Re: [Haven for the Human Amoeba] Consecrated virgin
hello, Although I'm asexual I'm in the process of being a consecrated virgin through my church I was wondering if anybody else has that desire.....
kelly
Re: [Haven for the Human Amoeba] Now I'm Really Myself
"I used to have to live a lie as a man. Now I have to hide the fact that I once was a man." (Illustrative photo by the interviewee.) `Now I'm really myself'By Daphna Baram "It's a disease," she said in a tone that, while resigned, contained a good deal of bitterness. "God is the one who put me into this medical situation and he is the one to whom I'll give an accounting when the final day of reckoning arrives. Religious people tell me that this situation was given to me so I would overcome it and cope with it. The way I see it, this is how I'm coping with it."
I sat across from her feeling somewhat uncomfortable. What I'd known before the interview was that she is transgendered. That just a few years ago this person had worked in high-tech in England and was married to an Israeli woman. That they had had a daughter and after they divorced, she had undergone a sex-change operation. I also knew she was being prevented from seeing her daughter, or even talk to her on the phone, under the assumption that the shock would harm the girl. All this I knew, but just five minutes after I set out on the long trip from London to the remote village where she lives, the editor called me with an update: "You should know: They say she's ultra-Orthodox now."
The ultra-Orthodox woman who sat across from me didn't seem at all at a loss for words. In a measured and patient tone, she explained how she had gone from being the son of a Christian socialist family in England, to being a Rastafarian reggae musician and then an ultra-Orthodox Jew, and finally, from being a man to a woman, without abandoning her deep religious faith. She also attributed her ardent political support for Gush Katif's "orange" settlers' camp to profound religious conviction. There was just one question that brought her up short: How would she introduce herself to her little daughter, who lives in Israel, whom she has not seen for the past three years? As "Mother"? As "Father"? And what would she say to her?
She choked up for a moment and tears welled in her eyes as she turned to gaze out the window upon the beautiful landscape. "I think that I'd talk with her about music," she said at last.
For several years now, she has had no contact with her daughter. No meetings, no phone calls. Her ex-wife, the biological mother, severed all ties between them once she learned about her former husband's intention to undergo a sex-change operation. When she last met her daughter, she was still a bearded ultra-Orthodox men. Father.
How would you introduce yourself? Are you her mother?
"I'm not her mother. I'm her biological father, and right now I'm her absent father. We'll have to find my place in her life. It's hard for me to justify, explain and understand. I'm still dealing with the change. I know that it's not easy and that the renewed encounter between us will have to be conducted with sensitivity and with all the necessary psychological support. But the earlier it's done, the easier it will be. Children accept such changes more easily than adults do. The difficulties start when the child approaches adolescence and starts to deal with his own sexuality and identity. It's clear to me that an attempt is being made here to postpone the moment of our meeting more and more, and then to argue, perhaps rightly, that it will be hard for the girl to deal with me because she's already at the age of adolescence."
She currently lives with her father. Her mother died three years ago. Her brother and his two children live nearby. "The kids are 6 and 10," she says of her nephews, "and they both related to it totally naturally. To be honest, they adjusted a lot quicker than my father, who still gets confused and addresses me or talks about me as a male. My nephews always correct him. `Grandpa, it's not "he," it's "she,"' they tell him."
She mentions the nephews to show that kids do adapt quicker, and without trauma. She talks about them and is reminded of her own daughter. How does she think the child would take such news about her biological father?
"Before the separation from her mother and the operation, I tried to lay down the groundwork, to hint to her," she says. "I'm sure that it won't stun her too much. I can't remember exactly what I said to her, but I remember what she said to me. She asked: `So you're going to be a lady?' So I must have said something that invited this response. I imagine that when her mother tells her, she'll say: `Oh, is that all? I knew that a long time ago.' But these are just fantasies that are based on my hopes."
Can you picture what your future relationship with her will be like?
"Right now I'm dealing mostly with the fact that I'm not allowed to see her and with the struggle to overturn the evil decree. I'll have enough time to think about exactly how to explain to her who I am. We have a lot in common, a lot to talk about. It hurts me that I can't be there and be part of her upbringing and her intellectual development. I have a lot to give her, but maybe that's just my ego talking."
A spiritual matter
She was born a male to parents who were "secular Anglican Christians, liberal-socialists, avowed readers of The Guardian."
When did you know that you wanted to be a woman?
"I knew from age 3 that I wanted to be a girl, but there were ups and downs in the course of my life. There were periods when I felt that this desire was dominant and when it bothered me more. I realized at a very early stage that if I played dolls with the girls, it would provoke social sanctions against me, so I played soccer, but I never liked it much. My whole family is addicted to sports. My brother is stuck in front of the television no matter what sport is on. It seemed ridiculous to me, especially the throngs of spectators at the soccer games with their scarves and their anthems. It's idiotic. But I tried to toe the line."
Were you an effeminate boy?
"I was never a big macho type, but I had a motorcycle as a teenager. It went well with the image. I wasn't one of those men with a feminine appearance, but I was still always afraid that `people would be able to tell.' That's why I grew a beard, too. I also happened to hate shaving. It's such a masculine act and it also toughens the skin."
Years of hiding behind a thick beard apparently did their part for her face: Her skin would be the envy of any woman over 30. "It's what I found when I got rid of the beard," she laughs. "It was worth it to avoid shaving all those years."
For many years, she didn't share with anyone her dream of becoming a woman. As a man, he was involved in music and wandered about with a reggae group. "I had dreadlocks all down my back and a beard to my waist," she explains. He also moved to London and worked in the computer and technical writing fields. "I was just trying to make a little money so that I could devote myself to what I really wanted to do - which was to work in music."
The involvement in reggae and the proximity to the Jamaican community brought him to the Rastafarian religion, which eventually led him to Judaism. "I read the Old Testament and came to the conclusion that the Old Testament and the New Testament didn't reconcile themselves with each other, and that Christianity, on which I was raised is, pardon me, total nonsense. I started to learn Hebrew so I could read the Bible in the original."
Do you speak Hebrew?
"Not really, but I can understand the Bible."
Her English, with its light, northern accent, is occasionally laced with Hebrew words. The next stage was conversion, through the rabbinical court of London, after intensive study. "My interest in Judaism from the start was totally spiritual and intellectual, and less social. I didn't come to this because I knew Jews or because I had Jewish friends."
He divided his time between work in technical writing and Jewish studies. "It was terrific. I worked 20 hours a week and made more than I'd ever made before, and the studies fascinated me. I had a small apartment in south London, and my desire to be a woman disturbed me less in that period. One of the indications was that I almost completely stopped dressing in women's clothes at home. I'd never gone to those kinds of clubs, but at home I would sometimes wear dresses. It's also the reason that I went along with attempts to fix me up. I thought I'd become normal."
Friends from the synagogue, Israelis, introduced him to an Israeli woman who later married him. "She called them to ask if they had an apartment to rent and they said, `No, but we've got a husband for you.' I said I wasn't interested."
So how did you end up marrying?
"They kept pushing. You know how Israelis are and how they can nag you when they want to. Also, it wasn't that I definitely didn't want to get married. I felt like my gender issues were under control, but it was a perpetual struggle to try to be normal. My ex-wife now thinks that I deceived her, but it's not true. I really believed that it was behind me, that it was in the past."
Did you tell her about your desire to be a woman?
"No, because I knew from past experience that it was a recipe for disaster. That it was ammunition that could always be used against me during an argument or quarrel. Not only did I avoid talking with her about it, I didn't talk about it with a living soul, except for when I told the rabbi about it when I was going through the conversion. I felt that I couldn't hide it if I wanted to honestly join the Jewish religion. The rabbi sent me to a psychologist who confirmed that this issue didn't affect my commitment to convert. For the rabbi, that was enough."
On the eve of your marriage, how did you see your sexual identity? Were you a homosexual?
"No, never. I had girlfriends before then. I lived for six or seven years with a Jamaican girl. I didn't have a problem functioning as a man. I'm almost certainly an asexual person in general. I'm not particularly attracted to men or women and sex isn't a subject that especially interests me. I don't have a lot of sex drive in any direction."
What makes a person without a sex drive go through such a radical thing as a sex change?
"A lot of people mistakenly think that transgenderism is motivated by strong sexual drives, but they're totally missing the point. The question isn't to whom you're attracted or if you're attracted, but who you are. Who do you think you are? With whom do you identify? What is your `identity of origin,' as one of my psychologists called it. When all the costumes are stripped from you - nationality, work, language - what's left in the end is this identity. It can't be changed. For me, it's something that always floats on the surface when things aren't working out."
Like a Shas MK
In the wedding pictures, he is escorted by his parents, who are both much shorter than he is. His mother wears a hat and a flowered dress, in keeping with British custom; his father smiles shyly. The groom's beard, which in earlier pictures hung to his knees in Elijah-the-prophet style, was trimmed for the occasion. He strongly resembles a Shas MK.
The marriage was not a great success: "She complained that I didn't give her enough attention. Judaism was the only thing we had in common. She wasn't especially religious when we met, but she became more so, following me. I felt that I was giving up more and more - with respect to my studies, where we lived, music and reading. She worked at odd jobs before the marriage and then she stopped working. And then she wanted us to move to Israel. I agreed in the hope that there she would find employment and I'd have more space."
The couple moved to Israel, but he was dissatisfied with the work situation. "I had 12 years of experience in technical writing and they expected me to start from the beginning and earn a sixth of what I was making in London. The attitude was humiliating."
She decided to keep on working in London and to live in both cities. "I worked for a large computer company and I had a very good contract that enabled me to work part of the time from home, so I would be in London for two weeks and then spend a week at home. It paid financially despite all the flights."
How did your wife and daughter manage with the distance?
