Monthly Archives: July 2011

July 13, 2011

AIDS: The Thirty Years War

By Joe

Thirty years ago, the AIDS epidemic began.  I was only a child then and it wasn’t until later that I came to understand what it was all about.  My mother was a public health nurse, and in the rural south there were few cases of it in those early years, though she of course understood (at least to some extent) what was going on. No one really thought it would reach us here, but it did.  I had a cousin who died of it in those early years, though he was gay, he probably contracted the disease from a blood transfusion.  It was shortly after the surgery that he received the transfusion, that he became sick.  He died shortly after that.  In the early days, the disease worked quickly.  His life partner died a year or so later.  It was not something that the family discussed much.  We were told by his parents that he had died of cancer.  However, once my mother heard who his doctor had been, it was no doubt he did not die just of cancer, but of AIDS.  This particular doctor only took AIDS patients and was the only doctor in the area who would. 

A few years later, a man who my aunt worked for contracted the disease.  He was a dentist, and at the time, they no longer allowed him to practice, so he had to retire a young man.  He was also gay, and though as a dentist he had money to allow him to survive for a while, he had one stroke of luck before he died.  He literally won the lottery.  With the treatment he could then afford, he was able to live several more years, but the drugs that now allow HIV positive people to live decades, were not around then.  He ultimately succumbed to the disease as well.  Since those early years, there have been major steps of improvement and life expectancy, but it is still ultimately a fatal disease.  Hopefully, one day it won’t be.  Until then, please remember to use a condom when you have sex, play it safe, and live a long and healthy life.

I saw the timeline below on the Advocate.com and wanted to share it with you. It is a timeline of the thirty years since the AIDS epidemic began in America.  There has been much speculation about when the disease first entered humans.  It is a date yet to be determined if ever.  In fact, we are not even sure that it first began in the US in 1981, but that is when it became known.  It would still be a number of years before healthcare officials really understood what it was they were dealing with, and there is much more work still to be done.

BMS_AIDS30

As AIDS enters its fourth decade, we look back at the events that changed the course of history

clip_image001It’s not a birthday to celebrate, but the 30th year of AIDS does remind us to appreciate how far we’ve come. From the early days of panic and paranoia to today’s promise, the world has seen monumental advances in not only prevention and treatment but also acceptance and tolerance. A diverse group, including scientists, politicians, and reality stars, helped contribute to these sweeping changes and increased the odds of AIDS not living to 40. Here are some of the people and moments that brought us to now…


1981
June: Due to reports of unusual outbreaks of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and the rare cancer Kaposi’s sarcoma among gay men in New York City and Los Angeles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention establishes a task force on Kaposi’s Sarcoma and opportunistic infections.
September: From his Manhattan apartment, activist Larry Kramer begins to mobilize gay New Yorkers with Kaposi’s sarcoma.


1982
clip_image002June: The CDC reports that there have been several cases of a syndrome involving PCP, Kaposi’s, and other opportunistic infections among gay men in California’s Los Angeles and Orange counties. This suggests the infectious agent may be sexually transmitted.
July: By the beginning of the month, 452 cases of the syndrome, from 23 states, have been reported to the CDC. 


1983
January: The Red Cross and other blood banks propose banning blood donations from gay males.
May: San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein (below) declares the first week of the month AIDS Awareness Week
August: Activist Michael Callen (below left) and others testify during the first congressional hearing on AIDS.
September: The ACLU brings attention to an “AIDS Alert,” a list of people with AIDS circulated among Seattle police.


1984
October: In an effort to stop the spread of AIDS, the city of San Francisco shuts down gay bathhouses. In three years, 817 cases of AIDS had been reported in San Francisco.
December: Ryan White, a 13-year-old hemophiliac in Kokomo, Ind., is diagnosed with AIDS, having contracted HIV through tainted blood.



1985
Mclip_image003arch: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration licenses the first blood test for HIV antibodies.
April: The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s semiautobiographical play about the AIDS epidemic, premieres at New York City’s off-Broadway Public Theater.
July: Ann-Margret and Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley participate in the city’s first AIDS Walk.
September: The American Foundation for AIDS research is formed with Elizabeth Taylor (left) as founding chairman.
October: Rock Hudson, 59, dies of AIDS complications at his Beverly Hills home.

