New Book: Germans Invented Gay Rights

According to a coming book by historian Robert Beachy, the genesis of the modern gay rights movement came in 19th century Germany.

Modern conceptions of homosexuality began, ironically, with an anti-sodomy law. When the German empire was unified in 1871, the Imperial Criminal Code included a law prohibiting sexual penetration of one man by another. Questions about what types of activity should fall under the law spurred a sustained public inquiry into the nature of same-sex eroticism and sexuality in general. [snip] This new view of same-sex love was pioneered by German doctors who published early case studies of homosexuals in the 1850s. German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing released the first edition of his hugely influential Psychopathia Sexualis in 1886, which included multiple case studies of homosexuals that supported this new position. Through his work, Krafft-Ebing became a vocal opponent of the German anti-sodomy law, stating that homosexuality "should not be viewed as a psychic depravity or even sickness."

Beachy claims the world's first gay rights group, the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee) came into being at that time to gather petition signatures to repeal the anti-sodomy law. His book, The German Invention Of Homosexuality, is due out next year.

ABC's What Would You Do? Tackles Homophobic Parenting

Even though it's acting, this is hard to watch.

Pope Benedict: Even If God Did Make You Gay, You Still Should Not Be Gay

In another excerpt from his coming book/interview, Pope Benedict says that he doesn't know if people are born gay or not. But even if God did make you this way, you shouldn't BE this way. Or something.

He said it was still an open question whether homosexual inclinations are innate or arise early in life. In any case, he said, if these are strong inclinations, it represents "a great trial" for the homosexual. "But this does not mean that homosexuality thereby becomes morally right. Rather, it remains contrary to the essence of what God originally willed," he said.

Remember, God doesn't make mistakes. But if he DOES make mistakes, that's your problem to deal with. Benedict also says there's no inherent contradiction in calling homosexuals "intrinsically disordered" and still offering them respect. Got that? Yes, you are a mentally ill freak. But we mean that in the nicest way.

Bathhouse Art

A new book about Michelangelo speculates that his inspiration for all the nude male figures in the Sistine Chapel's Last Judgment mural came from his frequent visits to Rome's gay bathhouses and brothels.

Elena Lazzarini, a researcher from Pisa University, believes the enormous fresco is replete with homosexual imagery, including a man being dragged into Damnation by his testicles and kisses and embraces between male figures. She has explored the theory in a new book, claiming that Michelangelo drew much of his knowledge of male anatomy from his frequent visits to gay brothels and 'Turkish baths' in 16th century Italy. "The virile male bodies are inspired by the physiology of labourers engaged in physical exertion, with taut muscles, strenuous exertion and pain etched into the expression on their faces," said Miss Lazzarini. Michelangelo's explicit depiction of naked male bodies caused outrage in the Roman Catholic Church when the fresco was unveiled, with the artist accused of indecency and obscenity. Biagio da Cesena, the papal master of ceremonies, said the fresco was more suited to "public baths and taverns" than to a place of worship.

One art critic is unamused.

Some art critics like to say that the Last Judgment reflects Michelangelo’s own tortured relationship with his faith, in particular his belief that suffering is vital to finding faith in God. here is no light entertainment in this intense masterpiece, one which stretches across the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, the building traditionally used for papal elections. It seems almost heretical to link such a masterpiece to a common bathhouse.

(Tipped by JMG reader Vivian)

SAUDI ARABIA: Man Sentenced To 500 Lashes And 5 Years In Prison For Gay Sex

A Saudi court has sentenced a man accused of having gay sex to 500 lashes and five years in prison.

The 27 year-old man, who was arrested by the kingdom’s religious police, was also convicted of publishing photos on the internet and on mobile phones of himself wearing women’s underwear, the newspaper reported without giving his name. The court fined him 50,000 riyals ($13,300), the newspaper said.

Hopefully this outrage will be denounced by Secretary Clinton.

New Survey: 8% Gay, 7% Lesbian

In what they are calling the "largest nationally representative study of sexual and sexual-health behaviors ever fielded," a just-released survey commissioned by Indiana University says that 8% of adult American men self-identify as gay or bisexual, with 7% of women identifying as lesbian or bisexual. Those numbers are almost triple the percentages claimed by some anti-gay groups.