"My wife and I grew further apart. The contract in London ended and I got another job in a different computer company in Europe. It was a less convenient arrangement in terms of the traveling, though the salary was more or less the same. I had to fly to Israel every Friday, an hour before the start of Shabbat, and fly back very early Monday morning to get there on time for work. To make up the lost work hours, I used to work every day until 10 at night. It was exhausting, married life was difficult and I got less and less support in my marriage. I got tired. The signs of distress surrounding my sexual identity reappeared."
Thoughts of suicide
On her 40th birthday, she sat in a small apartment in a European city waiting for a congratulatory phone call from her wife and daughter, and the phone didn't ring. "It was obvious that divorce was just a matter of time. I knew that it couldn't go on this way. The issue of sexuality again became oppressive and disturbing. I couldn't talk about it with my wife. As it was, we had our knives drawn and it would just have given her ammunition against me.
"One night I was sitting in my car near my office and I thought about pressing on the gas pedal, driving into the wall in front of me and committing suicide. A lot of transgenders kill themselves out of distress, alienation and loneliness. I was always afraid of it also because of the lifestyle that often entails change: a life of prostitution, of struggling for survival. But now I understood that something had to change, transgenderism was again rearing its ugly head, and I had to do something about it.
"I started going to psychotherapy. I didn't specifically plan to undergo a sex change, and if things with my wife hadn't reached a crisis, I might not have done it, but she was also fed up with the marriage and asked for a divorce. In July 2001 the psychologists diagnosed me as suffering from a sexual identity disorder - in laymen's terms, as a transsexual. It's an illness and it has a cure. The only recognized cure today is a sex-change operation."
Did the diagnosis come as a relief to you?
"Certainly. At last I had a disease with a name and a defined solution."
How did your parents react?
"My parents were visiting me at the time I was diagnosed, and I told them everything. They weren't thrilled about it, but they were already used to me doing strange things. Also, the fact that it was a medical condition made it easier for them to accept. They told me that they would support me, whatever I did."
And at work?
"After the divorce, I started to plan the transformation. I talked with my boss at the computer company and she said that she had no problem with it; that the company encourages difference and diversity among its employees. The plan was to have the operation in the spring. I was supposed to leave for my Passover vacation as a man and come back to work afterward as a woman. And that's what happened, but when I came back, my boss wasn't there anymore. She'd gotten sick. One member of the team had been put in charge of the department and she decided to get rid of me.
"Within a few weeks of the surgery, my world fell apart. I was unemployed, stuck in a forgien city with hormonal treatments and I couldn't find a job. I borrowed money on the assumption that I would soon find work. And then I found out that my mother was dying of cancer. The doctors estimated that she had six months to live."
The court rules
Meanwhile, things in Israel were getting more complicated as well. From the time of the divorce up until the surgery, she had paid alimony as required and regularly came to Israel and stayed in a hotel. "My wife would bring our daughter to me and we would spend the weekend together. On Sunday mornings, I'd take her to kindergarten and then fly back to Europe."
Confident that the divorce issues were all settled, she gave in to her wife's pressure and confessed her intention to change her gender. "As soon as I did, my fate was sealed." From that moment on the ex-wife has prevented any contact between the father who changed his gender and their child.
After her mother's death, she returned to England to live with her father. She couldn't find work and and in her current financial situation, she cannot come to Israel anyway; all she wants is to talk on the phone with the child. Every so often she is able to get a contract to work from home, but her income is very limited and she is dependent on her father. For two years now, she hasn't made the alimony payments of approximately 500 pounds sterling (over NIS 4,000) a month. Now she is seeking the legal advice of an English-born Israeli lawyer Jonathan De Frece (see box).
In the meantime, the daughter is growing up and drawing closer to adolescence. Her renewed acquaintance with her father will only become more difficult, not only because of the sex change, but because of the length of time that has passed since they last met. The woman who was her father believes that this is precisely the other side's objective.
"The last time I saw my daughter was a few years ago, and the last time I spoke with her on the telephone was about a year after that, and since then I haven't been able to call. I sent her a few packages together with my father. My wife wrote to my father and thanked him for the packages and sent a picture of the girl. I received another picture, from about a year ago, from a relative of my wife. I don't even know where she goes to school."
One-woman seder
She did not receive a rabbi's blessing before undergoing her sex-change operation. "I have a friend in Jerusalem who is a rabbi and he suggested that I speak with a rabbi in Efrat who he said had experience in these things, but I thought that he would only try to persuade me not to have the surgery. As I saw it, there was no point in trying to convince me that I wasn't in a special medical situation that required an operation."
Why did you remain religious?
"Why not? I believe in God and I believe in the Jewish religion. I know that the sex-change operation entails the transgression of several commandments, but first of all, these are not commandments whose transgression merits death, unlike Shabbat observance, for example, and second, there's no reason that a person who has transgressed certain commandments should be obligated by other ones. I observe Shabbat, keep kosher and pray."
Are you a member of a community? Do you have a rabbi?
"This is an isolated village. The only synagogue is 15 kilometers away and they only have services on Shabbat and holidays. Actually, it's not just the distance - the distance is almost reasonable - but I don't yet want to deal with exposure to the community. I don't want to embarrass other people, to look for trouble. Maybe some day, if I move back to a big city, to London or Manchester, I'll want to be involved in the community again."
What do you do on Shabbat and holidays?
"I'm alone. I light candles, observe the holiday. For the last seder I was here alone. I held a seder by myself. I was supposed to be the guest of some friends in London, but someone in the community found out and talked to them. They didn't cancel the invitation, but they told me that they'd had an unpleasant conversation with this person and I decided to spare them the embarrassment and to cancel my visit."
She is in touch with a number of Jewish transgenders in the world via the Internet. "It's not a huge community, but there are some other people like me. One of the reasons that I'm talking about it today, beyond the struggle over my right to see my daughter, is my solidarity with these people. It can't go on this way. In the end, they'll have to come out. I know a transgender who went from being a woman to being a man and is now learning at a yeshiva in Israel. No one knows about him. It's a life of absolute and unjustified loneliness. The halakha (Jewish law) has found a way to deal with all kinds of illnesses. The time has come to deal with this, too. It's pikuah nefesh (a matter of life and death)."
Only the lies have changed
Thunder starts to rumble in the afternoon and a summer storm shakes the trees. "I'm ambivalent about the rural areas of England," she says. "On the one hand, you have all of this beauty, but on the other, there's the middle-class provinciality and conservatism. There's no culture here, there's no music, and whenever they do bring something in from London it's always boring and predictable."
Do you go out? Do you have any kind of social life?
"Once in a while. For example, this evening I'm going to the local pub and participating in a jam session. It's nice actually - everyone brings his instrument and plays with total spontaneity. It's been years since I had a band, but I grew up in the time when the whole reggae scene and the punk and rock scene were booming all over England. It was a fascinating time, culturally and politically."
There's something a little odd about listening to an ultra-Orthodox woman knowledgeably analyzing the political and musical nuances of The Clash. When I comment on this, she smiles.
Since the operation, have you had any romantic relationships?
"No, and I'm also not interested in that kind of connection. I'm not missing a mate. I just want to be left in peace, to make my music. I'm happier than I ever was, and I admit that that's not saying much. It's simply the right thing. I'm living in my true body now. I'm not a pretty woman and I don't have a pretty voice, but now I'm myself. It's an awful cliche, but I feel at one with the universe. I feel much more self-confidence from inside and much less from outside. When I was a man, I fit into the surroundings, but I was foreign to myself from inside. Now I feel the opposite. Inner peace, but a lack of confidence in my body, in my appearance, externally."
Welcome to the woman's world.
"Yes, apparently it comes with the hormones. In the end, all that changed is the type of lies I have to tell the world. I used to have to live a lie as a man. Now I have to hide the fact that I used to be a man. It's all the same."
Where do you see yourself in another 10 years?
"Wow, I never thought I'd even reach this age. In 10 years my daughter will not be a minor anymore. I hope that she'll be here with me, or at least that I'll have regular contact with her. It's strange: When I was a man, I could imagine myself as an old and shrunken Jewish man with a long white beard. But since the change, I haven't been able to imagine myself as a shrunken old woman with long white hair."
Copyright var nYear = new Date();nYear = nYear.getFullYear();document.write (nYear); 2005 Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/620113.html
"Asexuality: its not just for amoebas anymore"
"Asexuality: its not just for amoebas anymore" Posted by Cerulean on September 12, 2005 03:43 AM (See all posts by Cerulean) Filed under: Culture - Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your own.
People with no desire to connect sexually with another person now have their own website. Its run by AVEN, or Asexual Visibility and Education Network. I found the site's content itself to be disappointingly rational. They arent trying to recruit anyone or decry sexuals, as they call us. They are just people who find themselves without the need to have sex with anyone.
The site is well put together and the members are apparently being tapped by journalists from as far away as Finland to discuss their unusual proclivities. Asexuality is very hot right now.
They have some great T-shirts. One, which I quoted in the title, declares, Asexuality: its not just for amoebas anymore. Another sports a flaming A. Others say, No sex please and This is what an asexual looks like.
I think it would be funny to go around wearing the amoeba t-shirt but maybe Im too old. I also have failed to purchase a Bat Boy t-shirt depicting him on the cover of the Weekly World News tabloid and I have failed to follow through on my plan to manufacture T-shirts which say, Im Not Pregnant, Im Fat and alternatively, Im not Fat, Im Pregnant* and market them to men and women of all sizes. Maybe you want to follow through on the last one for me. Just send me some free t-shirts in extra large. Thank you.
To buy t-shirts AVEN's asexuality celebrating t-shirts, click here.
To see their website, click here.