1986
clip_image004February: The Reagan administration proposes rejecting immigrants who test positive for HIV.
February: A witty look at gay life in 1980s New York, the low-budget but much-loved Parting Glances features Steve Buscemi as an unrepentant rock star losing his battle with AIDS.
June: The federal government commits $100 million over five years to evaluate promising AIDS medications.

1987
clip_image005March: The FDA approves the first AIDS drug, AZT, marketed as Retrovir.
October: Congress overwhelmingly passes the Helms Amendment.
October: During the largest gay rights march in the nation’s history, activist Cleve Jones’s NAMES Project Memorial Quilt is unveiled to commemorate those lost to AIDS.


1988
May: The Centers for Disease Control and Surgeon General Koop distribute the pamphlet “Understanding AIDS” to each of the 107 million homes in America.
August: Presidential candidate George H.W. Bush endorses protections against discrimination for people with HIV/AIDS.
October: Congress passes an $800 million AIDS research package, with a provision from Sen. Jesse Helms requiring that testing confidentiality be dropped. 

1989
March: Three thousand AIDS demonstrators storm New York’s City Hall to draw attention to the problems within the city’s hospital system.
April: President George H.W. Bush is heckled for his inaction on AIDS at a nationally televised speech on the bicentennial of George Washington’s inauguration.
September: The AIDS charity album Red Hot + Blue is released, featuring reworked Cole Porter classics sung by artists including Annie Lennox, Tom Waits, and Debbie Harry.

clip_image0061990
February: Artist Keith Haring dies of AIDS-related complications at age 31.
May: Longtime Companion becomes one of the first American films to focus almost solely on AIDS.
August: Congress passes the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, funding a variety of AIDS-related services.

clip_image0071991
June: Jeremy Irons is the first celebrity to wear the red AIDS awareness ribbon publicly, at the 1991 Tony Awards. The Red Ribbon Project was conceived by New York’s Visual AIDS Artists Caucus.
August: A major research study indicates that AZT can slow progression to AIDS in asymptomatic HIV-positive people.
October: A second anti-HIV drug receives FDA approval—didanosine, sold under the brand name Videx.
November: Freddie Mercury (right), the flamboyant lead singer of Queen, is the latest celebrity to die of AIDS-related causes. He was 45.

1992
January: To prevent the spread of HIV, the Los Angeles Unified School District approves the distribution of condoms in high schools.
August: Mary Fisher, an HIV-positive woman, addresses the Republican National Convention.
December: The Bush White House allows the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track experimental anti-HIV drugs.

1993
May: Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, the first part of his AIDS epic, opens on Broadway. It wins a Tony award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
September: HBO’s dramatization of Randy Shilts’s groundbreaking book And the Band Played On premieres.
December: The film Philadelphia tells the story of a gay lawyer (Tom Hanks, right, in an Oscar-winning role) who sues his former firm after he’s fired for having AIDS.

1994
clip_image008November: A study indicates that AZT can cut mother-to-child transmission of HIV by two thirds.
November: The Real World: San Francisco follows the trials of HIV-positive AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.

1995
June:clip_image009President Clinton establishes the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS by executive order.
December: The FDA approves saquinavir (brand name Invirase), the first in a new class of drugs called protease inhibitors, whose use with other drugs becomes known colloquially as a “cocktail.” 

1996
clip_image010July: Hopeful news emerges from the international AIDS conference in Vancouver. Scientists report that new drug combinations have dramatically improved the health of many people with AIDS.
September: On ER, heterosexual physician assistant Jeanie Boulet (played by Gloria Reuben, below) learns she has HIV.

1997
January: New York City health officials report the first documented drop in AIDS deaths—the number of city residents dying of the disease declined 30% from 1995 to 1996.
February: CDC officials say there were 13% fewer deaths in the first half of 1996 than in the same period in 1995. The trend is attributed to the new drug therapies.
June: The New York Times reports post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, medication is being offered to those who may have been exposed to the virus but have not tested positive for infection.

1998
February: Scientists announce that they detected HIV in an African man’s blood sample preserved from 1959, making it the oldest documented case of HIV infection.
June: The FDA approves the first human trial of an AIDS vaccine, to involve 5,000 volunteers throughout the United States.
November: The Joint United Nations AIDS Programme announces that HIV infections worldwide rose 10% over the past year, with great increases among women and youths.

