Prop 8 trial witness: Being gay not a choice

(San Francisco) A social psychologist testifying in a trial challenging California’s gay marriage ban says leading mental health associations stopped thinking of homosexuality as a mental illness decades ago.

Lawyers for two same-sex couples suing to overturn the voter-enacted ban called University of California, Davis researcher Gregory Herek as an expert …

Women more likely to be expelled under ‘don’t ask’

(San Francisco) Pentagon statistics obtained by University of California researchers show that women are far more likely than men to be kicked out of the military under the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” banning openly gay servicemembers.

Every military branch dismissed a disproportionate number of women in 2008 under the policy …

Gay professor Simon Karlinsky dies

Simon Karlinsky, an openly gay distinguished professor in the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and an expert on the history of homosexuality in Russia, died July 5 due to congestive heart failure. He was 84.

Mr. Karlinsky’s death was announced by his husband, Peter Carleton. The couple lived in Kensignton.

For more than 30 years Mr. Karlinsky taught at UC Berkeley. He was an author and editor of books on Gogol, Nabokov and Chekov, and an internationally known expert on the history of homosexuality in Russia.

He was born on September 22, 1924 in the city of Harbin, a Russian cultural outpost in Manchuria (now China).

See Gay professor Simon Karlinsky dies

Bay Area Reporter

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Nations allowing gays to serve openly in military

(New York) Nations that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in their armed forces, as compiled by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara:

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Britain

Canada

Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Slovenia

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Uruguay

Congressional Race in California Draws a High-Profile Cast

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — With competitive races in Congress a rarity in California, the unexpected availability of a seat here has set off a sudden and furious chase, with at least a dozen candidates and a mélange of political styles and personal storylines.

California’s 10th Congressional District, a sprawling inkblot made up of a collection of suburbs east of San Francisco, has been represented since 1997 by Ellen O. Tauscher, a Democrat who resigned after being confirmed on June 25 to a top post in the State Department.

The field to succeed her includes the lieutenant governor, two state lawmakers, a decorated Iraqi war veteran who is openly gay and a former newspaper reporter. And that does not even include the Republican candidates in this Democratic-leaning district.

The crush of hopefuls, said Henry Brady, a professor and dean of the public policy school at University of California, Berkeley, might stem in part from the diversity of the district, which extends from the liberal Bay Area to more conservative territory inland.

“These seats don’t come available very much, and the reason is very simple: geography,” Dr. Brady said. “The Democrats are primarily on the coast, and the Republicans are in the Central Valley and the mountains, so it’s very hard to build a competitive district. But this has the potential to be one.”

The lieutenant governor, John Garamendi, is considered the early favorite to replace Ms. Tauscher. Mr. Garamendi, a Democrat who had considered running for governor next year, said he opted instead for Congress in large part because of the abbreviated campaign. A primary, followed by a special election, to complete Ms. Tauscher’s term must be held within 126 days of the governor setting the date. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation Friday declaring Nov. 3 the date for the special election.

“I thought, How am I going to spend two valuable years of my life?” said Mr. Garamendi, 64, who previously served as the deputy secretary of interior in the Clinton administration as well as the California’s first elected insurance commissioner. “Am I going spend two years dialing for dollars, or am I going to spend four months out ringing doorbells and campaigning person to person and the other 20 months working on issues?”

Mr. Garamendi’s principal challengers among the Democrats, some polls show, are State Senator Mark James DeSaulnier and Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan. Both were elected to their current posts last fall.

Mr. DeSaulnier, 57, is a former mayor, city councilman and assemblyman, who says his career comes in spite a devastating personal experience with politics: a scandal involving his father, Judge Edward J. DeSaulnier Jr., who was removed from the bench of the Massachusetts Superior Court and disbarred in 1972 after being accused of rigging a sentence for the Mafia. The older Mr. DeSaulnier was never charged with a crime but was disgraced nonetheless and committed suicide in 1989.

“I’ve been very affected by my father’s journey,” said Mr. DeSaulnier, who worked as a restaurateur before running for office. “And I’ve loved my public life.”

The rest of the Democratic field is not as well known, though one candidate has attracted some national attention: Anthony Woods, a 28-year-old graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a veteran of the Iraq war who was awarded the Bronze Star for two tours of duty. Shortly after his return from combat, while at Harvard working toward his master’s degree, Captain Woods told military superiors that he is gay, resulting in an honorable discharge.