*actual t-shirt in the seventies
copyright Blogcritics.org and the respective authors
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/12/034327.php
Re: [Haven for the Human Amoeba] Savage Love
Savage Love by Dan Savage September 6th, 2005 1:00 PM
Q. How can I tell if I'm asexual? Is it a legitimate orientation, or am I just a seething ball of neuroses? Sex does nothing for me. I can't orgasm (even when I attempt masturbation), so my husband doesn't go there. That's fine by me. I hate my people parts. At any rate, I apparently perform good fellatio, so the no-intercourse thing isn't such an issue. My marriage seems fine; we laugh and share the same lefty values and cuddle. When he has needs he fondles my breasts and nuzzles me; this indicates "go down on me now, please." So I do. However, I feel nothing. Is that normal? I'm well-adjusted otherwise, a productive member of society and all that. I am cheerful, good-humored, and pretty too. Are some people simply not wired to be into sex? I'm certainly into love. I feel very passionate about my husband and my friends, but it's completely cerebral. If it's of any use, I'm 31 and I dislike pooping too. Basically: Am I fucked-up? Is it OK to not be sexual? Should my sorry butt be in therapy? Insert Name Here A. After the results of a study on asexuality were published in the Journal of Sex Research in August 2004, a new sexual-minority group began taking its turn upon the wicked stage. Everyone from the BBC to Salon to the New Scientist weighed in on the 1 percent of the population that, according to U.K. researchers, "had never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all." The go-to guy for quotes and insights into asexuality was David Jay, a 23-year-old asexual from St. Louis and the founder of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (asexuality.org). We'll get to Jay's insights into your case in a second, INH, but first I have to say that asexuality, as I understand it, is an indifference to sex. Reading your letter, I didn't sense indifference, just disgustwith people parts, with pooping. There's asexuality and then there's being repulsed by sex, known as "sexual aversion disorder." That's a horse fucker of a different color. So, yeah, I would describe you as fucked-up and order you to get your sorry butt into therapy. For a second opinion we turn now to David Jay: "Show me anyone, sexual or asexual, who isn't in some way fucked-up and I'll gag," says Jay. "The question she should be asking herself is not 'Am I fucked-up?' but 'Do I need sex to be happy?' It doesn't sound like she does, but the question is probably worth exploring with a best friend and a six-pack. If she concludes that she needs sex in her life, then there's an industry that will be more than happy to serve her." But if you conclude that sex just isn't for you, Jay would advise you to take stock of your situation from a nonsexual standpoint. "You've got what sounds like a great husband who you love and great friends. Instead of focusing your energy on worrying about sex (which up to now has been nothing but boring), focus on further exploring the things that you actually find pleasurable." And your husband's needs? "I wouldn't be that worried about your husband," Jay says. "If he had some overwhelming need to have more sex he probably would have mentioned it by now." Hmm. I respectfully dissent. While it's possible that your husband is content with the odd perfunctory blowjob, it's more likely that he doesn't press the matter because he loves you. But he probably misses women's people parts, INH, and one day the opportunity to fuck the shit out of another woman's people parts is going to present itself and he'll seize it. And this, I think, will be the ultimate test of your asexual cred. If you don't think sex is important, then it shouldn't matter to you if your husband does this hugely unimportant thing with someone else every once in a while.
Copyright 2005 Village Voice Media, Inc., 36 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003 The Village Voice and Voice are registered trademarks
http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0536,savage,67575,24.html
FEMA to the Rescue
FEMA to the Rescue The essentials prep work.
FEMA to the Rescue
[On seeing the suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, a close friend of mine contacted his local FEMA office to offer his services as a volunteer. He was told to report the following morning for an Orientation Class. All volunteers, he was told, must complete this class before being sent into the disaster area. My friend kindly provided me with a copy of the class schedule. I have reproduced the first two pages of the schedule below.]
Week One: The Volunteer as Citizen
Day 1: Diversity Awareness
The area affected by Hurricane Katrina includes a diverse population of many ethnicities, national origins, immigrations statuses, and faith traditions. In carrying out relief work, it is important that our workers and volunteers exhibit proper sensitivity to relief recipients from all backgrounds. Volunteers will undergo appropriate training, including the privilege walk, basic Spanish-language instruction, and brief study of passages from the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammachakkappavattana Sutra, and the collected speeches of Marcus Garvey.
Day 2: Harassment Awareness
Volunteers working with FEMA employees come under the scope of federal rules on sexual harassment, as set out in relevant EEOC guidelines. These guidelines will be reviewed and discussed. All volunteers must demonstrate full awareness of sexual harassment issues, both as they apply to other aid workers and volunteers, and as affecting aid recipients. Class events will include a taped lecture by Prof. Anita Hill, class staging of a one-act drama Tailhook Torment, and the ever-popular Packwood Piata.
Day 3: Profiling Avoidance
Few behaviors give more offense, and few are as inimical to social harmony, as profiling. In our efforts to restore the social environment in the disaster area, we must strenuously avoid all appearance of profiling. All aid recipients must be dealt with on a basis of strict equality. In this workshop, attendees will study and discuss police profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike, airport security screening procedures, and the maligh effects of stereotyping on academic performance. This days session also includes a one-hour written test to screen volunteers for Islamophobia.
Day 4: GLBTQA Awareness
Our country has a dark record of oppression and discrimination towards orientational minorities. Because of this, we need to show particular sensitivity towards aid recipients from the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning, and asexual minorities. This days session will involve group case studies led by qualified, credentialed GLBTQA-awareness trainers, including HIV-positive persons. Rubber gloves, condoms, and dental dams will be supplied.
Day 5: Liability Awareness
While the federal government and its agencies are exempt from most liability issues, volunteers who are not federal employees need to be aware of their susceptibility to lawsuits alleging nuisance, negligence, trespass, etc.
Experienced courtroom professionals will address the class, and there will be a case study: Punishing Good Deeds The Good Samaritan as Defendant.
Week Two: The Volunteer as Custodian of the Environment
Day 1: Diversity in Nature Protecting Endangered Species.
When conducting disaster-relief operations, we must bear in mind that the environment exists not only for humans, but for our friends in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Wetland species are especially vulnerable
* * *
http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire200509150838.asp
No Sex, No Problem
No Sex, No Problem
There's a new movement in which members openly declare their lack of interest in ever having sex.
Undated -- David Jay considers himself pretty much an average guy.
"I go to work everyday. I like to workout. I've got a whole slew of friends," says David. Victoria Glancey says she leads a pretty basic life, too. She likes to ready, is writing a novel and is excited about her new boyfriend.
"We're incredibly mushy and obnoxious and we drive all our friends crazy," says Victoria.
But while Victoria's gushing affection may seem typical of any budding relationship, there is a difference. She has no interest in having sex, ever! David can understand that. He has no sexual desires either.
"Sex is never a thing that it made sense for me to do," says David.
David and Victoria are part of a growing number of people publicly declaring themselves 'asexual'. David even started an online discussion forum called the Asexual Visibility and Education Network.
"People just started pouring in from all over the world with similar experiences saying, ya know, 'I'm not interested in sexuality; I don't experience sexual attraction," says David.
The group now has more than $4,000 members. They sell T-shirts touting their lifestyle and hand out pamphlets explaining that they're normal and perfectly happy with their lives.
"There are asexual people who are old, who are young, who are male and female," says David. He says some asexuals are happy on their own. Others, like Victoria, are interested in romantic partners, minus the sex.
"I am in a relationship. I met him on the site. He's asexual as well. There's just a level of intimacy there," says Victoria.
Experts say the causes of asexuality are unclear.
"We haven't had any serious empirical or scientific investigation of people with this claim," says Edward Laumann, a human sexuality expert.
Laumann says before people label themselves asexuals, they should first rule out reasons for lack of libido or a dip in desire, like hormone deficiencies and other medical conditions or even deep rooted emotional issues.
"There are plenty of reasons why people become uninterested in sex. They can have a bad love affair, they could have been treated badly," says Laumann.
But both David and Victoria say they feel fine, and know there's nothing about them that needs to be fixed.
"I'd just like everyone to know, ya know, that we're normal, we're not bizarre," says Victoria.
"There's a lot more to life than sexuality", adds David.
http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=48824
No sex is a natural state for some
No sex is a natural state for some Asexuals are finding acceptance, community through new Internet groups
MARY DUENWALD
New York Times
Birds do it, bees do it. But not necessarily all of them. Among bees, the sisters of queens do not engage in sex. And in certain species of birds -- Florida scrub jays, for one -- some individuals, known as helpers, do not breed but only help the breeders raise their offspring.
Could indifference to sex extend to humans, too? An increasing number of people say yes and offer themselves as proof. They describe themselves as asexual, and they call their condition normal, not the result of confused sexual orientation, a fear of intimacy or a temporary lapse of desire. They would like the world to understand that they can live their entire lives happily without ever having sex.
"People think they need to convert you," said Cijay Morgan, 42, a telephone saleswoman in Edmonton, Alberta, and a self-professed asexual. "They can understand if you don't like country music or onion rings or if you aren't interested in learning how to whistle, but they can't accept someone not wanting sex. What they don't understand is that a lot of asexuals don't wish to be quote-unquote fixed."
Considering the pervasive advertising for drugs to enhance sexual performance, the efforts to market a testosterone patch to boost sexual desire in women and the ubiquity of sexual references in pop culture, it is not surprising that those professing no sex drive whatsoever have been misunderstood, or at least overlooked. Only one scientific survey seems to have been done. And many experts in human sexuality, when told there is a growing Internet community of people calling themselves asexual, say they have not heard of it. Yet most of those experts find the concept unsurprising.
Three-fourths of the patients who go to the Center for Sexual Medicine at Boston University lack any sex drive, said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, its director, who is also the editor of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. "We call that HSDD, hypoactive sexual desire disorder," he said.
Lack of interest in sex is not necessarily a disorder nor even a problem, however, Goldstein quickly added, unless it causes distress -- if it leads, for instance, to conflict within a marriage or romantic relationship.
Asexual people often say they have been aware of their lack of interest in sex since adolescence and that while it may have troubled them, they never knew anything different. "I realized I was asexual about the same time I realized I was short, when I was about 15," said Morgan of Edmonton, who is 5 feet 1. "I realized I was short when everyone grew taller than me, and I realized I didn't have sexual feelings when everyone else started expressing and experimenting with theirs."
