusky" bill  as well as distorting legitimate studies to prove his point (Jerry Sandusky is the former Penn State College employee discovered to have molested a multitude of children) is simply an ugly act by a desperate man aligned with a desperate group attempting to protect a bad practice from its appropriate demise.