1999
February: New York City health officials announce that a study of young gay men in the city shows 12% of them are infected with HIV.
May: The World Health Organization’s annual report says AIDS has become the fourth leading cause of death worldwide.
August: The CDC reports that deaths from AIDS continue to drop, but at a lower rate than they did immediately after the introduction of drug cocktails. U.S. AIDS deaths declined 42% from 1996 to 1997, but only 20% from 1997 to 1998.

2000
January: The CDC announces that 1998 marked the first time there were more AIDS diagnoses among black and Latino gay men than among white gay men.
February: New research indicates AIDS may have originated as far back as 1930.
November: The World Health Organization reports that new HIV infections rose during the year, but the infection rate stabilized in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.

2001
February: Results from a study involving six large U.S. cities indicate that 30% of young black gay men are HIV-positive.
June: On the 20th anniversary of the epidemic, the United Nations devotes a special session to HIV and AIDS, the first for a public health issue. All 189 member countries sign a Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS, which includes pledges to reduce HIV prevalence among young people by 25% in the hardest-hit nations by 2005, and to reduce it by 25% globally by 2010. 

2002
February: The American clip_image011version of the British drama Queer as Folk introduces Robert Gant’s Ben Bruckner as an HIV-positive love interest to Hal Sparks’s HIV-negative Michael Novotny.
April: The World Health Organization outlines steps to make antiretroviral drugs more accessible to people in poor nations.
November The FDA approves an HIV test than can provide results within 20 minutes.

2003
January: President George W. Bush outlines what will become PEPFAR—the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, aimed at fighting AIDS in developing countries.
November: Results from a trial of the AidsVax vaccine show it failed to prevent HIV transmission. The trial was conducted among injection-drug users in Thailand.
December On World AIDS Day, the WHO announces its “3 by 5” plan, to have 3 million people in resource-poor countries on antiretroviral drugs by 2005.

2004
February: The first PEPFAR funds are distributed—$350 million to 14 countries, a month after congressional approval.
July: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announces a $50 million donation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
December Designers Against AIDS launches with the mission of using pop culture components to raise media awareness of HIV/AIDS.

2005
September: GlaxoSmithKline’s patent on Retrovir (AZT) expires, meaning any company can produce generic versions without paying royalties, and the FDA approves four generics.
November: The WHO announces that the 3 by 5 plan is far short of its goal, but it estimates that expanded access to treatment saved between 250,000 and 350,000 lives during the year.

2006
July:The FDA approves Atripla,clip_image012the first once-daily single-tablet regimen. From Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences, it combines efavirenz, emtricitabine, and tenofovir.
December: Results are in from two African studies that indicate male circumcision can help prevent HIV transmission, although there are fears that some populations may not accept the procedure and that it could lead to a lax approach to prevention. 

2007
January: A large-scale trial of a vaginal microbicide is stopped because the product is not preventing HIV and may even be enabling it.
March: Due to the studies released the preceding December, WHO endorses male circumcision as part of a comprehensive AIDS prevention strategy.
April: WHO reports that 2,000,000 people in low- and middle-income countries are receiving HIV drugs—only 28% of those who need such treatment.

2008
August: The annual report from UNAIDS notes AIDS deaths worldwide dropped.
November: German doctors announce that they have essentially cured an American patient of HIV.

2009
January: Barack Obama is inaugurated as U.S. president. He immediately lifts an executive order that had denied U.S. aid to international family planning organizations.
March: Pope Benedict XVI reiterates the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to condom use, saying it may actually contribute to the spread of HIV.

2010
August: State and federal budget crises threaten AIDS Drug Assistance Programs in several states.
September: Project Runway contestant Mondo Guerra reveals that a design he created, featuring oversize plus signs, was inspired by his HIV-positive status.
November: The secretary of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, withdraws an edited version of A Fire in My Belly a silent film by artist David Wojnarowicz (who died of AIDS complications in 1992) from the exhibit ‘Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture’ after complaints from the Catholic League.

2011
clip_image013March: U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon releases a report urging world leaders to take bold action against the AIDS epidemic, warning that recent progress is fragile.
 March: Elizabeth Taylor dies of congestive heart failure at age 79.
April: Larry Kramer’slandmark 1985 AIDS play The Normal Heart gets its first Broadway production.