The Internet has provided a platform for people calling themselves asexual to announce their collective existence. The anonymity of the Web makes it easier to converse about the topic, said Todd Niquette, 36, a systems analyst in St. Paul, Minn., and a member of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, an Internet group. With more than 4,000 registered participants, it is the largest such community of asexuals. "What we're really trying to find out is: How can I feel less alone in this?" Niquette said.
One might assume that by avoiding sex and all the emotions and responsibilities that go with it, let alone the health risks, asexuals might have a comparatively easy life.
"But I think we exchange all that for a different set of trouble," said David Jay, 23, who founded the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. "Sex is very central to life in a lot of ways, and one of the real challenges of being asexual is trying to figure out where you fit."
Asexuals say they are often told that they will change when they meet the right person or when circumstances change, but those predictions do not ring true to them.
"Why do I need sexuality in my life so much that I should divert my time and energy to finding out what it is that will turn me on?" Jay asked.
People often experience periods of asexuality. Many married couples give up sex after a number of years, said Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and the author of "Everything You Know About Love and Sex Is Wrong." "Some people are relieved to not only back-burner sex, but to no-burner it," she said.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/12736571.htm?source=rss&channel=charlotte_living
LGBTQ 101
LGBTQ 101By Observer Viewpoint Published: Wednesday, October 5, 2005
To my irritation, everyone I meet automatically assumes that I am straight.
Of course, I am not actually bothered by this, except on a bemused and superficial level, since - having been out for some time - I am quite comfortable with myself, and anyway if I were concerned with what most people think of me, I would not be a columnist.
However, it is puzzling to me, since I have outed myself in this newspaper on five separate occasions (albeit, usually in fairly subtle ways), and still people who have read my column, and with whom I am otherwise well acquainted, continue to assume my heterosexuality. It seems that I neither look nor act like I should be gay, and this plays a nontrivial role in how some people interpret what I say and do. I wonder if my years at Notre Dame would have been more complicated if I had been less straight-acting.
It is because of these subtle biases, like those that people have about a gay person's appearance, that I fear that the vast majority of people on this campus are not equipped to have a remotely profitable discussion about gays and lesbians, their emerging role in society and the pros and cons of contemporary gay culture. Some lack the proper vocabulary, or have only the most rudimentary idea of what being gay means to a gay person or worst of all, get their stereotypes from Bravo, Showtime or Genesis. Given all of this, it is no wonder that the level of discussion about gays in this paper almost never rises above dogmatism and heterosexist sophistry, with the occasional childish rant.
There is not a great deal that I can do about all this from the vantage of a newspaper, but at the very least I can give a basic lesson in vocabulary and then address one extremely common underlying misunderstanding.
First, for those who find themselves confused, the preferred terms for referring to persons who are attracted (physically, romantically and/or emotionally) to members of the same gender are "gay" (adjective), "gay person" (singular) and "gay people" (plural). These forms are useful because they are gender neutral and implicitly include bisexual subjects; however the gender-specific terms "gay man" and "lesbian" are also acceptable in any situation. The increasingly common term "queer" is slightly more dangerous, since it is still seen as offensive by some. It is usually a synonym for gay, however if used in reference to a person it can also mean "gay in an undefined way."
Obviously terms like "fag," "homo," and "dyke" are always highly offensive. However, the term "homosexual" is also derogatory and should never be used, as many - myself included - increasingly find it offensive. Likewise avoid any propaganda terms like "gay agenda," "avowed homosexual" or "gay lifestyle," which are laced with false assumptions.
Probably the most common, and unfortunate, assumption that people have about gays is that their lives revolve around sex, and that accepting oneself as gay is a fundamentally erotic definition. One would think, to read the opposition, that gay rights is a matter of fighting over who gets to [have sex with] whom and how, and possibly the right to post pornography on billboards outside of grade schools. (Mind you, some of the opposition would consider two women holding hands to be pornography...)
Accepting oneself as gay is a sexual definition, but only for a given value of "sex." Sexuality is a profoundly holistic concept that touches every aspect of life. For example, Notre Dame's basic social building block is the gender-segregated dorm, and the most intimate passages in the Hebrew Scriptures frame spirituality as a conjugal union with God. Sexuality runs more broadly and more deeply through the human person than many are willing to admit.
It is also more complex. Consider the definition of a gay person I gave earlier: someone who is physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to the same gender. Psychologists distinguish between physical and emotional attraction, which together make up most of a person's sexual orientation. Emotional attraction is the desire to build a lasting and intimate relationship with another person.
It may surprise you to learn that there are a growing number of people, some of them gay, who refer to themselves as asexual and who are not physically attracted to others in the classical sense. Yet these people are still compelled to seek out lasting and intimate relationships with others - certainly ones that go beyond mere friendship - even though the relationships have little, if anything, to do with physical sexuality. This is an example of emotional attraction operating independently of physical attraction.
My point in all of this is that the landscape of human sexuality, for both gay and straight people, is more complicated than is usually appreciated. It defies simple or narrow definitions and touches many different aspects of a person's life.
On a side note, Tuesday, Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day. If you are planning on making an entrance, I wish you the best; if you are not - well, consider it.
Lance Gallop is a 2005 graduate of Notre Dame. His column appears every other Wednesday. He can be contacted at comments@...
http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/paper660/news/2005/10/05/Viewpoint/Lgbtq.101-1009125.shtml?page=2
New Pride Alliance sponsors Awareness Week until Oct. 16
New Pride Alliance sponsors Awareness Week until Oct. 16By: Alison CurranIssue date: 10/12/05 Section: News
GLBTQIA Awareness Week, an event designed to spread the awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexed, asexual and ally issues on campus, kicked off on Saturday and will run through Oct. 16.
Sponsored by new student group Pride Alliance, Awareness Week focuses on educating the Washington University student body on GLBTQIA matters, as well as providing social activities, said junior Tom Giarla, the Pride Alliance's co-president.
Pride Alliance formed when Spectrum Alliance and Outright merged earlier this year. The group's mission includes education, activism and social activities.
"There is a new motivation and a new drive to get people aware and involved," said Giarla.
Already, the group has hosted a number of events during Pride Week, including a parent/family discussion over Parents Weekend, a night of "guerilla flyering," and a coming out story exchange earlier in the week. For the remainder of the week, the Pride Alliance has organized a City Museum trip for Friday, and a viewing of "The Laramie Project" film on Sunday. "The Laramie Project" tells the story of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was brutally beaten to death in 1998 because of his homosexuality.
Giarla instructed students to make the most of the week.
"Educate yourself. It seems like people are misinformed. Go out and get educated," he said. "We want to make sure people know we are here. We want people to know they have resources."
Pride Alliance stressed the importance of ally involvement in GLBTQIA awareness. "This is important for allies, too," said sophomore Lori Weingarten, the co-president of Pride Alliance. "GLBQTIA issues affect everyone's lives," she added.
GLBTQIA Awareness Week is not just a University activity, said Weingarten. "This happens at campuses all over," she said. Weingarten explained that the week's timing has to do with National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, and the anniversary Matthew Shepard's death on Oct. 16.
Throughout the week Pride Alliance will have a table in Mallinckrodt, where they will be selling shirts and spreading awareness of GLBTQIA issues. Giarla and Weingarten encourage interested students to stop by the tables and sign up for the group's e-mail list. For those unable to visit the table, Pride Alliance can be reached by e-mail at pride@....
Pride Alliance's efforts to raise GLBTQIA awareness do not stop after this week. The group has planned several projects for the remainder of the year, including a week of programming surrounding Transgender Day of Remembrance, several visiting speakers, and Safe Zones education. The first-year group plans to grow and develop throughout the year.
http://www.studlife.com/media/paper337/news/2005/10/12/News/New-Pride.Alliance.Sponsors.Awareness.Week.Until.Oct.16-1017758.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.studlife.com function jump(x) { if (x == 'next') { if (currentpage == paragraph.length) { currentpage = 1; } else { currentpage = currentpage*1+1; } } else { if (currentpage == 1) { currentpage = paragraph.length; } else { currentpage = currentpage-1; } } return currentpage; } function getThisPage() { currentURL = '' + document.location; thispageresult = ''; if (currentURL.indexOf("?page=") > -1) { currentURL = currentURL.substring(0, currentURL.indexOf('?page=')); thispageresult = currentURL; } else if (currentURL.indexOf("&page=") > -1) { currentURL = currentURL.substring(0, currentURL.indexOf('&page=')); thispageresult = currentURL; } else if (isPseudoURL()) { currentURL = '/news/' + story_id + '.html'; thispageresult = currentURL; } else { thispageresult = currentURL; } // Make sure the URL generated by this fuctnion is compatible with mirror image. thispageresult = thispageresult.substring(7, thispageresult.length); thispageresult = thispageresult.substring(thispageresult.indexOf('/')+1, thispageresult.length); thispageresult = basehref + thispageresult; if (thispageresult.indexOf('sourcedomain') > -1) { thispageresult = thispageresult.substring(0, thispageresult.indexOf('?')); } return thispageresult; } function getPageJumpDelim(currentURL) { delimiterToUse = '?'; if (currentURL.indexOf("?") > -1) delimiterToUse = ''; return delimiterToUse; } function isPseudoURL() { if (document.location.toString().indexOf(".html") > -1) { return true; } else { return false; } } function writeContinued(currentpage, paragraph) { if (currentpage != paragraph.length) { document.write(' Continued...
'); } } function writeNavigation(showpage,paragraph) { document.write('Article Tools:'); createPrevButton(showpage,paragraph); document.write('Page ' + showpage + ' of ' + paragraph.length); document.write(''); createNextButton(showpage,paragraph); document.write(''); } function revealPage(showpage,paragraph) { document.write(paragraph[showpage-1]); } function goPage(direction) { document.location = getThisPage() + getPageJumpDelim(getThisPage()) + 'page='+jump(direction, paragraph); } function createNextButton(currentpage,paragraph) { if (currentpage != paragraph.length) { document.write(''); } else { document.write(''); } } function createPrevButton(currentpage,paragraph) { if (currentpage != 1) { document.write(''); } else { document.write(''); } } paragraph = new Array();paragraph[0] = ' Media Credit: Alwyn Loh Awareness Week participants take a break from flyering Monday evening in the underpass. Pride Alliance\'s flyering campaign and painting of the underpass are just two of the ways students on campus are seeking to raise awareness about GLBTQIA issues.
