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[Nomad]

Originally Posted by Kobi

Orwell was just a wee bit off in his timing.

just putting the finishing touches on the panopticon - it's for your own good. (insert evil laugh here)

the part that's saddest is that there are people who think those cameras will keep them from being harmed

[Okiebug61]

http://news.yahoo.com/science-homose...232225880.html

[Toughy]

Originally Posted by Okiebug61

http://news.yahoo.com/science-homose...232225880.html

There is some research that says masculine females are created in the womb. The fetus gets a big testosterone dose and bingo you have a butch. Can't remember where I read that, but I first heard it in the mid 90's I think.

That little excerpt doesn't tell me enough to make any kind of opinion on it.

[Toughy]

the actual article and a press release.....I'm trying to digest it...

download the pdf to get the actual paper:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/668167#abstract

a couple more articles about the paper:

http://io9.com/5967426/scientists-co...?post=55106590

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-sfe120612.php

[starryeyes]

Originally Posted by Toughy

the actual article and a press release.....I'm trying to digest it...

download the pdf to get the actual paper:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/668167#abstract

a couple more articles about the paper:

http://io9.com/5967426/scientists-co...?post=55106590

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-sfe120612.php

I also am trying to digest it, and trying to fully understand what an epi-mark is?

I have always believed that I was born gay due to inheriting a gene from my fathers side of the family, and I still believe that. I have a very unique situation, and I think scientists should study my family!

I was born to a gay father and a straight mother. I also was born a twin, me being gay and my sister being straight. If you look at my sister and I, I have all of the characteristics of my fathers side of the family (gay, personality, looks, body type). My twin sister has all of the characteristics of my mothers side (straight, hair, body type, personality) she even looks exactly like my mom's sister to a T. We are fraternal as well, so we share different genes.

And, I'm a high femme lesbian... No masculine traits here which doesn't fit into the epi-marks being erased during fetal development and allowing too much testosterone into the mix.

It just seems too perfect of a situation for it not to be inherited.

I am going to research more about this epi-mark.

[CherylNYC]

Originally Posted by starryeyes

...
And, I'm a high femme lesbian... No masculine traits here which doesn't fit into the epi-marks being erased during fetal development and allowing too much testosterone into the mix...

Too much testosterone? If exposure to testosterone in the womb actually does create butches, then too much is never enough.

[Greyson]

Originally Posted by starryeyes

I was born to a gay father and a straight mother. I also was born a twin, me being gay and my sister being straight.

I too am a twin. We are identical twins. My twin is a femme and very feminine in her presentation. I have always been butch and expressed as masculine. We are both Queer. My sister is attracted to butchs and I am attracted to femmes.

I do believe most Queer people are "born this way" and others become gay due to other factors that are not found in our DNA.

[Bella~Vita]

I am not a twin but born to a gay Father and straight Mother !

[starryeyes]

Originally Posted by Greyson

I too am a twin. We are identical twins. My twin is a femme and very feminine in her presentation. I have always been butch and expressed as masculine. We are both Queer. My sister is attracted to butchs and I am attracted to femmes.

I do believe most Queer people are "born this way" and others become gay due to other factors that are not found in our DNA.

Interesting!!!

[*Anya*]

AFA's Bryan Fischer declares homosexuality a birth defect, forecasts the abortion of gay babies

by Chrislove Dec 12, 2012 5:52pm PST

After reaching many, many new lows throughout his long and sick career as American Family Association spokesbigot, Bryan Fischer seems to be furiously trying to find yet a new low.

This time, his mouth is foaming over a new study which suggests there may be an "epigenetic" explanation for homosexuality. The study links fathers to lesbian daughters and mothers to gay sons. In case you missed the story, here's the gist from US News:

Long thought to have some sort of hereditary link, a group of scientists suggested Tuesday that homosexuality is linked to epi-marks — extra layers of information that control how certain genes are expressed. These epi-marks are usually, but not always, "erased" between generations. In homosexuals, these epi-marks aren't erased — they're passed from father-to-daughter or mother-to-son, explains William Rice, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California Santa Barbara and lead author of the study.
[...]

Rice and his team created a mathematical model that explains why homosexuality is passed through epi-marks, not genetics. Evolutionarily speaking, if homosexuality was solely a genetic trait, scientists would expect the trait to eventually disappear because homosexuals wouldn't be expected to reproduce. But because these epi-marks provide an evolutionary advantage for the parents of homosexuals: They protect fathers of homosexuals from underexposure to testosterone and mothers of homosexuals from overexposure to testosterone while they are in gestation.

"These epi-marks protect fathers and mothers from excess or underexposure to testosterone — when they carry over to opposite-sex offspring, it can cause the masculinization of females or the feminization of males," Rice says, which can lead to a child becoming gay. Rice notes that these markers are "highly variable" and that only strong epi-marks will result in a homosexual offspring.

This study has launched Fischer into rabid-dog mode. For a man who has built an anti-gay career on the notion that homosexuality is a "lifestyle choice," he seems quite eager to accept the new study. Of course, he is also eager to distort it and to assign the label of "birth defect" to homosexuality. See, it's a disease after all! Of course, he's full of shit, and that's not what the researchers are trying to get across at all, but don't tell that to Fischer, who is just positively thrilled about the notion that gay people have some kind of defect.
Writing for the AFA's website, Fischer takes it a step further and explains how this "birth defect" he's so obviously excited about could lead parents to choose abortion to avoid having gay children.

