Supreme Court Will Hear Marriage Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear four marriage equality cases from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld marriage bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

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Sunnivie Brydum

www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2015/01/16/supreme-court-will-hear-marriage-cases

What Will 2016 Mitt Romney Say About Gay Marriage?
Political pundits have been abuzz over — and bewildered by — Mitt Romney’s statements pointing to a likelihood that he will actually run for president again. He’s touched off lots of discussion about his past positions and the holes he’s dug for himself — like the infamous “47 percent” line.

And one vexing issue with which Romney will have to grapple is what to say about homosexuality and marriage equality in a world where gay marriage will likely be the law of the land in every state. Unlike those of the other possible candidates of the GOP establishment, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, Romney’s positions on gays have been more defined and extreme — and more consistent and reiterated much more recently, especially since he veered far right in the primaries in 2012. Any change will be seen as a yet another major flip-flop by a candidate who’s already got a dozen he’s been juggling for years.

While Jeb Bush made ugly statements about gays in 1994 — claiming that “sodomy” shouldn’t be “elevated to the same constitutional status as race and religion” — it was 20 years ago. When the comments surfaced recently, his spokesperson quickly put out a statement saying the comments “do not reflect” Bush’s opinion today. Bush is still repugnantly dog-whistling to conservatives by saying we must “safeguard religious liberty” even as we should “respect” gay and lesbian couples seeking to get protections, but unlike Romney he was able to take back his most extreme rhetoric because it was two decades old.

Christie has opposed gay marriage and said it should be voted on by residents of each state. But in the end he blinked and didn’t take a state court ruling in favor of gay marriage to the New Jersey Supreme Court, letting it stand. He also signed legislation making New Jersey one of only three jurisdictions that bans the practice of “conversion therapy” on minors by licensed therapists. Both issues will haunt him with religious conservatives in the primaries if he runs, and he’ll no doubt be doing his own dance, as will all the GOP contenders, who will try to run from the gay issue while also trying to appease social conservatives.

But it’s worse for Romney, who, in the 2012 campaign, supported a federal marriage amendment, certainly not just leaving the issue to the states. As I wrote during the 2012 campaign, as recently as 2005, as Romney focused on running for the presidency, he gave a speech to conservative voters in South Carolina saying, “Some gays are actually having children born to them. It’s not right on paper. It’s not right in fact. Every child has a right to a mother and father.”

That was a year after he had battled with the Registry of Vital Records and Statistics as the governor of Massachusetts, directing that state office — after marriage equality had come to the state — not to revise birth-certificate forms for babies born to same-sex couples. He directed the office not to change the box labeled “father,” for example, to “father or second parent” and said it should simply be changed with a pen, obviously marking these children as different for life and making them open to charges of fraud every time they had to show a birth certificate.

Romney never backed away from any of these past positions during the 2012 campaign. And even after the race was over, in 2013, he continued in the same vein, saying, “I believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, and that’s because I believe the ideal setting for raising a child is where there’s a mother and a father in the home.”

Obviously Romney’s positions carried him through the GOP primaries in 2012, and if he remains in the same place, perhaps he can use those positions as a wedge against Christie and Bush in the 2016 primaries. But with Utah, seat of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now a marriage-equality state, and with marriage equality sweeping across the land, Romney looks like a relic from the past on this issue, particularly to GOP establishment donors. Yet any change, even a nuance, will add to his reputation of putting his finger in the air on issue after issue. The more Romney runs, the more evident that becomes.

www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/what-will-2016-mitt-romney-say-about-gay-marriage_b_6488120.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Breaking News: #LoveCantWait

HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/breaking-news-lovecantwait?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Canned Homophobic Fire Chief Joins Christian Protestors To Rally Against The City Of Atlanta

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/JsaUxSQb6Ww/canned-homophobic-fire-chief-joins-christian-protestors-to-rally-against-the-city-of-atlanta-20150116

Supreme Court To Hear Four Cases Challenging Same-Sex Marriage Bans In KY, MI, OH and TN

Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2015/01/scotus.html

Learning to Love My Selfie: Confessions of a Supposedly Psychopathic, Narcissistic Gay Man
I probably post more selfies to social-media accounts than the average male. According to a recent study this would indicate that I may be more inclined toward psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies with a dash of self-objectification thrown in for good measure. I suppose that’s fine by me, considering that, not so long ago, I despised the face staring back in the mirror.

When I created my online dating profile seven years ago, I posted one picture. It was the only one that I liked. The angle covered up a bad haircut, and the close-lipped smile hid my crooked teeth. I had just come out as gay, so I didn’t have many photos for which I had spent any time choosing body-conscious clothing, standing in the best light or angling my face so that my jaw line appeared stronger. For most of my life, I had been too frightened that doing any those things would reveal my secret.