ABC News takes note of the study's "interesting findings."

About 85 percent of men reported that their partner had an orgasm during their most recent sexual encounter, but only 64 percent of women report having had one. Researchers said the difference is too great to attribute to men having had their last encounter with another man. Eight percent of men and 7 percent of women identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, but a much higher percentage report engaging in sexual activity with someone of the same sex at least once. The study found that 15 percent of men aged 50-59 have received oral sex from another man at some point.

Here's one of the sexual behaviors graphs from the study.

The Homosexual Menace

The follow-up to The Perils Of Lesbianity.

(Tipped by JMG reader Dana)

NEW STUDY: Gay Men Remember Faces Better Than Straight Men Do

According to a study conducted by Toronto's York University, gay men are more adept at remembering faces than straight men. Because we use our brains like women do.

The study, published in the journal, Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, examined the influence of gender, sexual orientation and whether we’re right-or-left-handed on our ability to recognize faces. It found that when memorizing and discriminating between faces, homosexual men show patterns of bilaterality — the usage of both sides of the brain — similar to heterosexual women. Heterosexual men tend to favour the right hemisphere for such tasks. “Our results suggest that both gay men and heterosexual women code faces bilaterally. That allows for faster retrieval of stored information,” says study lead author Jennifer Steeves, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health. Study participants were asked to memorize photographs of ten faces, and differentiate them from 50 others, shown to them for only milliseconds each. The images were rendered in black and white and edited to remove ears, hair and blemishes, which can serve as obvious identifying cues. Participants then had to relay which faces were new, as quickly and accurately as possible.

Interestingly, left-handed gays did worse in the study than left-handed straights. And I'm sure there's a joke in here about trying to remember tricks.

HomoQuotable - Mark Simpson

"After a decade or so of metrosexuality a tipping point seems to have been reached. Men’s self-loving bi-sensuality and appreciation of male beauty, awakened and increasingly normalised by our mediated world, seems to be here to stay. Even in the God-fearing USA. And might now, if it’s in the mood and treated right, choose to be consummated rather than just deflected into consumerism again.

"When I first wrote about how the future of men was metrosexual, back in 1994, it was clear to me that metrosexuality was to some degree the flipside of the then emerging fashion for female bi-curiousness. I didn’t talk about this much at the time because I knew no one would listen if I did. (I needn’t have worried – they didn’t anyway.)

"In this regard, one of the academics in the NYT piece was (finally) quoted as saying something interesting, right at the end:

‘Professor Savin-Williams says that his current research reveals that the fastest-growing group along the sexuality continuum are men who self-identify as “mostly straight” as opposed to labels like “straight,” “gay” or “bisexual.” They acknowledge some level of attraction to other men even as they say that they probably wouldn’t act on it, but … the right guy, the right day, a few beers and who knows. As the professor points out, you would never have heard that in years past.’

"An A ++ to Dr Savin-Williams. Not so long ago, when Heterosexuality was a proper belief system that commanded round-the-clock obeisance, ‘mostly straight’ would have been a heretical contradiction in terms – like half pregnant. But in this Brave New World of male neediness it’s just a statement of where we’re at. For today’s young men the fear of faggotry is fast being replaced by the fear of missing out." - British journalist Mark Simpson, responding to a New York Times column about the increasing acceptance of homosexuality.

The Condemned

French journalist Philippe Castetbon contacted men living in countries where homosexuality is against the law and asked them to provide a "self-portrait and a personal text, words of fear and anger." Castetbon has turned their responses into a book, Les Condamnés.

CA Assembly Ends Search For "Gay Cure"

By unanimous vote, the California Assembly has repealed the archaic law requiring research into a "cure" for homosexuality.

Part of a decades-old state law that characterized homosexuality as a sexual deviation that must be cured is no longer on the books. The law was written in 1950 and classifies gay people as sexual deviants. It requires the state to conduct research to find the causes of sex crimes against children and singles out homosexuals as a group that should be researched. The department no longer conducts such research, but the law remained on the books. Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, said the changes make the law read as it should have 60 years ago. She said California is now "setting things right."

The bill now goes to the state Senate. "Ex-gay" lunatics PFOX continue to oppose the repeal.