GLBTQIA Awareness Week, an event designed to spread the awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexed, asexual and ally issues on campus, kicked off on Saturday and will run through Oct. 16.
Sponsored by new student group Pride Alliance, Awareness Week focuses on educating the Washington University student body on GLBTQIA matters, as well as providing social activities, said junior Tom Giarla, the Pride Alliance\'s co-president.
Pride Alliance formed when Spectrum Alliance and Outright merged earlier this year. The group\'s mission includes education, activism and social activities.
"There is a new motivation and a new drive to get people aware and involved," said Giarla.
Already, the group has hosted a number of events during Pride Week, including a parent/family discussion over Parents Weekend, a night of "guerilla flyering," and a coming out story exchange earlier in the week. For the remainder of the week, the Pride Alliance has organized a City Museum trip for Friday, and a viewing of "The Laramie Project" film on Sunday. "The Laramie Project" tells the story of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was brutally beaten to death in 1998 because of his homosexuality.
Giarla instructed students to make the most of the week.
"Educate yourself. It seems like people are misinformed. Go out and get educated," he said. "We want to make sure people know we are here. We want people to know they have resources."
Pride Alliance stressed the importance of ally involvement in GLBTQIA awareness. "This is important for allies, too," said sophomore Lori Weingarten, the co-president of Pride Alliance. "GLBQTIA issues affect everyone\'s lives," she added.
GLBTQIA Awareness Week is not just a University activity, said Weingarten. "This happens at campuses all over," she said. Weingarten explained that the week\'s timing has to do with National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, and the anniversary Matthew Shepard\'s death on Oct. 16.
Throughout the week Pride Alliance will have a table in Mallinckrodt, where they will be selling shirts and spreading awareness of GLBTQIA issues. Giarla and Weingarten encourage interested students to stop by the tables and sign up for the group\'s e-mail list. For those unable to visit the table, Pride Alliance can be reached by e-mail at pride@....
Pride Alliance\'s efforts to raise GLBTQIA awareness do not stop after this week. The group has planned several projects for the remainder of the year, including a week of programming surrounding Transgender Day of Remembrance, several visiting speakers, and Safe Zones education. The first-year group plans to grow and develop throughout the year. '; var currentpage = 1; if(typeof(QueryString('page')) != 'undefined') { currentpage=QueryString('page'); } if (currentpage paragraph.length) currentpage = 1; writeNavigation(currentpage, paragraph); document.write(' '); document.write(''); revealPage(currentpage, paragraph); document.write(''); writeContinued(currentpage, paragraph); document.write(' '); writeNavigation(currentpage, paragraph);
=?iso-8859-7?q?=C8=DD=EC=E1:=20[Haven=20for=20the=20Human=20Amoeba]=20New?= =?iso-8859-7?q?=20Pride=20Alliance=20sponsors=20Awareness=20Week=20until=20?= =?iso-8859-7?q?Oct.=2016?=
New Pride Alliance sponsors Awareness Week until Oct. 16By: Alison CurranIssue date: 10/12/05 Section: News
GLBTQIA Awareness Week, an event designed to spread the awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexed, asexual and ally issues on campus, kicked off on Saturday and will run through Oct. 16.
Sponsored by new student group Pride Alliance, Awareness Week focuses on educating the Washington University student body on GLBTQIA matters, as well as providing social activities, said junior Tom Giarla, the Pride Alliance's co-president.
Pride Alliance formed when Spectrum Alliance and Outright merged earlier this year. The group's mission includes education, activism and social activities.
"There is a new motivation and a new drive to get people aware and involved," said Giarla.
Already, the group has hosted a number of events during Pride Week, including a parent/family discussion over Parents Weekend, a night of "guerilla flyering," and a coming out story exchange earlier in the week. For the remainder of the week, the Pride Alliance has organized a City Museum trip for Friday, and a viewing of "The Laramie Project" film on Sunday. "The Laramie Project" tells the story of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was brutally beaten to death in 1998 because of his homosexuality.
Giarla instructed students to make the most of the week.
"Educate yourself. It seems like people are misinformed. Go out and get educated," he said. "We want to make sure people know we are here. We want people to know they have resources."
Pride Alliance stressed the importance of ally involvement in GLBTQIA awareness. "This is important for allies, too," said sophomore Lori Weingarten, the co-president of Pride Alliance. "GLBQTIA issues affect everyone's lives," she added.
GLBTQIA Awareness Week is not just a University activity, said Weingarten. "This happens at campuses all over," she said. Weingarten explained that the week's timing has to do with National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, and the anniversary Matthew Shepard's death on Oct. 16.
Throughout the week Pride Alliance will have a table in Mallinckrodt, where they will be selling shirts and spreading awareness of GLBTQIA issues. Giarla and Weingarten encourage interested students to stop by the tables and sign up for the group's e-mail list. For those unable to visit the table, Pride Alliance can be reached by e-mail at pride@....
Pride Alliance's efforts to raise GLBTQIA awareness do not stop after this week. The group has planned several projects for the remainder of the year, including a week of programming surrounding Transgender Day of Remembrance, several visiting speakers, and Safe Zones education. The first-year group plans to grow and develop throughout the year.
http://www.studlife.com/media/paper337/news/2005/10/12/News/New-Pride.Alliance.Sponsors.Awareness.Week.Until.Oct.16-1017758.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.studlife.com function jump(x) { if (x == 'next') { if (currentpage == paragraph.length) { currentpage = 1; } else { currentpage = currentpage*1+1; } } else { if (currentpage == 1) { currentpage = paragraph.length; } else { currentpage = currentpage-1; } } return currentpage; } function getThisPage() { currentURL = '' + document.location; thispageresult = ''; if (currentURL.indexOf("?page=") > -1) { currentURL = currentURL.substring(0, currentURL.indexOf('?page=')); thispageresult = currentURL; } else if (currentURL.indexOf("&page=") > -1) { currentURL = currentURL.substring(0, currentURL.indexOf('&page=')); thispageresult = currentURL; } else if (isPseudoURL()) { currentURL = '/news/' + story_id + '.html'; thispageresult = currentURL; } else { thispageresult = currentURL; } // Make sure the URL generated by this fuctnion is compatible with mirror image. thispageresult = thispageresult.substring(7, thispageresult.length); thispageresult = thispageresult.substring(thispageresult.indexOf('/')+1, thispageresult.length); thispageresult = basehref + thispageresult; if (thispageresult.indexOf('sourcedomain') > -1) { thispageresult = thispageresult.substring(0, thispageresult.indexOf('?')); } return thispageresult; } function getPageJumpDelim(currentURL) { delimiterToUse = '?'; if (currentURL.indexOf("?") > -1) delimiterToUse = ''; return delimiterToUse; } function isPseudoURL() { if (document.location.toString().indexOf(".html") > -1) { return true; } else { return false; } } function writeContinued(currentpage, paragraph) { if (currentpage != paragraph.length) { document.write(' Continued...
'); } } function writeNavigation(showpage,paragraph) { document.write('Article Tools:'); createPrevButton(showpage,paragraph); document.write('Page ' + showpage + ' of ' + paragraph.length); document.write(''); createNextButton(showpage,paragraph); document.write(''); } function revealPage(showpage,paragraph) { document.write(paragraph[showpage-1]); } function goPage(direction) { document.location = getThisPage() + getPageJumpDelim(getThisPage()) + 'page='+jump(direction, paragraph); } function createNextButton(currentpage,paragraph) { if (currentpage != paragraph.length) { document.write(''); } else { document.write(''); } } function createPrevButton(currentpage,paragraph) { if (currentpage != 1) { document.write(''); } else { document.write(''); } } paragraph = new Array();paragraph[0] = ' Media Credit: Alwyn Loh Awareness Week participants take a break from flyering Monday evening in the underpass. Pride Alliance\'s flyering campaign and painting of the underpass are just two of the ways students on campus are seeking to raise awareness about GLBTQIA issues.
GLBTQIA Awareness Week, an event designed to spread the awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexed, asexual and ally issues on campus, kicked off on Saturday and will run through Oct. 16.
Sponsored by new student group Pride Alliance, Awareness Week focuses on educating the Washington University student body on GLBTQIA matters, as well as providing social activities, said junior Tom Giarla, the Pride Alliance\'s co-president.
Pride Alliance formed when Spectrum Alliance and Outright merged earlier this year. The group\'s mission includes education, activism and social activities.
"There is a new motivation and a new drive to get people aware and involved," said Giarla.
Already, the group has hosted a number of events during Pride Week, including a parent/family discussion over Parents Weekend, a night of "guerilla flyering," and a coming out story exchange earlier in the week. For the remainder of the week, the Pride Alliance has organized a City Museum trip for Friday, and a viewing of "The Laramie Project" film on Sunday. "The Laramie Project" tells the story of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was brutally beaten to death in 1998 because of his homosexuality.
Giarla instructed students to make the most of the week.
"Educate yourself. It seems like people are misinformed. Go out and get educated," he said. "We want to make sure people know we are here. We want people to know they have resources."
Pride Alliance stressed the importance of ally involvement in GLBTQIA awareness. "This is important for allies, too," said sophomore Lori Weingarten, the co-president of Pride Alliance. "GLBQTIA issues affect everyone\'s lives," she added.
GLBTQIA Awareness Week is not just a University activity, said Weingarten. "This happens at campuses all over," she said. Weingarten explained that the week\'s timing has to do with National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, and the anniversary Matthew Shepard\'s death on Oct. 16.
Throughout the week Pride Alliance will have a table in Mallinckrodt, where they will be selling shirts and spreading awareness of GLBTQIA issues. Giarla and Weingarten encourage interested students to stop by the tables and sign up for the group\'s e-mail list. For those unable to visit the table, Pride Alliance can be reached by e-mail at pride@....
Pride Alliance\'s efforts to raise GLBTQIA awareness do not stop after this week. The group has planned several projects for the remainder of the year, including a week of programming surrounding Transgender Day of Remembrance, several visiting speakers, and Safe Zones education. The first-year group plans to grow and develop throughout the year. '; var currentpage = 1; if(typeof(QueryString('page')) != 'undefined') { currentpage=QueryString('page'); } if (currentpage paragraph.length) currentpage = 1; writeNavigation(currentpage, paragraph); document.write(' '); document.write(''); revealPage(currentpage, paragraph); document.write(''); writeContinued(currentpage, paragraph); document.write(' '); writeNavigation(currentpage, paragraph);
just wondering if there are any discussions here :)
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Re: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=C8=DD=EC=E1:_[Haven_for_th?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?e_Human_Amoeba]_New?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?_Pride_Alliance_spo?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?nsors_Awareness_Wee?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?k_until_Oct._16?=
just wondering if there are any discussions here :)
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just wondering if there are any discussions here :)
Doesn't seem to be much these days. As for pride alliances, nope, not interested.
Therese Shellabarger - Civis Mundi - tlshell@...
Now, its asexuals who are coming out of the closet
Now, its asexuals who are coming out of the closet
Members of online organization say sex just doesnt interest them
By Donna Tam, CORRESPONDENT
Twenty-five-year-old Mark Hoemmen doesnt want to have sex.
He doesnt go on dates. He has never even kissed a girl.
And thats how he wants to keep it.
Im not into saliva exchange, he said.
The UC Berkeley graduate student may be attracted to women, but he doesnt like sex. If a woman comes on to him, he actually feels a little turned off.
Hoemmen is one of the 5,300 members of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), an online asexual community that is growing. Members of the community say they just dont want to have sex.
On Saturday, Hoemmen and AVENs creator, David Jay, met with other asexuals from the Bay Area for a hike and picnic. Hoemmen wants asexuals to feel less alone and have a supportive social network.
Jay, 23, started AVEN in 2001 to promote public awareness and provide a place for asexuals to talk about their experiences. AVEN members can post on discussion boards and write about their perspectives. The site encourages asexuals to use AVEN as a tool when educating family and friends.
Just as people use terms like straight, gay and bi, Jay and his community identify with the term asexual. To promote asexual pride, AVEN also sells asexual T-shirts with slogans like Asexuality: Its not just for amoebas anymore, and No sex, please! Coming out to family and friends carries the same anxieties and fears as someone who is gay may feel.
When Jay was 14, his friends began to be interested in sex. I didnt get what the big deal was. I sat around thinking I was a late bloomer. As a kid I was taught sexuality is this big scary thing it would take your life, rip it to shreds and take it to the wind, he said. I waited and waited around, but nothing was happening, so I began to think about what I am.
Although he had questions about what he felt and where he fit into society, he never questioned his lack of interest in sex. Jay said he doesnt need to have sex to know that hes not interested in it.
Sexual people dont have to have sex in order to know that theyre sexual, he said. Thirteen-year-olds dont need to have sex to know they want it. According to AVEN, each asexual will have a different experience with sexuality. Some experience physical arousal and may masturbate, but do not connect it with sexual attraction to other people. Some may have sexual desire, but it is so little they can ignore it.
While most people can use sexual feelings to distinguish between intimate relationships and friendships, asexuals have to navigate an entirely different arena in which sexual intimacy has lesser value. Dr. Christopher Carrington, who teaches a class called Variations of Human Sexuality at San Francisco State University, has never heard anyone using asexuality as a sexual orientation.
He does not think that it is biologically possible for a person to not have sexual desires.
It doesnt fit doesnt fit what we know about the human creature, he said. He suggested there may be underlying mental or emotional issues like sexual violence or abuse. Family history, social relationships and religion should be looked at as well, he said.
But Hoemmen, who is Catholic and has known about his asexuality since he was 7, said its just the way he is.
I was never really confused ... what I am hasnt changed, he said. Maggi Rubenstein, a sexologist and a dean at the Institute of Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, thinks a larger study on asexuality is needed. Earlier this month, she invited Jay to give a lecture on asexuality to her students at the institute.
Frankly, I hadnt considered his point of view seriously until we talked, she wrote in an e-mail, referring to Jay.
Jay and the institute have discussed the possibility for new research. Jay hopes having more exposure to the asexual community will allow sexual people to have a different perspective on sex.
He thinks most people exert tremendous energy into their sexual life even if it results in pain. Jay said people should rethink this emphasis on sex.
For more information on meet-ups in the Bay Area, contact Mark Hoemmen at (510) 229-0014. AVEN is online at http://www.asexuality.org.
2005 ANG Newspapers
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_3146509
Sex and the Single Nominee
Sex and the Single Nominee
By Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet. Posted October 27, 2005.
Is it Harriet Miers' views on the Constitution or her lack of a male partner that makes conservatives so squeamish?
Why do conservatives, including some on the religious right, want to put the kibosh on President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers? According to HBO's Bill Maher, it has little to do with whether or not she is a master of constitutional law. And it's not about the her being the President's best friend either. It isn't even related to whether she would overturn Roe v. Wade or set back civil rights for another generation.
Opposition to Miers' nomination may have more to do with what the Right doesn't know about her than what they do know. And what they don't know are details about her sexuality. "It's not that Harriet Miers' views are a mystery," Maher said on October 14, "It's that her genitalia are a mystery." The last time "genitalia" was mentioned in relation to a nominee for Associate Justice to the Supreme Court was during the Clarence Thomas hearing more than a decade ago.
In typical Maher hyperbole, he declared that "there are only three possibilities if you've never married or had kids by 60": Miers is either "an asexual figure ... [who] isn't using the equipment God gave her for making babies," a "practicing lesbian," or "a slut."
In a recent column, Dotty Lynch, the Senior Political Editor for CBS News recently asked: "Why is it that battles for the Supreme Court have become more about sex than about the constitution?" She was referring to Miers' gender, but perhaps her sex life is more the issue.
In 1990, when the unmarried David Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court, there were repeated innuendos about homosexuality. Nevertheless, Souter survived, possibly due to the discovery of three former girlfriends around the time of his confirmation hearings. That discovery closed the door on an issue that shouldn't have been opened in the first place.
A year later, when President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court the hearings turned into a "he said, she said" battle over sexual harassment. Because it had all the dignity of an evening at a World Wrestling Entertainment event, the Thomas/Hill hearings -- as they came to be called -- drew large television audiences.
As Bill Press pointed out in a column marking the 10th anniversary of the hearings, the calm and confident Anita Hill "told Senators how her then-boss Thomas exploited and harassed female workers. He told dirty jokes. He graphically described pornographic videos he had rented, including the now-famous 'Long Dong Silver.' Perhaps inspired by 'Long Dong,' he bragged about the size of his own penis. He begged for dates. He even accused Hill of leaving pubic hairs on his can of Coca-Cola."
When it appeared that Hill's testimony might take him down, Thomas' supporters launched a masterful counter-offensive aimed at thoroughly discrediting Hill. Led by then right-wing activist David Brock (now the head of the liberal website, Media Matters), the campaign consisted of an avalanche of lies, disinformation and misinformation, all questioning Hill's character,
judgment and capabilities. Hill was embarrassed and Thomas was confirmed. In a March 1992 article in American Spectator, Hill was still under attack; she was labeled a "lesbian acting out" and accused of suffering from "erotomania."
No one is intimating that Miers has Thomas-like sexual skeletons in her closet, but, as Maher pointed out, "Undefined sexuality in women makes them [Republicans] nervous."
There's something making those conservatives nervous. From all accounts, there are few reasons to be concerned about Miers fealty to the right's social agenda. She passed President Bush's religious test as an evangelical Christian from a conservative evangelical congregation that is "almost universally pro-life." During a conference call organized by the American Family's Association's Donald Wildmon, a gaggle of evangelical leaders heard assurances that she would dump Roe v. Wade if given the opportunity. Two of Miers' longtime friends, Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court and Ed Kinkeade, a Dallas-based federal district court judge, testify to her conservative bonafides.
She received the seal of approval from Focus on the Family's, Dr. James "I know more than you think you think I know" Dobson, as well as the Reverends of Righteousness, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
Miers lifestyle choices is the only elephant left in the room.
Justice Hecht and Miers dated a while back, but Hecht isn't talking about their hook up: "Dating to me sounds like what you did in high school," Hecht told Texas Lawyer reporters Miriam Rozen and John Council. "We saw one another and went to dinner. We were good, closely connected friends then, and we are now."
It is more than a decade since the Thomas/Hill hearings stirred the public's passions and focused the nation not only on sexual harassment in the workplace, but also on how women were severely under-represented in Congress. The Thomas/Hill hearings ushered in the "Year of the Woman" resulting in more women elected to Congress and state legislatures across the country.
If, under pressure, Miers withdraws her nomination, she could still serve the public well. While there is no need for Clarence Thomas-like details, a public recounting of her life choices could inspire a real conversation about gender, sex, and the choices women make. Moreover, it might show that it is all right for women to remain single if they choose; that people who choose not to have children should not be stigmatized; and, in the final analysis, despite what the religious right would have the public believe, that a person's sexual choices has no bearing on their capability in the workplace. If that much is gleaned from Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers, all the caterwauling and speculation, ink and media-time might have been worth it.
Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing groups and movements.
2005 Independent Media Institute.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/27352/
Re: [Haven for the Human Amoeba] Sex and the Single Nominee
Sex and the Single Nominee
By Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet. Posted October 27, 2005.
Is it Harriet Miers' views on the Constitution or her lack of a male partner that makes conservatives so squeamish?