The scientists in Koebler’s article, in my view, are now resorting to genetic subterfuge and are coming dangerously close to saying that homosexuality is the result of a genetic defect, a genetic abnormality. In other words, read from one angle, these same scientists are saying that homosexuality is the result of a birth defect.
[...]

Now these researchers are quite at pains to avoid saying anything like this, but the logic to me seems inescapable: Homosexual children, on this theory, are born evolutionarily and genetically disadvantaged. They have been overexposed or underexposed to testosterone because something has gone wrong in the process of genetic transmission. In other words, they are the product of a genetic abnormality at best, a birth defect at worst.

...I expect many abortion-minded parents will want to know exactly how strong this epi-marker is in their unborn children so they can decide whether or not to exercise reproductive choice.

In fact, I expect that if this theory gains some currency, it will not be long before we have legislation from the homoexual lobby prohibiting “sex-selection” abortions on any child carrying this epi-marker.

He repeated these points on his radio show today. You can just hear the excitement in his voice at the idea that gay people are defective and could possibly be aborted by prospective parents.

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/...-of-gay-babies

[Kobi]

Epigenetics is a fascinating field of study in evolution.

As to the phenomemon of queerness, they are postulating that:

~ sex-specific epi-marks passed from father to daughter or mother to son could cause homosexuality

~genes hold the instructions, epi-marks direct how those instructions are carried out – when, where and how much a gene is expressed during development. Epi-marks are usually produced anew each generation, but recent evidence demonstrates that they sometimes carry over between generations

~this usually happens in response to spikes in testosterone — sex-specific epi-marks formed in early fetal development activate to protect the fetus from the testosterone surge. Otherwise, the high testosterone could cause female fetuses to ‘masculinze’ or vice versa for male fetuses.

~different epi-marks protect different sex traits from being masculinized or feminized, some affect the genitals, others affect sexual identity and others affect sexual preference. But when epi-marks are transmitted from fathers to daughters or mothers to sons, they may cause reversed effects, such as the feminization of some traits in sons, such as sexual preference, and similarly a partial masculinization of daughters.

~the transmission of sex-specific epi-marks between generations is the most plausible evolutionary mechanism of the phenomenon of human homosexuality


Theories are only as good as the thoughts behind them, and how those thoughts influence conclusions.

Seems to me, the thought behind this science is deeply rooted in stereotypical assumptions about queers i.e. gay females are masculinized and gay males are feminized.

The science could also be said to be steeped in the patriarchy. It is all testosterone based. Lord knows we have all been taught and socialized to believe ALL revolves around testosterone. Now, they are just looking for the bio-genetic proof.

On the other hand, as a feminist, it was also intriguing to see a defective testosterone process being targeted as the causal factor in this process

However, I am sure it is just a matter of time before it will all link back to Adam, Eve, and that freakin apple.

[Ginger]

Not exactly breaking news in the traditional sense, but a butch-femme couple is on the front page of this morning's New York Times!

https://www.nytsyn.com/images/photos/873604.html

[Nadeest]

The epi-marks might well explain a bit on how and why transsexuals and transgender people come about, as well. I don't know for certain, of course, if the theories of how we happen are accurate. I just have to deal with the results, in my life.

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by IslandScout

Not exactly breaking news in the traditional sense, but a butch-femme couple is on the front page of this morning's New York Times!

https://www.nytsyn.com/images/photos/873604.html

Oh, I love this so much!! Makes me teary!

In other news: how do epi-marks explain femmes??!!

Doesn't really explain us does it?

[Greyson]

Loud Commercials and the CALM Act

Effective December 13, 2012, the FCC's rules require television commercial advertisements to have the same average volume as the programs that they accompany. The FCC established these rules to comply with the directive of Congress contained in the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act (PDF).

What the New FCC Rules Do

The FCC's new rules require TV stations, cable operators, satellite TV operators and other pay TV providers to limit a commercial's average volume to that of the programming that it accompanies. A commercial may have louder and quieter moments, but, overall, it should be no louder than the surrounding programming. This may mean, however, that some commercials will comply with the new rules, but still sound "too loud" to some viewers.



http://www.fcc.gov/guides/program-ba...ud-commercials

[Corkey]

Susan Rice withdraws her name from consideration for Sec of State.

[LeftWriteFemme]

North Carolina woman believes she was denied membership in military spouses’ group because she is a lesbian

Ashley Broadway, who wed after the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ believes her sexuality is why her request to join the Association of Bragg Officers’ Spouses met with ‘do not qualify.’ But another organization, The American Military Partner Association, has started a petition in her defense.



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.1218895

[CherylNYC]

Originally Posted by IslandScout

Not exactly breaking news in the traditional sense, but a butch-femme couple is on the front page of this morning's New York Times!

https://www.nytsyn.com/images/photos/873604.html

Did anyone else notice that they're riding the Q train?

[Canela]

Originally Posted by IslandScout

Not exactly breaking news in the traditional sense, but a butch-femme couple is on the front page of this morning's New York Times!

https://www.nytsyn.com/images/photos/873604.html

YAY! And Congrats!

[RockOn]

Where do they get these judges???

Hope I am posting the entire, correct link for you. It can be hit/miss sometimes using this cellular.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile...ngeles_gallery