Years of living in the closet can destroy any sense of self-confidence. When I looked at my face, all that I could see were the flaws. The eyes were like slivers, the chin was too weak, and the furrows that lined my forehead were like the deepened ruts of a muddy country road. The landscape of my face was as unappealing to me as the workings of my heart. When you’re convinced that what you’re feeling on the inside is ugly, it has a way of bubbling up.

But then I met a man who liked the shape of my face. He had the type of rugged good looks that are appealing in any light, which was both a blessing and a curse. It can be confusing to love someone’s handsome face and feel envious of it and insecure about it at the same time.

I thought he was either foolish or blind when he first told me I’m good-looking. But, day after day, he continued to repeat it until, eventually, it became a routine.

“What’s your job?” he would ask whenever I offered up some piece of dubious advice.

“To sit here and look pretty,” I’d reply.

“And what a good job you’re doing,” he’d smile.

Amusing as it was, it worked. His daily affirmations allowed me to see something I had never seen before. After 40-odd years, I finally became comfortable with and — I’ll admit it — appreciative of the way I look. When this handsome man made a promise that my face would be the first one he would wake up to every morning and the last one he would kiss every night, something amazing happened. My reflection in the mirror, or my image as seen through the front-facing lens of a smartphone, became more of what he saw and less of what I hated.

So I take more selfies than most men, and that’s a big deal, but not because I value my looks more than I value my soul. It’s quite the opposite. The happiness I have finally achieved on the inside has bubbled up to the surface. You can call me psychopathic and narcissistic if you want, because labels don’t define me anymore. After so many years of unhappy pictures taken by others, I’ll make a record of my own face, because the beauty I see on the outside has finally replaced the ugliness that was inside.

William Dameron’s personal blog is The Authentic Life.

www.huffingtonpost.com/william-dameron/learning-to-love-my-selfi_b_6466272.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Reflection: Supporters of Equality Gather in Cincinnati to Honor Leelah Alcorn

Nearly 600 supporters of equality, regional leaders, and local and national press gathered at the Woodward Theater in downtown Cincinnati to honor Leelah Alcorn and hear from members of their Trans* community.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/reflection-supporters-of-equality-gather-in-cincinnati-to-honor-leelah-alco?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Yes, Your Penis Is Shrinking. Deal With It.

“We don’t have much data on adult male penis size from 60 years ago, despite Alfred Kinsey’s efforts,” Dr. Phil Hammond (not to be confused with Oprah‘s Dr. Phil) writes in a new op-ed dedicated entirely to the subject of penile shrinkage. “However what we do know is that men are living a lot longer and carrying more weight than they used to. Sixty years ago, half of us died before the age of 65. Now one in three of us live to 100.”

So what does this mean, exactly? (For our penises, we mean.)

Well, as Hammond puts it, “many of us are having to carry our penises around for another 30 years or more.”

Naturally, as things get older, they wear out. You see it all the time. Cars stop running. Clothing falls apart. Relationships splinter and decay.

Dongs are no exception.

According to Hammond, “the older penis droops more, just as all parts of the body seem to hang down lower, but it doesn’t always stand up and swell like it used to and so may appear smaller.”

“Drugs like Viagra can help a failing erection,” he continues, “as can a cock ring. Indeed, any penis is capable of expanding hugely if it has enough blood in it.”

But beware those cock rings, fellas! Too much use can actually cause your penis to turn black and maybe fall off.

“A cock ring stops the blood escaping but you should never have it on for more than half an hour and always choose one with handles,” Hammond advises. “If you just put the ring on, you might not get it off again. It swells up like a wedding ring on a septic finger, and eventually turns black.”

Yikes!

But it’s not just droopage that causes the penis to appear a different shape or size. Bellies, too, can make your pecker look smaller by swallowing it up in fat.

“A big belly makes your penis look smaller,” Hammond explains, “and if you can’t see it at all when you look down you need to get a grip quickly. You’re at high risk of type two diabetes and arterial disease, which can also affect the frequency and firmness of your erections.”

The bottom line, Hammond says, is that “a good erection is a sign of good physical and mental health.”

But don’t worry too much about it. Most likely your wiener will be just fine. And even if it does droop or shrink as you approach your golden years, don’t let the bastard get you down.

“Creativity, love, laughter, soap and good communication are much faster route to a happy love life than six months alone in the dark with a penis enlarger,” Hammond says. “Trust me.”

Related stories:

Man Reveals The Good And Bad About Having An Unusually Small Penis

A Lot Of Men Are Unhappy With Their Penis Size, So Here’s What Can Be Done About It

Amazing New Technology Allows Guys To Photograph Their Penises In 3D

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/273MfD-yR3s/yes-your-penis-is-shrinking-deal-with-it-20150116

Adam Lambert Recreates His 'American Idol' Audition, Announces New Album: VIDEO

Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2015/01/adam-lambert-recreates-his-american-idol-audition-announces-new-album.html

Social Media Might Actually Help Women Deal With Stress
By: Elizabeth Palermo, LiveScience Staff Writer
Published: 01/15/2015 10:56 AM EST on LiveScience

Face it, ladies: your DIY projects rarely turn out like the ones you see on Pinterest, and your Facebook posts aren’t universally “liked.” But a new survey suggests that despite such woes, social networking is still good for you.