While considered a long shot for the Congressional seat, Mr. Woods would be the first openly gay black man in Congress, though he has been careful on the campaign trail to trumpet more than his sexuality.

“The first thing I talk to voters about is their priorities, universal health care and economic security,” he said. “I’m not hiding who I am, but they’re just as interested in talking about the issues as I am.”

See Congressional Race in California Draws a High-Profile Cast

New York Times

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Gates Plan May Be Beginning of the End of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Pentagon Studies Ways to Relax Enforcement as First Step; Impact on Troops Would be Minimal

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — In the wake of yesterday’s unexpected Pentagon announcement about gays in the military, experts say the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy may be on the brink of irreversible change that would speed up its demise. After speaking with President Obama last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked military lawyers to explore how to modify enforcement of the policy in ways that are “more flexible until the law is changed.” The President Monday reiterated his intention to end discrimination against gay troops, saying he is working with Congress and the military to do so.

Christopher Neff, political director of the Palm Center, said the remarks by Secretary Gates marked the first time the Defense Secretary has made clear that the Pentagon is onboard with the President’s determination to lift the ban. “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ is a package — both a law and a policy — that hasn’t been penetrated for fifteen years,” Neff said. “This is a crack in humpty dumpty, and it gets the ball rolling for a political solution since it gives cover to lawmakers who have been waiting for a nod from the Pentagon.”

Neff said that even a small change in how “don’t ask, don’t tell” is enforced could represent a seismic political shift, even if it does not have a substantial operational impact on most gay troops, who would still be subject to discharge. If the military stops applying certain provisions of the policy, as Gates says it is considering, it would send a signal to Congress about the inevitability of change. “That’s why executive action is the key to unlocking the political stalemate,” said Neff. “Even the statements themselves, although they do await follow-up action, have changed the political landscape.”

Last month, the Palm Center published a report which outlined several legal and political rationales for executive branch discretion in regulating, and even halting, discharges provided for by federal statute. One of those rationales is closely linked to the new review announced by Secretary Gates. According to the Palm Center study, “the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy itself, as codified by Congress, also grants authority to the Department of Defense to determine the procedures under which investigations, separation proceedings, and other personnel actions under the authority of 10 U.S.C. Section 654 will be carried out … The Secretary of Defense has discretion to determine the specific manner in which ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will be implemented.” Prior to the release of the Palm Center’s report, most observers had assumed that only Congress or the federal courts end the firings of gay troops.

Amidst mounting public pressure, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said this week that he thought “don’t ask, don’t tell” would be repealed by the end of the President’s first term. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center, said this week’s developments were politically significant. “Serious discussions have been launched by the President himself,” said Frank. “Obama has said this is a failed policy that harms national security, so these measures are not just fixes, but may be the beginning of the end.” Frank added that any regulatory changes that fall short of halting all discharges will be “window-dressing,” but he focused on the implications for further political change. “This means the hot potato party may finally be over, as the President understands where the buck stops.”

In the wake of this week’s developments, the Palm Center announced that it is preparing a more extensive legal analysis of administrative options for relaxing the application of certain provisions of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Neff said that the Defense Department should invite public input as the rules are re-drafted, which would be consistent with past processes when military regulations have been

changed. “This review should be no different,” he said.

Organizations and individuals who have endorsed or endorsed consideration of the use of executive action based on the legal theories outlined in the Palm Center’s study include Secretary Gates, 77 members of Congress, the New York Times editorial page, Center for American Progress, Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker, the political consultant Robert Shrum, and former White House aide Richard Socarides.

The Palm Center is a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Center uses rigorous social science to inform public discussions of controversial social issues, enabling policy outcomes to be informed more by evidence than by emotion. Its data-driven approach is premised on the notion that the public makes wise choices on social issues when high-quality information is available. For more information, visit www.palmcenter.ucsb.edu.

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Lesbian albatrosses and bisexual bonobos have last laugh on Darwin

Charles Darwin argued that sexual preferences can shape the progress of evolution, creating displays, such as the peacock’s tail, that are inexplicable by natural selection alone.

It’s safe to say, however, that he did not anticipate the lesbian albatrosses of Hawaii. Nor bisexual bonobos. Let alone sadomasochistic bat bugs or the gay penguins of New York.

Homosexuality is so widespread among some animal species that it can reshape their social dynamics and even change their DNA, according to the first peer-reviewed survey of research on the subject.