5 Comments | posted in History

July 12, 2011

One Year Anniversary

By Joe

One year ago today, I began writing this blog.  If you didn’t know, I have another blog, that is definitely NSFW.  I had started the other blog as a place to put all of the porn that had accumulated on my hard drive, and as I found that I enjoyed blogging, I started to do some (somewhat) intellectual posts about gay history.  Some people loved them, most who read that blog didn’t much care, they were only there for the pictures and other naughty stuff.  So I decided to start another blog, one dedicated to GLBT Studies: History, Art, Literature, Politics, and Culture, with a wide range of topics that interested me and hopefully you.  I started by transferring most of the old history and cultural posts from my other blog to this one, and then this one took on a life of its own.  I think that I have been somewhat successful in doing this.  I still get roughly a tenth of the readers on this blog than on my other blog, but even though some of you read both, mostly each blog is geared toward a different type of reader:  the smut set and the smart set.

So when my one year anniversary was pending, I asked my readers for suggestions for this post.  I got several awesome suggestions, some of which will be future posts.  The one that most agreed was the best was from Writer, who suggested that I do a post on important gay events that coincide with today.  So I did a little search and surprisingly found a number of things. First thing first, we will look at some important birthdates.  Not all of which are gay, but do have a gay theme to them.

George Washington Carver is believed to have been born on this day in 1864 (according to some sources; the year and date are often disputed).  Carver was known as a botanist at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee Institute.  His most important contributions were in the field of sweet potatoes (at least 118 uses), peanuts (over 300 uses, one reputed to be peanut butter), and soybeans, and he was an early advocate of crop rotation in the South. Why is he on this list of GLBT important dates?  Carver never married, and there is little documented information about his private life. He is included in the encyclopedia glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture and books such as Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America. Carver never married or expressed interest in dating women. While he taught at Tuskegee, there were reportedly rumors about his sexuality. Late in his career, Carver established a life and research partnership with the scientist Austin W. Curtis, Jr. The two men kept details of their lives discreet.  Carver bequeathed to Curtis his royalties from an authorized 1943 biography by Rackham Holt. After Carver died in 1943, Curtis was fired from Tuskegee Institute. He left Alabama and resettled in Detroit. He manufactured and sold peanut-based personal care products

Next on the list of birthdays is Oscar Hammerstein II, who was born July 12, 1895.  Although he was married with children and there is no indication that he was gay, he is one of the greatest contributors to the classic American musicals of Rodger and Hammerstein.  Hammerstein contributed the lyrics to 850 songs, according to The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II, edited by Amy Asch. Some well-known songs are “Ol’ Man River” from Show Boat, “Indian Love Call” from Rose Marie, “People Will Say We’re in Love” and “Oklahoma” (which has been the official state song of Oklahoma since 1953) from Oklahoma!, “Some Enchanted Evening”, from South Pacific, “Getting to Know You” from The King and I, and the title song, “The Sound of Music” as well as “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” and “Edelweiss”, which was the last song he wrote before his death.  Yes, the love of musicals is a stereotype of gay men, but I do love musicals and couldn’t resist including him in this list.

The next GLBT oriented birthday is that of Cheyenne Jackson (born July 12, 1975), the  American television and Broadway actor and singer.  He is openly gay and an LGBT rights supporter, as well as an ambassador for amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) and the national ambassador for The Hetrick-Martin Institute. Jackson’s partner, Monte Lapka, is a physicist; they have been together since 2000.

And just as an aside, Julius Caesar was born on this day in 100 BC.  Some contemporary historians and political enemies claimed that he was “every woman’s man, and every man’s woman.” Also, Richard Simmons, the fitness and weight loss guru was born on this day in 1942.  Need I say why he is included on this list.

Other events today in GLBT History…

1730: In Frisia, a part of the Netherlands, Caspar Abrahams Berse is arrested after being accused of sodomy. He begged the policeman who arrested him to kill him, saying that he would later be executed.

1940: A directive from the Reich Main Security Office mandates that any homosexual who had seduced more than one partner would be put into protective custody (a concentration camp). Evidence of a sexual act was often absent in meeting the criteria.