The survey found that women who frequently use social media, along with other technologies, to connect with friends and family report feeling less stressed than women who connect less often.

The researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., found that women who frequently email, text and use social media scored 21 percent lower on a test that measures stress than women who don’t use these technologies. [Photo Future: 7 High-Tech Ways to Share Images]

The survey’s findings add a new dimension to discussions about the psychological effects of social media. In recent years, frequent use of sites like Facebook and Twitter has been linked to a host of negative outcomes — from narcissist personality disorder to self-destructive behavior. Some attention has also been paid to the connection between social media and stress, with articles in the Huffington Post and Psych Central linking use of social media sites with higher levels of stress and anxiety.

However, claims that social media and other technologies increase stress aren’t well supported by scientific data, said Keith Hampton, an associate professor of communications at Rutgers and lead author of the new survey.

“We were interested in testing the common assumption that social media use — or the use of the Internet or mobile technology — is related to stress,” Hampton told Live Science. “The way that most [researchers] have done this in the past is to ask people if they feel stressed when they use Facebook. But it’s difficult to compare an answer to that question to answers from people who don’t use this technology, or use it less.”

To get a clearer picture of how stress and social media are related, Hampton and his fellow researchers asked about 1,800 people to complete the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), a widely used instrument for measuring how people perceive stress in their daily lives. The PSS doesn’t measure whether or not certain technologies cause stress; it just asks general questions about the stress that someone has felt over the past month.

After completing the PSS, participants completed another survey related to their use of digital technologies and social media. They were asked which technologies they used and how often, as well as questions related to how many friends or followers they had in different social networks.

“What we found was that, for most people, there’s no relationship between how much they use these technologies or how many Facebook friends they have and their stress,” Hampton said. The only exception was for women who use these social technologies compared to those who don’t, he added.

The cost of caring

The researchers didn’t find evidence to support the popular hypothesis that we’d all be less stressed out if we quit Facebook and stopped responding to email. However, they did find that sometimes, when the conditions are right, the use of certain technologies can lead to higher levels of stress — especially for women.

Although the women who frequently used technology generally had lower stress levels, they were still much more aware of stressful events that occur in the lives of close friends and acquaintances than people who rarely or never use digital technology, the survey found. For example, technology users are more likely to know if someone in their circle has lost a child or a spouse, if a friend got a divorce or if a former co-worker lost his job.

“Other researchers have previously found that when you know about unfortunate things happening to your friends and family [members], it results in more stress for you. In that way, stress is contagious,” Hampton said.

Social media and other digital technologies are designed to keep people up to speed on what’s going on in other peoples’ lives, including these kinds of stressful events. People who use these technologies more are therefore more likely to “catch” stress from others than people who don’t use social technologies, Hampton said. [11 Tips to Lower Stress]

“And women are much more aware of the stressful things that are happening in other peoples’ lives [than men are], which makes them much more susceptible to that kind of contagious stress,” Hampton said.

The researchers found that four stress-inducing events in the lives of others can cause women to report higher levels of stress in their own lives. Women who were aware that someone close to them had experienced the death of a child, partner or spouse scored 14 percent higher on the PSS, for example. And women who knew that a close friend was seriously injured reported 5 percent higher stress in their own lives. Women who knew someone who had been accused of or arrested for a crime, or someone who had been demoted at work, also scored higher on the PSS.

Only two stressful events in the lives of others predicted higher levels of stress in men. Men who had close friends or family members accused of or arrested for a crime scored 15 percent higher on the PSS. Those who had an acquaintance who got demoted at work reported 12 percent higher stress.

The higher incidence of stress among the subset of technology users who are aware of stressful events in the lives of others is something that Hampton and his colleagues call “the cost of caring.”

“You can use these technologies and, as a woman, it’s probably going to be beneficial for your level of stress. But every now and then, bad things are going to happen to people you know, and there’s going to be a cost for that,” Hampton said.

Lee Rainie, the director of Internet, science and technology research at Pew Research Center, put it a bit differently.

“This is the ultimate story of technology. There are enormous benefits that come from it, and sometimes there are really significant social costs,” Rainie told Live Science. “It’s never either/or, never good or bad entirely.”

The full report outlining the survey results can be accessed online at the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project homepage.

Follow Elizabeth Palermo @techEpalermo. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

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www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/16/social-media-might-help-women-with-stress_n_6486714.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices