The Melting
Got up this morning and went outside to pick up the paper, and it is unmistakable -- spring is near. It's only going to be in the forties today but you can smell it, you can feel it, you can hear it.
I don't think it ever got very cold this winter but how many times did it snow? It seemed like there was snow on the ground the whole time, sometimes several feet of it. Everybody's had enough. Now lawns have turned to mud and sidewalks are clear, there are still mountains of black snow where the plows piled it up but those are diminishing, too. A sparrow was sitting on the bird house this morning, planning how to design a nice nice for its family, a crow flew overhead with a twig in its beak, headed no doubt for some noisy rookery nearby.
It is so fun this week to see the pictures and read the stories about the couples who lined up for the first day of marriage licenses in the District of Columbia. Watch THIS VIDEO and look at those happy faces! People are so emotional they almost can't talk. Amanda Hess at The Sexist blog interviewed couples in line and has some of their stories. It really is fun to read.
We send special cheers to Terrance from Republic of T blog, who is an occasional participant in TTF community affairs and was twelfth in line with his partner Richard.
These are happy days for residents of our area. Gay and lesbian couples can marry legally in DC, and their marriages will be recognized in our state of Maryland.
And so the snow melts all around us and hateful attitudes melt away in the sunshine of love.
I don't think it ever got very cold this winter but how many times did it snow? It seemed like there was snow on the ground the whole time, sometimes several feet of it. Everybody's had enough. Now lawns have turned to mud and sidewalks are clear, there are still mountains of black snow where the plows piled it up but those are diminishing, too. A sparrow was sitting on the bird house this morning, planning how to design a nice nice for its family, a crow flew overhead with a twig in its beak, headed no doubt for some noisy rookery nearby.
It is so fun this week to see the pictures and read the stories about the couples who lined up for the first day of marriage licenses in the District of Columbia. Watch THIS VIDEO and look at those happy faces! People are so emotional they almost can't talk. Amanda Hess at The Sexist blog interviewed couples in line and has some of their stories. It really is fun to read.
We send special cheers to Terrance from Republic of T blog, who is an occasional participant in TTF community affairs and was twelfth in line with his partner Richard.
These are happy days for residents of our area. Gay and lesbian couples can marry legally in DC, and their marriages will be recognized in our state of Maryland.
And so the snow melts all around us and hateful attitudes melt away in the sunshine of love.
posted by JimK at 10:11 AM
31 Comments:
"It is so fun this week to see the pictures and read the stories about the couples who lined up for the first day of marriage licenses in the District of Columbia."
At least, it might be, if you didn't think about the shortened lifepsans of 30% of them.
Otherwise, as queer as it may seem, things are light and gay.
Hooray for Terrance.
Boo for trolls.
It's worth noting that people with HIV receiving treatment have essentially normal life spans:
Life spans in HIV patients approach normal
It underscores the importance of testing and treatment.
Many of my students knew that marriage began today in DC, and there were many voices raised in support; a couple were raised in disapproval, but fewer.
Anon:
Please tell me if you see a flaw in the following analysis:
1. The best protection, other than celebacy, against sexually transmitted diseases is monogamy.
2. Marriage encourages and reinforces monogamy.
3. Therefore, encouraging gay couples to marry -- just like encouraging straight couples to marry -- is a good idea, if one's goal is to lessen the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
well, marriage only promotes monogamy if there is commitment to a moral view that extramarital sexual activity is wrong
the major moral theories that hold that also hold that homosexuality is wrong
homosexuals, by definition, are, thus, less likely to be committed to such a viewpoint
I guess you can try to create an entirely new moral structure but chance of widespread success is not high and meanwhile the casualties mount
any moral theory that doesn't include God has a vacuum at its center and is without durability
One sentence from the NEJM Perspective article called "AIDS in America -- Forgotten but Not Gone" has sure got Anone in a tizzy:
In several U.S. urban areas, the HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men is as high as 30% 3 — as compared with a general-population prevalence of 7.8% in Kenya and 16.9% in South Africa.
This is a comparison of apples and oranges IMHO. The authors are comparing the "general-population prevalence" of HIV in 2 African nations to the "HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men" and reside in US cities.
It seems to me more meaningful comparisons can be made. What is the prevalence of HIV among MSM in these 2 African nations or among the general-population in US cities?
The authors don't include references about the general-population prevalence of HIV in the 2 African nations, but they do include references about the prevalence of HIV in Washington D.C.'s general-population. Per the NEJM authors' DC data source, "Overall, 3 percent of all District residents are currently known to be living with HIV/AIDS" -- "as compared with a general-population prevalence of 7.8% in Kenya and 16.9% in South Africa."
That number 3 I italicized in Anone's tizzy-inducing sentence is the footnote for the source for that 30% statistic. It refers to this 2007 CDC report, "HIV Prevalence Among Selected Populations: High-Risk Populations," which reported on the changes in prevalence of HIV in high risk populations from 1993-1997, such as:
"Overall standardized HIV prevalence rates decreased among MSM at STD clinics from 32% in 1993 to 21% in 1997...In 1993, prevalence among MSM was 36% in the Northeast, 32% in the South, and 30% in the West. Prevalence in the same clinics in 1997 was 19% in the Northeast, 25% in the South, and 19% in the West.
....The highest observed prevalence of any group included in this report was among black MSM at STD clinics. The overall standardized prevalence for this group was stable at 42% to 44% from 1993 through 1995 and then decreased significantly to 29% in 1997. There was a downward trend for Hispanic MSM with rates decreasing from 30% in 1993 to 19% in 1997. Although prevalence rates were higher among Hispanic MSM than among white MSM for each of the 5 years, rates for the two groups were similar by 1997
...For the combined analysis, standardized HIV prevalence rates for white MSM decreased from 26% in 1993 to 17% in 1997"
It appears the 30% figure cited in the NEJM matches the 1993 prevalence rates among all MSM at STD clinics in the West and among Hispanic MSM.
Much more important than the single sentence Anone exalts are the recommendations the NEJM authors made to reduce the prevalence of HIV in high-risk US populations, such as:
...a nuanced and targeted approach that avoids stigmatization of these populations is necessary. Structural interventions might include tackling the disproportionate incarceration of black and Hispanic men, urging health insurers to reimburse providers for preventive care, and using microcredit to help women out of poverty so that they avoid the perceived need to engage in commercial sex or other coercive sex.
...HIV disproportionately affects poor black Americans who have substandard education, unstable housing, and limited social mobility. This confluence of factors may result in high rates of incarceration, which threaten a community's social fabric. Such vulnerable populations must be engaged in research, program development, and interventions that are culturally relevant and address the socioeconomic milieu in which HIV transmission occurs.
...there is an urgent need to acknowledge that HIV remains a major health threat in the United States. Second, concerted effort and substantial resource investment — especially in innovative and courageous approaches — are necessary. Focused studies of the sociocultural dynamics that facilitate transmission are needed, as well as large studies assessing the effectiveness of multidimensional interventions, including behavioral, biomedical, and structural components. Disenfranchised communities must be engaged as partners in such efforts, along with new researchers drawn from the affected populations, if the nuances of local epidemics are to be addressed. The time has come to confront this largely forgotten and hidden epidemic.
"This is a comparison of apples and oranges IMHO."
Well, I agree with that but the comparison is not what has gotten me into a "tizzy", a twisted term for any thought that disturbs the TTF fairy tale
it's the sheer high level of the rate
it's appalling
little comfort that it's not actually quite as bad as in third world countries
teens in MCPS are being taught a rosy view of a lifestyle that is extremely dangerous in the real world, where most of them will live
Contrary to Anone's irrational fears, tenth graders with parental permission in MCPS are taught what the CDC reports:
People who engage in sexual activity are at risk for sexually transmitted disease; however, “correct and consistent use of the male latex condom can reduce the risk of STD transmission. However, no protective method is 100 percent effective, and condom use cannot guarantee absolute protection against any STD. Furthermore, condoms lubricated with spermicides are no more effective than other lubricated condoms in protecting against the transmission of HIV and other STDs. In order to achieve the protective effect of condoms, they must be used correctly and consistently. Incorrect use can lead to condom slippage or breakage, thus diminishing their protective effect. Inconsistent use, e.g., failure to use condoms with every act of intercourse, can lead to STD transmission because transmission can occur with a single act of intercourse.” (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006)
where does it say that if you have sex with males who are attracted to males, you have an excellent chance of contracting a fatal and incurable disease?
there should be disclosure that certain partners are more risky than others
even just disclosing what the rates of infection are between msm as opposed to the general population would be helpful.
all of this material was rejected.
better to not stigmatize the gays than alert the vulnerable kids to the risks...
what, by the way, has happened with the prevalance and statistics for kids who believe they are transgender and kids who believe they are gay since the curriculum was introduced ?
and what has happened to the infection rates ?
up or down ?
does MCPS track this ?
President Obama released his latest version of the health care reform proposal Wednesday.
It still includes federally funded abortions. Poll after poll shows Americans do not want abortion funding in the bill.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., has said he wants health care reform. However, he and 11 other Democrats are standing on clear moral principle that federal dollars should not pay for killing preborn children.
Matthew Faraci, vice president of communications with Americans United for Life, used a baseball analogy to express the urgency of the issue.
"This is the bottom of the ninth inning," he explained. "There are two outs, and this is the last stand on keeping abortion out of health care."
He said Stupak and the other pro-life Democrats are under tremendous pressure from the president and House leadership to vote "yes."
"Seventy-two percent of voters indicated recently that they do not want public funding for abortion," he added. "We are working to reassure Stupak and other pro-life Democrats that the overwhelming majority of Americans are squarely behind them."
Democrats are threatening to use a process called "reconciliation" in the Senate to get the bill passed – an extremely unusual tactic.
The reconciliation rules require only 51 votes to pass legislation, bypassing the ordinary Senate requirement of a 60-vote majority before proceeding to an up or down vote on a bill.
M. Gene Aldridge, president of World Marketing Inc., said Democrats are "using reconciliation, because they have no other alternative."
"They can't muster enough votes to garner the kinds of outcomes that they want," he said.
The Maine Human Rights Commission sparked a major debate this week over guidelines its developing that would allow 'transgender' students to use public school bathrooms and locker rooms and participate on sports teams based on whatever gender they consider themselves.
That means a boy who identifies himself as a girl could use a girls bathroom.
Candi Cushman, an education analyst, said Americans can expect to see more of this problem if schools are forced to surrender to the "whims of gay activist groups – which seem more interested in scoring political goals than in protecting the innocence of children."
"In addition to the risky situations these policies would create – by allowing boys to use girls restrooms – you are talking about complications with biological males being allowed to compete on girls sports teams," she said, "which brings up all sorts of fairness in competition issues.
"We know studies show many children in middle and high school are still developing and processing their sexuality during these vulnerable years," she explained. "So, it's irresponsible to introduce policies that will put them in risky, sexually confusing situations."
Anonymous said...
"well, marriage only promotes monogamy if there is commitment to a moral view that extramarital sexual activity is wrong."
My response: The moral basis for monogamy is that a couple's commitment to each other is more important than flings with other people. That commitment provides stability and emotional and physical security. The gay people (and couples) I know share this important moral values.
"the major moral theories that hold that also hold that homosexuality is wrong"
My response: The "moral theories" you cite are theologies. Theology -- what one thinks God thinks -- is not the same thing as morality, which is, in essence, the Golden Rule.
"homosexuals, by definition, are, thus, less likely to be committed to such a viewpoint"
My response: "By definition"? Argument by tautology is no argument at all.
"I guess you can try to create an entirely new moral structure but chance of widespread success is not high and meanwhile the casualties mount"
My response: Same sex marriage is not "an entirely new moral structure." Rather, it is an extension of a sound and useful moral structure to more people.
"any moral theory that doesn't include God has a vacuum at its center and is without durability"
My response: Whose God? Yours? Mine? Bishop Gene Robinson's? If acting in a godly manner is a matter of acting in accordance with the Golden Rule, then it does not matter what one's conception of God is. We act as if God is good. But if God is not good, or not paying attention, we still act in a godly manner because we care about each other. If only the "fear of God" makes one act in a godly manner, then the actor is always susceptible to acting in a cruel manner if convinced that God so demands -- e.g., Al Qaeda or the Taliban. If choose to act as if God is good, not evil.
Right, Candi Cushman, education analyst.
(Nut)
"It still includes federally funded abortions"
No way --
It can't do that unless Congress abolished the Hyde Amendment.
"Anonymous"
You unctuously stated:
"where does it say that if you have sex with males who are attracted to males, you have an excellent chance of contracting a fatal and incurable disease?"
EDITED: where does it say that if you have sex with female prostitutes, or that neighbor who has been giving you the eye,or the nice lady in the church choir that you have been "praying" with, or the secretary in your office that you have been regularly canoodling, you have an excellent chance of contracting a fatal and incurable disease?
Diogenes
melting?
"(March 5) – A passenger ferry with nearly 1,000 people aboard broke free this morning from an ice crust that trapped it for days on the Baltic Sea, but another 26 ships are still stuck amid huge icebergs.
Thick ice forms annually on the northern half of the Baltic, but Scandinavia is experiencing its coldest winter in 15 years, with temperatures below freezing consistently since December, and the ice has spread farther south. Swedish maritime authorities are running ice-breaking vessels that use hammers to slice through the icy crust and clear channels. But even so, gale force winds have swept massive chunks of ice into a huge barrier off Sweden's coast, ensnaring unsuspecting vessels."
"where does it say that if you have sex with female prostitutes, or that neighbor who has been giving you the eye,or the nice lady in the church choir that you have been "praying" with, or the secretary in your office that you have been regularly canoodling, you have an excellent chance of contracting a fatal and incurable disease?"
hope you won't think me unctuous but none of those categories approaches the level of male homosexuals
indeed, the only one with significant risk is the prostitute and the curriculum doesn't flagrantly condone prostitution like it does the homosexual subset of the population of deviants
if they want to warn kids about prostitues, however, I have no objection
go for it
Time Magazine Great Vanishing Ice Photo Essay
Should any LGBT MCPS students be addressed as "deviants" by someone at school, the tenth grade sex education curriculum lets them know that MCPS School Policies ACB and ACA protect them from this type of discrimination.
Unlike in Virginia, in Maryland we do not allow discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"Should any LGBT MCPS students be addressed as "deviants" by someone at school, the tenth grade sex education curriculum lets them know that MCPS School Policies ACB and ACA protect them from this type of discrimination."
Uh, we have a bill of rights, inane.
We have freedom of speech and no one is protected from being called a name.
Sticks and stones can do some damage to bones but words, well, are protected by the Constitution.
Look it up...
O.K. "Anonymous"...you remain curiously silent on the other aspects of immoral heterosexual behavior "if you have sex with female prostitutes, or that neighbor who has been giving you the eye,or the nice lady in the church choir that you have been "praying" with, or the secretary in your office that you have been regularly canoodling, you have an excellent chance of contracting a fatal and incurable disease?"
You seem to be fixated on the prostitution aspect of immoral heterosexual behavior. Is there a reason for that? ("only the prostitute is at significant risk")...the "gentleman" who engages in unsafe sex with a prostitute is quite capable of carrying a multitude of S.T.I.'s home to his unwitting wife! But, being an insecure heterosexual male, you wouldn't see the moral issue at stake here. After all...you are only being a healthy, normal MAN!
hmmm...first, I'm curiously silent and then I'm fixated
all, on the basis of one remark that the lunatic fringe didn't respond to
if you must press on, however, I must point out the obvious: there's not an epidemic of the situations you mentioned
there is an epidemic of AIDS in the homosexual community
see how it works?
An epidemic is defined as affecting 1% of a population.
41-50% percent of first heterosexual marriages, 60-67% of heterosexual second and 73-74% of third heterosexual marriages end in divorce.
give it up, buddy
you're getting pathetic now
AIDS is an epidemic is the homosexual community
they need to be tested before any government recognizes their relationship
and, perhaps, quarantined, if found pos and spreading
"Anomouse"
You said: "there is an epidemic of AIDS in the homosexual community". Your tunnel vision and homophobia always get in the way of your questionable sanity.
Take your blinders off and focus your attention on finding a cure for this disease (unless, of course, you are - as we suspect - rooting for it to kill off all of those homos - not to mention all of the other heterosexuals who obviously brought this illness on themselves by being sinners!)
There's an AIDS epidemic in the world! What would you care about that, though. It affects people you don't personally like (as if they ever did anything to you personally),or consider sub-human, or non-Christian, or incalculable numbers of unfortunate heterosexuals. How convenient of you to fail to mention that.
We expect you to dig up the old, throughly discredited "God's Punishment" argument again. God's been pretty busy these days, though, what with earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and in other places around the globe...punishing all of those people for whatever "sins" you think they should be punished for.
Your evasions of facts that you choose to ignore because they point out your own shortcomings are legion. In your own words: give it up, buddy...you're getting pathetic now
"Your evasions of facts that you choose to ignore because they point out your own shortcomings are legion."
like what?
you're mad because I point out the obvious
there is an epidemic among homosexuals
it has now persisted over a quarter of a century
if a looney local government is going to issue them a marriage license, it is only prudent that they be tested and the healthy partner be informed what he is getting into
capiche?
Thanks so much! We had an absolutely wonderful day.
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