1950: Elsie de Wolfe, socialite and premier designer, dies at age 85. She liked to call herself the first interior decorator, and actress, and madly in love with her husband, but was none of them. The interior arts had been developed long before her, her “modeling” of outrageous clothes on Broadway hardly made her an actress, and she was in fact in love with socialite Elizabeth Marbury. Elsie’s husband didn’t mind though, as he was gay, too.

1972: Jim Foster of San Francisco and Madeline Davis of New York become the first openly gay delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

1986: The International Lesbian & Gay Association votes almost unanimously not to revoke the membership of the South African Gay Association after testimony from a representative who stated that the organization is opposed to apartheid.

1998: The New York Times reports on the murder of Ali Forney, a 22-year-old homeless, black, gay transvestite who supported himself by occasionally working as a prostitute. He was the third transvestite prostitute to be murdered in New York City in 14 months.

1998: Poland’s gay pride demonstration is cancelled because city authorities refused to issue the necessary permits.

1999: Miller Brewing Company cancels a beer ad featuring shirtless male models on San Francisco based gay cable show QTV’s “Xposure” program.

2002: A Canadian court for the first time rules in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages when the Ontario Superior Court rules that prohibiting gay couples from marrying is unconstitutional. The court gives the province of Ontario two years to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples, but two weeks later the federal government steps in to appeal the ruling.

Today in LGBT History–July 12 – National Grassroots Equality | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/grassroots-equality-in-national/today-lgbt-history-july-12#ixzz1Rnylm9me

8 Comments | posted in Gay Icon, History

July 11, 2011

Bigotry

By Joe

As a historian who has done most of his studies in the Southern United States, I have studied a great amount about race relations and the Civil Rights Movement.  I think that the fight for GLBT equality has a few things it can learn from history of bigotry in America.  Nearly a year ago, I wrote on this blog about my theories of the origins of homophobia.  I still believe that the origins of homophobia boils down to at its base a need for a larger population.  Yet, there is still more that can be added to the equation.  Why do homophobes fear/hate us, when studies like the one I discussed yesterday state that homophobic behavior is associated with penis arousal to male on male sex?  So if you look at that study about homophobic behavior, what does it have to do with racism?  This is why I want to look at the origins of racism and bigotry.

In the South during Reconstruction and afterward, the greatest fear that white males had was that their women would be taken sexually or found sexually attractive by black men.  They feared black male masculinity.  A trait that slave owners had tried to breed into their slaves.  Once the Transatlantic Slave Trade was discontinued, slave owners realized that they needed to breed their slaves in the same way they bred livestock in order to perpetuate production.  The vast majority of slave holders, and by the laws of southern states, perceived slaves as property, just as they did livestock.  (I’m getting to my point here, just bear with me.)  How do you make sure that you have the best livestock?  You breed the best of the species together.  Many slave owners did the same thing with slaves, either using the women and breeding them with the slave owners themselves for stronger stock, or by forcing the strongest male slaves to breed with the strongest female slaves to get sturdier workers.  How do you choose the best livestock to breed?  When livestock is young, the size of the testicles are measured to see who is the most fertile, therefore it is not hard to deduce that slave holders would have also taken the most virile men (those with the largest private parts, those most fertile, and/or the strongest) to breed with women who had the widest hips and largest breasts.  So in the end, slavery had produced strong, well-built, and handsome black men. (See the announcement for an 1855 slave auction in Kentucky to the left; pay attention to the descriptions of the slaves.)

The result of this is a terrifying prospect for the former southern slave holders.  With already a belief in African-American inferiority taught to southerners,  they feared that women might look to that African-American virility.  Thus groups like the KKK and others were formed to “protect southern womanhood.” Not only were numerous atrocities carried out by these groups against recently freed slaves, but also they began a move toward African-American demasculation/emasculation to make them seem less virile.  The same strategy was used by the North against former Confederates such as Jefferson Davis and was essentially a homophobic strategy.  The need to take away masculinity has long been a political tool used since ancient times.

But what does all of this have to do with why the most homophobic men tend to be aroused more than non-homophobic heterosexual men by male on male sex?  Homophobia and bigotry, in general, at its core is a fear of something that you most want to be or afraid to admit that we are.  It is internalized hate.  White men feared the masculinity and strength of African Americans (also in the North the same fear cause discrimination against blacks because of a fear that newly freed slaves could do jobs better than white men).  Slave holders had feared that black men would take advantage of white women in the same way that slave owners had taken advantage of slave women.  Slave holders also feared that white women might take advantage of black male virility just as white men had taken advantage of to black female sensuality.  The same is true of homophobia.  Homophobic men are afraid to admit their own attraction to other men.  The penis can’t lie like their mouths can, and so when shown gay pornography blood rushed to their dicks while they tried with their internalized homophobia to block out that arousal with their minds.