From mammals to snails, and even nematode worms, homosexual behaviour is almost universal across the animal kingdom, and Californian scientists argue that it should be considered a selective force in its own right.

“The variety and ubiquity of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals is impressive — many thousands of instances of same-sex courtship, pair bonding and copulation have been observed in a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs and nematodes,” write Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk of the University of California, Riverside.

Animals engage in same-sex activity for a variety of reasons, ranging from the need for an alternative child-rearing strategy to mistaken identity. “Male fruit flies may court other males because they are lacking a gene that enables them to discriminate between the sexes,” Dr Bailey said.

“But that is different from male bottlenose dolphins, who engage in same-sex interactions to facilitate group bonding, or female Laysan albatrosses that can remain pair-bonded for life and co-operatively rear young.”

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Lesbian albatrosses and bisexual bonobos have last laugh on Darwin

Times Online

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House Dems urge Obama to halt gay discharges from the military

WASHINGTON _ In the most vocal plea for the White House to take the lead in allowing gays to serve openly in the military, 76 Democratic lawmakers today urged President Obama to use his executive powers to order a halt to military discharges under the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and work aggressively with Congress to pass new legislation to overturn what they describe as a discriminatory policy that harms national security.

“We urge you to exercise the maximum discretion legally possible in administering Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell until Congress repeals the law,” states the letter, organized by Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat of California. “To this end, we ask that you direct the Armed Services not to initiate any investigation of service personnel to determine their sexual orientation, and that you instruct them to disregard third party accusations that do not allege violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

A recent study by the Palm Center, a public policy think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara, argued that Obama has the authority as commander-in-chief to suspend the gay discharge process through an executive order.

See House Dems urge Obama to halt gay discharges from the military

Boston Globe

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Gay animals may help species survive, scientists claim

More than 450 species of animals display gay behaviour, scientists have found.

In a paper, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, they suggested that homosexuality among animals may be vital for the survival of the species.

“The variety and ubiquity of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals is impressive,” wrote the paper’s authors Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk. “Many thousands of instances of same-sex courtship, pair bonding and copulation have been observed in a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs and nematodes.”

“It’s been observed a lot,” Bailey, a post-doctoral researcher at University of California, Riverside continued. “But it took people a long time to put it in an evolutionary context.”

For traditional Darwinism, the notion of animals indulging in behaviour that will not result in procreation may seem confounding. However, Bailey and Zuk have argued that in many cases, gay behaviour in fact supports a species and can improve the chances of survival.

See Gay animals may help species survive, scientists claim PinkNews.co.uk

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Why Some People Are Gay: Notes (and Clues) from the Animal Kingdom

We have known for at least a decade that hundreds of animal species — including birds, reptiles, mollusks and, of course, humans — engage in same-gender sexual acts. But no one is quite sure why. After all, same-sex couplings don’t usually result in offspring. (I say usually because when male marine snails pair with other males, one partner conveniently changes sex, allowing for reproduction.) Evolutionarily speaking, homosexuality should have disappeared long ago.

A yearlong study just completed at the University of California at Riverside offers several fascinating competing theories about why same-gender sexual behavior has endured. And although it’s gay-pride month — and the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that sparked the gay-rights movement — not all the theories will give same-gender-loving humans a reason to celebrate. (See the top 10 animal stories of 2007.)

One particularly charged finding is that in most species besides humans, same-gender pairings rarely lead to lifelong relationships. In other words, when one attractive bonobo male eyes another in a lovely patch of Congo swamp forest, they occasionally kiss and then move on to other oral pleasures, but they don’t bother anyone afterward about trying to legalize their right to an open-banana-bar ceremony. In fact, they are likely to move on to girl bonobos: most animals that engage in same-gender sex acts do so only when an opposite-sex partner is unavailable.

And yet the study’s authors, Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk of UC Riverside’s biology department, report some exceptions, like the laysan albatross. Last year, researchers studying a Hawaiian colony of albatrosses found that nearly a third of all the couples involved two females who courted and then shared parenting responsibilities. (Albatrosses don’t have U-Hauls, so no lesbian jokes, please.) Male chinstrap penguins also form long-term relationships, at least in captivity. And some male bighorn sheep will mount females only after the females adopt male-like behaviors.

What explains all these variances? Here are some hypotheses I collected from Bailey and Zuk’s paper as well as from some of their original sources:

See Why Some People Are Gay: Notes (and Clues) from the Animal Kingdom

TIME

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