Why do conservatives, including some on the religious right, want to put the kibosh on President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers? According to HBO's Bill Maher, it has little to do with whether or not she is a master of constitutional law. And it's not about the her being the President's best friend either. It isn't even related to whether she would overturn Roe v. Wade or set back civil rights for another generation.
Opposition to Miers' nomination may have more to do with what the Right doesn't know about her than what they do know. And what they don't know are details about her sexuality. "It's not that Harriet Miers' views are a mystery," Maher said on October 14, "It's that her genitalia are a mystery." The last time "genitalia" was mentioned in relation to a nominee for Associate Justice to the Supreme Court was during the Clarence Thomas hearing more than a decade ago.
In typical Maher hyperbole, he declared that "there are only three possibilities if you've never married or had kids by 60": Miers is either "an asexual figure ... [who] isn't using the equipment God gave her for making babies," a "practicing lesbian," or "a slut."
In a recent column, Dotty Lynch, the Senior Political Editor for CBS News recently asked: "Why is it that battles for the Supreme Court have become more about sex than about the constitution?" She was referring to Miers' gender, but perhaps her sex life is more the issue.
In 1990, when the unmarried David Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court, there were repeated innuendos about homosexuality. Nevertheless, Souter survived, possibly due to the discovery of three former girlfriends around the time of his confirmation hearings. That discovery closed the door on an issue that shouldn't have been opened in the first place.
A year later, when President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court the hearings turned into a "he said, she said" battle over sexual harassment. Because it had all the dignity of an evening at a World Wrestling Entertainment event, the Thomas/Hill hearings -- as they came to be called -- drew large television audiences.
As Bill Press pointed out in a column marking the 10th anniversary of the hearings, the calm and confident Anita Hill "told Senators how her then-boss Thomas exploited and harassed female workers. He told dirty jokes. He graphically described pornographic videos he had rented, including the now-famous 'Long Dong Silver.' Perhaps inspired by 'Long Dong,' he bragged about the size of his own penis. He begged for dates. He even accused Hill of leaving pubic hairs on his can of Coca-Cola."
When it appeared that Hill's testimony might take him down, Thomas' supporters launched a masterful counter-offensive aimed at thoroughly discrediting Hill. Led by then right-wing activist David Brock (now the head of the liberal website, Media Matters), the campaign consisted of an avalanche of lies, disinformation and misinformation, all questioning Hill's character,
judgment and capabilities. Hill was embarrassed and Thomas was confirmed. In a March 1992 article in American Spectator, Hill was still under attack; she was labeled a "lesbian acting out" and accused of suffering from "erotomania."
No one is intimating that Miers has Thomas-like sexual skeletons in her closet, but, as Maher pointed out, "Undefined sexuality in women makes them [Republicans] nervous."
There's something making those conservatives nervous. From all accounts, there are few reasons to be concerned about Miers fealty to the right's social agenda. She passed President Bush's religious test as an evangelical Christian from a conservative evangelical congregation that is "almost universally pro-life." During a conference call organized by the American Family's Association's Donald Wildmon, a gaggle of evangelical leaders heard assurances that she would dump Roe v. Wade if given the opportunity. Two of Miers' longtime friends, Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court and Ed Kinkeade, a Dallas-based federal district court judge, testify to her conservative bonafides.
She received the seal of approval from Focus on the Family's, Dr. James "I know more than you think you think I know" Dobson, as well as the Reverends of Righteousness, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
Miers lifestyle choices is the only elephant left in the room.
Justice Hecht and Miers dated a while back, but Hecht isn't talking about their hook up: "Dating to me sounds like what you did in high school," Hecht told Texas Lawyer reporters Miriam Rozen and John Council. "We saw one another and went to dinner. We were good, closely connected friends then, and we are now."
It is more than a decade since the Thomas/Hill hearings stirred the public's passions and focused the nation not only on sexual harassment in the workplace, but also on how women were severely under-represented in Congress. The Thomas/Hill hearings ushered in the "Year of the Woman" resulting in more women elected to Congress and state legislatures across the country.
If, under pressure, Miers withdraws her nomination, she could still serve the public well. While there is no need for Clarence Thomas-like details, a public recounting of her life choices could inspire a real conversation about gender, sex, and the choices women make. Moreover, it might show that it is all right for women to remain single if they choose; that people who choose not to have children should not be stigmatized; and, in the final analysis, despite what the religious right would have the public believe, that a person's sexual choices has no bearing on their capability in the workplace. If that much is gleaned from Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers, all the caterwauling and speculation, ink and media-time might have been worth it.
Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing groups and movements.
2005 Independent Media Institute.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/27352/
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I don't understand.. the True Christian is supposed to be asexual, and do children not because of lust but out of option. Asexual parents have kids out of option. Why do they mention God and all this?
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I don't understand.. the True Christian is supposed to be asexual, and do children not because of lust but out of option. Asexual parents have kids out of option. Why do they mention God and all this?
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Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment. Some people, like me, don't have any sexual desire. That doesn't mean God didn't make me right, it could actually be a blessing from God. It could mean that He wants me to be single and free. He may bring me that desire later on in my life (im only 18) and that would be cool, but for right now, I'm fine with no sex. Sex just doesn't appeal to me really. God created sex for people to enjoy with each other, but some people simply don't need sex to feel happy. Paige
I don't understand.. the True Christian is supposed to be asexual, and do children not because of lust but out of option. Asexual parents have kids out of option. Why do they mention God and all this?
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Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment. Some people, like me, don't have any sexual desire. That doesn't mean God didn't make me right, it could actually be a blessing from God. It could mean that He wants me to be single and free. He may bring me that desire later on in my life (im only 18) and that would be cool, but for right now, I'm fine with no sex. Sex just doesn't appeal to me really. God created sex for people to enjoy with each other, but some people simply don't need sex to feel happy. Paige
Palatinus said:I don't understand.. the True Christian is supposed to be asexual, and do children not because of lust but out of option. Asexual parents have kids out of option. Why do they mention God and all this?
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Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment.
My opinion is that the formal church says that sex is only for reproduction. Sexual enjoyment is a temptation that humans must overcome.
The proper christian therefore must evolve to asexual, and make sex only for reproduce.
I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
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Re: : Re: [Haven for the Human Amoeba] Sex and the Single Nominee
Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment.
My opinion is that the formal church says that sex is only for reproduction. Sexual enjoyment is a temptation that humans must overcome.
The proper christian therefore must evolve to asexual, and make sex only for reproduce.
I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
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What is god?
Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment.
My opinion is that the formal church says that sex is only for reproduction. Sexual enjoyment is a temptation that humans must overcome.
The proper christian therefore must evolve to asexual, and make sex only for reproduce.
I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
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What is god?
Palatinus said:Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment.
My opinion is that the formal church says that sex is only for reproduction. Sexual enjoyment is a temptation that humans must overcome.
The proper christian therefore must evolve to asexual, and make sex only for reproduce.
I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
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--- Jonathan Brennan <infidel_89@...> :
What is god?
look at a dictionary :P
Anyway, this i not the subject, nor what is right or wrong. My point is that the church shouldn't condemn asexuality.
This hasn't to do with our or your religions, nor it is a religous debate or flameware. It's only a comment that can be seen from the 3rd person view
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Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment.
My opinion is that the formal church says that sex is only for reproduction. Sexual enjoyment is a temptation that humans must overcome.
The proper christian therefore must evolve to asexual, and make sex only for reproduce.
I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
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I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
They wouldn't, but the real issue is that Miers could be a closet lesbian, as there was no proof that she was straight. Since conservatives did not know what she was, they were against her. Anyone who doesn't fit the "norm" could be a radical.
Therese Shellabarger - Civis Mundi - tlshell@...
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Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment. Some people, like me, don't have any sexual desire. That doesn't mean God didn't make me right, it could actually be a blessing from God. It could mean that He wants me to be single and free. He may bring me that desire later on in my life (im only 18) and that would be cool, but for right now, I'm fine with no sex. Sex just doesn't appeal to me really. God created sex for people to enjoy with each other, but some people simply don't need sex to feel happy. Paige
Palatinus said:I don't understand.. the True Christian is supposed to be asexual, and do children not because of lust but out of option. Asexual parents have kids out of option. Why do they mention God and all this?
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I agree with you Paige. I think God created sex for enjoyment. But all people are not equal. Some enjoy sex, others dont have sexual desire like some like chocolate and some not.
I have no sexual desire but it is not a problem. Like you, I am very fine with no sex and I enjoy being with my friends, looking at beautiful spectacles and so on. I am happy without having sexual desire.
I think God only want everyone to be happy like he is.
De : [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] De la part de Paige Envoyé : samedi 29 octobre 2005 22:21 À : [email protected] Objet : ÈÝìá: Re: [Haven for the Human Amoeba] Sex and the Single Nominee
Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment. Some people, like me, don't have any sexual desire. That doesn't mean God didn't make me right, it could actually be a blessing from God. It could mean that He wants me to be single and free. He may bring me that desire later on in my life (im only 18) and that would be cool, but for right now, I'm fine with no sex. Sex just doesn't appeal to me really. God created sex for people to enjoy with each other, but some people simply don't need sex to feel happy. Paige
I don't understand.. the True Christian is supposed to be asexual, and do children not because of lust but out of option. Asexual parents have kids out of option. Why do they mention God and all this?
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Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment.
My opinion is that the formal church says that sex is only for reproduction. Sexual enjoyment is a temptation that humans must overcome.
The proper christian therefore must evolve to asexual, and make sex only for reproduce.
I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
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Do you really think that asexuality could be condemned by church and God? I don't think.
Yves
-----Message d'origine----- De : [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] De la part de Palatinus Envoyé : dimanche 30 octobre 2005 00:14 À : [email protected] Objet : Θέμα: Re: [Haven for the Human Amoeba] Sex and the Single Nominee
Well, I have something to say about this. I believe that God created sex, not only for reproduction, but also for our enjoyment.
My opinion is that the formal church says that sex is only for reproduction. Sexual enjoyment is a temptation that humans must overcome.
The proper christian therefore must evolve to asexual, and make sex only for reproduce.