Bigotry often derives from a fear of what we secretly want most.  That fear breeds hatred which leads to internalized and externalized bigotry.  This is by no means the only answer to this question, but it is a theory of mine based on other historical theories taken to a reasonable conclusion.  I’m sure that I will get a lot of flack about this post, but know that it is only a theory and that I laid out some of the arguments presented by hate groups and those who have studied hate groups in order to explain my theory.  I personally think that bigotry and hatred are plain stupid.  We hate what we fear and don’t understand, whereas we should strive to learn more and get beyond the fear of the unknown and thus overcome hatred.  Better education is one of the things that I see as a way to end hatred and create harmony and peace.

19 Comments | posted in History, Theory

July 10, 2011

Homophobia Associated with Penis Arousal to Male on Male Sex

By Joe

Recently in a Psychology Today’s Blog post “Homophobic Men Most Aroused by Gay Male Porn” discussed a 1996 study of homophobia by psychologists at the University of Georgia.  Yes, the research is 15 years old, but in light of several recent anti-gay rants in the news, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by Nathan Heflick’s latest post at Psychology Today.  Here is the abstract of the study:

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men and a group of nonhomophobic men; they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.

You can read the full study here (pdf file).  Henry E. Adams, Lester W. Wright, Jr., and Bethany A. Lohr of the University of Georgia make an interesting argument.  Even a man who thought that women want to have sex with their fathers and that women spend much of their lives distraught because they lack a penis is right sometimes. This person, the legend that is Sigmund Freud, theorized that people often have the most hateful and negative attitudes towards things they secretly crave, but feel that they shouldn’t have. If Freud is right, then perhaps men who are the most opposed to male homosexuality have particularly strong  homosexual urges for other men.

The facts of the study are this:  When viewing lesbian sex and straight sex, both the homophobic and the non-homophobic men showed increased penis circumference. For gay male sex, however, only the homophobic men showed heightened penis arousal. Heterosexual men with the most anti-gay attitudes, when asked, reported not being sexually aroused by gay male sex videos. But, their penises reported otherwise.  Homophobic men were the most sexually aroused by gay male sex acts. 

How do you feel about this study?

If you would like to read more about this study, you can check out my suggested readings by clicking “Read More” below.


Resources and Further Reading:

3 Comments | posted in Resources, Theory

July 9, 2011

Any Suggestions?

By Joe

My one year anniversary of The Closet Professor is coming up on Tuesday.  For a week now I have been trying to come up with what kind of post I should do for this first anniversary.  Since I haven’t really come up with anything good, I would love to get any suggestions from you guys out there.  So what do you say?

By the way, I am always open for suggested topics on The Closet Professor, so anytime you want to send me a suggestion, either put it in the comments or email me.

6 Comments | posted in Miscellaneous

July 9, 2011

Moment of Zen: Summer Rain

By Joe

Not only do summer rain showers cool things off, but I love relaxing to the sounds of rain hitting the roof and of distant thunder.  I’ve always loved stormy weather, especially when I curl up with a good book in my favorite chair.  It can also be quite joyful when a sudden shower strikes and you can stand outside with the cool refreshing water hitting your face and to be able to breath in the fresh scent of an afternoon rain in the summer.

The Summer Rain
Henry David Thoreau

My books I’d fain cast off, I cannot read,
‘Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large
Down in the meadow, where is richer feed,
And will not mind to hit their proper targe.
Plutarch was good, and so was Homer too,
Our Shakespeare’s life were rich to live again,
What Plutarch read, that was not good nor true,
Nor Shakespeare’s books, unless his books were men.
Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough,
What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town,
If juster battles are enacted now
Between the ants upon this hummock’s crown?
Bid Homer wait till I the issue learn,
If red or black the gods will favor most,
Or yonder Ajax will the phalanx turn,
Struggling to heave some rock against the host.
Tell Shakespeare to attend some leisure hour,
For now I’ve business with this drop of dew,
And see you not, the clouds prepare a shower–
I’ll meet him shortly when the sky is blue.
This bed of herd’s grass and wild oats was spread
Last year with nicer skill than monarchs use.
A clover tuft is pillow for my head,
And violets quite overtop my shoes.
And now the cordial clouds have shut all in,
And gently swells the wind to say all’s well;
The scattered drops are falling fast and thin,
Some in the pool, some in the flower-bell.
I am well drenched upon my bed of oats;
But see that globe come rolling down its stem,
Now like a lonely planet there it floats,
And now it sinks into my garment’s hem.
Drip drip the trees for all the country round,
And richness rare distills from every bough;
The wind alone it is makes every sound,
Shaking down crystals on the leaves below.
For shame the sun will never show himself,
Who could not with his beams e’er melt me so;
My dripping locks–they would become an elf,
Who in a beaded coat does gayly go.

5 Comments | posted in Moment of Zen, Poetry

July 8, 2011

Friday Funny

By Joe

This just makes me giggle.

To see what this painting is really all about, Click “Read More” below.


Les Glaneuses (The Gleaners) by François Millet, 1857

Introduction

In this depiction of the rural life of nineteenth century France, we see three female figures gathering the leftovers after the harvest. This practice – known as gleaning – was traditionally part of the natural cycle of the agricultural calendar undertaken by the poor, and was regarded as a right to unwanted leftovers. Although the practice of agricultural gleaning has gradually died away due to a number of historical factors (including industrialisation and the organisation of social welfare for the poor), there are nonetheless still people in the present day that we might understand to be gleaners.
The Painting

When The Gleaners was first exhibited in 1857 it met with mixed reviews within the art world. Some commentators attacked its depiction of the rural poor, which on the one hand served as an unwelcome reminder of the marginalized poor (who were taken to be a threat to society), and on the other hand were consider the kind of grotesques who had no place within the artistic realm. The comments of one critic named Paul de Saint Victor might be taken to illustrate such an attitude:
His three gleaners have gigantic pretensions, they pose as the Three Fates of Poverty … their ugliness and their grossness unrelieved. (in Griselda Pollock, Millet, London 1977, p.17)
Part of the shock value of Millet’s painting was undoubtedly due to the fact that in the past gleaning had usually been represented in art through the Old Testament tale of Ruth the gleaner, in which Ruth is characterised as a modest and virtuous example of the way to God, and not – as it was now – a statement on rural poverty. 

4 Comments | posted in Art, Funny, History

July 7, 2011

Smart, Studious, Involved

By Joe

The above title is how an economist describes gay male students as his data suggests that gay men do incrementally better at college than straight men, while lesbian and bisexual women do worse than their straight female peers.  “The thing that really comes out (in the data) is that gay men see academic work as more important than heterosexual men,” said study author Christopher Carpenter, an assistant professor of economics and public policy at the University of California, Irvine. “They were 1.41 times more likely to say their academic work was important. Gay male college students are more motivated to learn and more likely to be mentored than their straight counterparts, and their above-average grades suggest this kind of engagement makes a real difference.”


Those are some of the findings of an intriguing new look at sexual minorities on American college campuses, which has just been published in the journal Economics of Education Review. According to the research, which is apparently the first of its kind, gay male undergraduates appear to be doing quite well: Their grade point average is about 2 percent higher than that of straight males at the same institution.

Gay men also spend 40 to 50 percent more time doing volunteer work or participating in student organizations, according to Carpenter’s findings. “It’s possible that these organizations they belong to could include fraternities,” he said. “But I doubt that, because gay men were less likely to say participating in parties was important to them.” 


Another possible factor in their success rate: Gay male students were about 13 percent more likely than straight male students to report they had a faculty member or administrator they could talk to about a problem.


Most of my students, who I have known were gay, did much better in my classes.  The two types of students who I find to be the most driven to succeed are gay male students and non-traditional older students who are returning to school or attending for the first time later in life.  Both groups tend to be more outgoing in the classroom environment and are usually wonderful to have when a teacher is trying to lead a discussion.