I don't think that we say anything here that church woudl disagree. Therefore I don't udnerstand why asexuality would be condemned by church and God
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Did Jesus Bless Homosexuality? (Asexuality?)
Dr. Warren Throckmorton Columnist, Speaker, Professor, Director of College Counseling, Grove City College
Friday, October 28, 2005 Did Jesus Bless Homosexuality?
Did Jesus Bless Homosexuality?
Warren Throckmorton, PhD
Many gay religionists insist that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality and thus could not have opposed it. Often conservatives counter that He taught against any form of sexual expression other than heterosexual marriage, so He did not need to specify every sexual act outside of marriage for condemnation. What is the correct position?
Certainly, Jesus did address the topic of sexual ethics and marriage. In Matthew 19:3-9, Jesus said: "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. "Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
Jesus' disciples were nervous at this teaching. In fact, since Jesus made divorce much more difficult to attain than Moses did, they wondered aloud if marriage was such a good thing after all ("If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry." Matt 19:10). Like many people today, the disciples thought the fidelity and permanence taught by Jesus might be too difficult for anyone to follow.
To the skepticism of the disciples, Jesus responded, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."(Matthew 19:11-12).
For years, I did not give much thought to who Jesus might have been referencing here by the use of the term eunuchs. I assumed that all eunuchs were males who were castrated or otherwise physically incapable to have sexual relations. Recently, however, I have begun to wonder if the Greek word eunouchoi (eunuchs) might also include someone without natural attraction to the opposite sex.
Could Jesus be referring here to male homosexuals as being among those who experience no other sex attraction, and if so, does this passage signal the blessing of Jesus on homosexuality?
A recent paper by a Norwegian theologian, Raghnild Schanke, asserts that Jesus was indeed referring to several categories of people including asexual persons and those who would fit the modern concept of homosexuality. She notes that many eunuchs in antiquity were capable of sexual relations but did not seem to have natural desire for women. She amasses an impressive array of ancient references to some eunuchs being disinterested in the opposite sex even though physically capable.
To address these questions, I turned to one of the top biblical scholars in the world regarding sexuality, Dr. Robert Gagnon, of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Author of the encyclopedic, The Bible and Homosexual Practice, Dr. Gagnon commented, "I think that the phrase 'eunuchs who were born so from the womb of mother' (Matt 19:12) is probably an inclusive group consisting of any man who lacks sexual interest in women. This group would include both men who have genital abnormalities that result in impotence and men whose genitals are still capable of begetting children. It would also include both asexual persons and persons who, in time, develop exclusive same-sex attractions."
Regarding Jesus' phrase "eunuchs because they were born that way," Dr. Gagnon said, "The saying does suggest a recognition on the part of Jesus and early Christianity that some men are born in such a way that they do not develop, as adolescents and adults, other-sex attractions, for whatever reason." Such men are not born gay, but rather, without responsiveness to the opposite sex. Attractions to the same sex may or may not develop during the formative years via a combination of biological and environmental factors.
There is a modern-day, experiential validity to this interpretation. I have counseled individuals who from their earliest recollections have little or no attraction to the opposite sex. Also, the opposite-sex desire of some is hindered due to traumatic circumstances in life, whether physical injury or emotional trauma ("eunuchs made that way by men"). And still others choose celibacy for "the kingdom of heaven." Note that Jesus does not condemn such persons for their situation.
So do homosexual relationships have the endorsement of Jesus? Not so, says Dr. Gagnon: "The implication of Jesus' saying is that all such 'born eunuchs' have no option for engaging in sexual activity outside of a man-woman bond." Furthermore, fidelity to this teaching "does not require that one become exclusively heterosexually responsive with no homosexual temptation. However, it does require abstinence from homosexual bonds."
For classical Christianity, the union of male and female is much more than a sociological convenience but provides imagery for some of its central teachings (e.g., Christ as the bridegroom and the church as his bride). The teachings of Jesus in Matthew 19 deepen this commitment to male-female unions by very specifically considering people who either are unable or choose not to form such sexual relationships.
Thus, if one supports same-sex relations or unions as sound ecclesiastical policy, one must do it with some other philosophical base than can be found in these teachings of Jesus.
Copyright 2005, Crosswalk.com.
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/EWThrockmorton/?adate=10/28/2005
Dr. Warren Throckmorton (With Asexual Highlights)
Dr. Warren Throckmorton Columnist, Speaker, Professor, Director of College Counseling, Grove City College
Friday, October 28, 2005 Did Jesus Bless Homosexuality?
Did Jesus Bless Homosexuality?
Warren Throckmorton, PhD
Many gay religionists insist that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality and thus could not have opposed it. Often conservatives counter that He taught against any form of sexual _expression other than heterosexual marriage, so He did not need to specify every sexual act outside of marriage for condemnation. What is the correct position?
Certainly, Jesus did address the topic of sexual ethics and marriage. In Matthew 19:3-9, Jesus said: "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. "Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
Jesus' disciples were nervous at this teaching. In fact, since Jesus made divorce much more difficult to attain than Moses did, they wondered aloud if marriage was such a good thing after all ("If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry." Matt 19:10). Like many people today, the disciples thought the fidelity and permanence taught by Jesus might be too difficult for anyone to follow.
To the skepticism of the disciples, Jesus responded, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."(Matthew 19:11-12).
For years, I did not give much thought to who Jesus might have been referencing here by the use of the term eunuchs. I assumed that all eunuchs were males who were castrated or otherwise physically incapable to have sexual relations. Recently, however, I have begun to wonder if the Greek word eunouchoi (eunuchs) might also include someone without natural attraction to the opposite sex.
Could Jesus be referring here to male homosexuals as being among those who experience no other sex attraction, and if so, does this passage signal the blessing of Jesus on homosexuality?
A recent paper by a Norwegian theologian, Raghnild Schanke, asserts that Jesus was indeed referring to several categories of people including asexual persons and those who would fit the modern concept of homosexuality. She notes that many eunuchs in antiquity were capable of sexual relations but did not seem to have natural desire for women. She amasses an impressive array of ancient references to some eunuchs being disinterested in the opposite sex even though physically capable.
To address these questions, I turned to one of the top biblical scholars in the world regarding sexuality, Dr. Robert Gagnon, of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Author of the encyclopedic, The Bible and Homosexual Practice, Dr. Gagnon commented, "I think that the phrase 'eunuchs who were born so from the womb of mother' (Matt 19:12) is probably an inclusive group consisting of any man who lacks sexual interest in women. This group would include both men who have genital abnormalities that result in impotence and men whose genitals are still capable of begetting children. It would also include both asexual persons and persons who, in time, develop exclusive same-sex attractions."
Regarding Jesus' phrase "eunuchs because they were born that way," Dr. Gagnon said, "The saying does suggest a recognition on the part of Jesus and early Christianity that some men are born in such a way that they do not develop, as adolescents and adults, other-sex attractions, for whatever reason." Such men are not born gay, but rather, without responsiveness to the opposite sex. Attractions to the same sex may or may not develop during the formative years via a combination of biological and environmental factors.
There is a modern-day, experiential validity to this interpretation. I have counseled individuals who from their earliest recollections have little or no attraction to the opposite sex. Also, the opposite-sex desire of some is hindered due to traumatic circumstances in life, whether physical injury or emotional trauma ("eunuchs made that way by men"). And still others choose celibacy for "the kingdom of heaven." Note that Jesus does not condemn such persons for their situation.
So do homosexual relationships have the endorsement of Jesus? Not so, says Dr. Gagnon: "The implication of Jesus' saying is that all such 'born eunuchs' have no option for engaging in sexual activity outside of a man-woman bond." Furthermore, fidelity to this teaching "does not require that one become exclusively heterosexually responsive with no homosexual temptation. However, it does require abstinence from homosexual bonds."
For classical Christianity, the union of male and female is much more than a sociological convenience but provides imagery for some of its central teachings (e.g., Christ as the bridegroom and the church as his bride). The teachings of Jesus in Matthew 19 deepen this commitment to male-female unions by very specifically considering people who either are unable or choose not to form such sexual relationships.
Thus, if one supports same-sex relations or unions as sound ecclesiastical policy, one must do it with some other philosophical base than can be found in these teachings of Jesus.
Copyright 2005, Crosswalk.com.
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/EWThrockmorton/?adate=10/28/2005
To be learning something is the greatest of pleasures, not only to the philosopher but also to the rest of mankind, however small their capacity for it.
--ARISTOTLE--
On the road of orientation
"For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs, They that shall keep my sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please me, and shall hold fast my covenant: I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a place, and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name which shall never perish."
Isaias 56:4-5
"...there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it."
Matthew 19:12
Hello! My name is Kevyn Scott Calanza Bello. I am exploring the path that I may be an asexual.
I am a Canadian-born Filipino, who is very spiritual. I have been religious all my life, and I left the Catholic Church at 11 to pursue other religions, from Buddhism, New Age, Wicca (for two years).
I was saved on Friday, July 13, 2003 as a Pentecostal Christian. It wasn't long until I started to question their doctrines, and soon enough I was reverted back into the Catholic Church, and I am happy with my new-found love for my faith.
I have just recently turned 17, and I feel the conviction of God to serve, and I am ponderinf on priesthood.
Nevertheless, during the same time in which I was searching for religion, I was also questioning my sexuality. I have thought of myself as straight for a while, but that did not apply to me. Then I went through thinking I was bisexual, and then for the longest time, I proclamated myself as being gay. However, all those terms never fully adequated me...
When I came upon asexuality, an I began to read, I became quite happy because I found something that could accurately describe my own orientation. Being a Catholic and being myself, I could never come to terms of how I never really had a TRUE interest in sexual practices. Although I have arousal and such, I never have gotten aroused by people as much as the practice for stimulation.
I hope to learn more about myself through participation of these forums, and that perhaps I will one day declare myself as an asexual. Perhaps Jesus Himself, my Lord and my God on Earth, was an asexual!