So how to explain why gay guys are doing better in school?
• The attitude factor. “The thing that really comes out (in the data) is that gay men see academic work as more important than heterosexual men,” says study author Christopher Carpenter, noting gays “were 1.41 times more likely to say their academic work was important.”
• The extracurricular factor. “Gay men also spend 40 to 50 percent more time doing volunteer work or participating in student organizations,” notes Miller-McCune.com. A belief in social responsibility likely coincides with a belief in personal responsibility.
And, of course:
• The sex factor. On campuses with more male professors, there are more opportunities for gay students to engage in Grade-A-for-a-BJ!
As for why bisexual girls are doing the worst of any sexual orientation? We’re going to rely on anecdotal, and not scientific data, and conclude it’s because they’re having twice as much sex. Lucky lasses.


My main source of information for this post is from the online magazine Miller-McCune.com harnesses current academic research with real-time reporting to address pressing social concerns. Every day our contributors — researchers, policymakers and journalists — suggest solutions for today’s pressing issues in areas such as education, politics, the environment, economics, urban affairs and health.


6 Comments | posted in Miscellaneous

July 6, 2011

Today Is International Kissing Day

By Joe
Matty (left) and Bobby (right)

International Kissing Day takes place on 6 July in the UK. However, the day has now been adopted worldwide and is also known as National Kissing Day or Kissing Day.

When I think about it, the concept of a kiss is everywhere in society and has many meanings. A first kiss. A formal kiss. A passionate kiss. A kiss goodbye.

Kissing Day aims to make us appreciate a kiss in its own right. No conventions, no social norms, just a kiss. Across the globe we embrace the kiss by embracing someone else.

Competition to hold the record for the longest kiss is rife – on July 6-7, 2005, the record was set in the UK at 31 hours and 30 minutes. Then on Valentine’s Day 2009 Nikola Matovic and Kristina Reinhart from Germany set a new record of just over 32 hours. 

Two guys from the College of New Jersey named Matty Daley and Bobby Canciello set the world record for consecutive hours spent kissing, reaching 33 hours on September 19, 2010.

Sadly, on February 13, 2011, a Thai couple, husband and wife team Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat locked lips and began their quest to break the current longest kiss. After 46 hours and 24 minutes they claimed a new record for the longest kiss. Impressive!

Perhaps you can get some kissing tips from a friend before puckering up. Or delve into one of the many kissing guides that proclaim to make you the world’s best kisser!

Think of your first kiss … was it all you expected and a treasured memory or were you too nervous to really care?

Think of your sweetest kiss … a kiss from your child? A thank you kiss from your closest friend? And think of all those supposedly meaningless kisses. Next time I kiss someone I will just think about how delightful it is and not about what it ‘means’.

One of the things that I always found perplexing about gay culture is the number of guys who won’t  kiss and use the excuse that it is too intimate.  I find kissing to be natural and beautiful, but on more than one occasion when things became intimate, they guy said, “Sorry, I don’t kiss.”  The guy will have oral and anal sex, but they will not kiss.  I have never understood it.  I love kissing and have always found it to be a wonderful experience.  I doubt I will get a kiss today, but maybe some day soon I will find someone to give me that kiss.  I hope that you will get kissed today, and that you have a wonderful International Kissing Day.

Click More below for a few extra pictures of guys kissing.



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7 Comments | posted in Miscellaneous

July 5, 2011

You Will Be Missed…

By Joe

Justin at A Gay College Guy in Virginia has decided to stop blogging.  He will greatly be missed.  I have been reading his blog almost since the beginning, and have enjoyed every post.  Justin created a blog that every personal blog should strive for:  his blog was funny, a great read, sometimes it could pull at your heartstrings, but never failed to inspire.  I was not out during college, but he was and I was able, in a way, to live vicariously through him.  He is part of the reason I started blogging.

I doubt my blog will ever be as personable as his was.  First of all, not much exciting happens in my life.  The lives of most teachers and academics are not terribly exciting.  Since Justin started blogging, there have been many who have tried to emulate him, but his style was one of a kind.  I would not have wanted it any other way.

Justin will be missed not only by me, but by many others who read his blog.  As I am sure many of you will, I wish him the best of luck in his future.  Justin is a special guy, and I am sure he will go far and continue to inspire others for many years to come.

Justin said on his last post that he will leave his blog up for another week or so and then he plans on deleting it.  If you have never read Justin’s blog, I suggest you check it out while you can.

4 Comments | posted in Gay Icon, Miscellaneous