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 n the first ever study combing the entire human genome for genetic determinants of male sexual orientation, a University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, researcher has identified several areas that appear to influence whether a man is straight or gay.
UIC’s Brian Mustanski, working with colleagues at the National Institutes Health, found stretches of DNA that appeared to be linked to sexual orientation on three different chromosomes in the nucleus of cells of the human male.
“There is no one gay gene,” said Mustanski, a psychologist in the UIC Department of Psychiatry and lead author of the study. “Sexual orientation is a complex trait, so it’s not surprising that we found several DNA regions involved in its expression.”
“Our best guess is that multiple genes, potentially interacting with environmental influences, explain differences in sexual orientation.”
His research is published in the March issue of the biomedical journal, Human Genetics.
The genomes of 456 men from 146 families with two or more gay brothers were analyzed.
While other studies had focused on the X chromosome, one of the two sex chromosomes, the present study examined all 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes in addition to the X chromosome. The other sex chromosome, called the Y chromosome, was not explored because it is not believed to contain many genes.
Identical stretches of DNA on three chromosomes, Chromosomes 7, 8, and 10, were found to be shared in about 60% of the gay brothers in the study, compared to about 50% expected by chance. The region on chromosomes 10 correlated with sexual orientation only if it was inherited from the mother.
“Our Study helps to establish that genes play an important role in determining whether a man is gay or heterosexual,” said Mustanski. “The next steps will be to see if these findings can be confirmed and to identify the particular genes within these newly discovered chromosomal sequences that are linked to sexual orientation.”
The University of California at San Diego, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of California at Los Angeles were also involved in the Study, which was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Source: 365Gay.com
 new strain of the AIDS virus that swiftly causes disease and resists virtually all anti-HIV drugs has been detected in New York City, causing health officials there to issue a nationwide alert through the federal Center for Disease Control.
AIDS clinics and health departments throughout California have been notified of the single case but no evidence of the new virus strain has been reported anywhere other than New York, specialists monitoring the disease said.
In San Francisco, Dr. John Greenspan, Director of the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF said that all community physicians and city clinics treating HIV or AIDS patients had been informed of the New York case. But because the new virus strain had been detected in only one person so far, it is unlikely it would reach beyond the urban center where it was found.
It is a new warning, however, that Safe Sex practices remain the most effective way of preventing HIV and STI infections.
Multiple drug resistance is increasingly common among people infected by HIV and the combination of resistance and its rapid progression to AIDS in the New York case is what alarmed experts there. The patient in New York is a man in his mid-40s who reported having multiple sex partners and unprotected anal intercourse. He first tested positive for HIV in December and has not been treated with any of the AIDS drugs. He appeared to have been recently infected and has already developed AIDS, a highly unusual event for a disease that usually takes ten years or more to develop after infection.
Nearly 25 years after the AIDS epidemic began, researchers have developed only four classes of effective anti-retroviral drugs and one of them has emerged from the laboratory only within the past two years. The viral strain found in New York has proved resistant to three of the drug classes, protease inhibitors, and two types of reverse transcriptase inhibitors.
A newer type of drug, known as Fusion Inhibitors, appears to be effective in preventing the newfound virus from inserting its genetic material into blood cells. New York health officials did not say whether any version of the newer drugs had been tried on the patient.
Source: David Periman, Chronicle Science writer, SFGate.
 ver time, the age of desirability for gay men seems to get younger and younger. The age discrimination and lack of attention older or mature gay men receive is synonymous with the pressure some women feel to get married and have children by a certain age.
Today, gay men are coming out at younger ages. It’s no longer a shock to hear of an openly gay 14-year-old, or a 16-year-old in a gay relationship. Even gay bars see floods of 18–21-year-old gay boys seeking love and sex from their peers, leaving older gay men on the side lines. The recent attention and broader acceptance of gay marriage has also contributed to increased pressure for gay men to find love before it’s too late, or while they are still desirable.
Of course, this doesn’t make mature gay men charity cases, it only increases the pressure as ageing gay men begin to think about their futures. Some gay men also argue that other gays continue to search for the Fountain of Youth with plastic surgery, develop eating disorders, spend excessive hours at the gym, and have an obsession with body image.
Nearly 20% of gay seniors have no one to care for them should they become ill, versus 2% of heterosexual seniors.
Two thirds of gay seniors live alone versus one third of heterosexual seniors. To combat these growing statistics many gay community centers are launching programs and social groups for older gay men. In Sydney, there is MAG, Mature Aged Gays, founded in 1990 and now the largest active group for mature aged gay and bisexual men.
Swedish survey revealed that living alone and having a small social network is likely to send you to an early grave. Dr. Myriam Horsten of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden discovered that more socially isolated people exhibit a less irregular heart rate when faced with every day stresses compared with people who connect and communicate and have a solid social support network.
GAMMA Café, the social arm of GAMMA, provides the opportunity to network and socialize with friends and make new ones in a safe, friendly, and social environment.
GAMMA Meetings, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday evenings of each month also affords an opportunity to meet and socialize with like-minded men in a safe, confidential, friendly environment. Meetings, from 8:00 PM to around 9:30 PM, are facilitated by experienced professionals and deal with many of the issues members are dealing with. For a full listing of Meetings, guest speakers, and topics, see the meetings page.
By Rev. Greg Smith, Metropolitan Community Church
n our Judeo-Christian society, the documents known as the Bible serve as the primary guide on most issues. It is interesting that many Christians take literally the references to homosexual acts while interpreting other text with great flexibility. One person reported listening to a nationally known woman speak in the campaign against homosexuality. She spent much time quoting impressively from Leviticus. The listener accepted much of what the speaker had said until realizing that by Levitical standards, the crusader had herself broken many biblical laws: women speaking in church, women teaching men, wearing a dress made of cotton and polyester, and probably many others as well.
What does the Bible really say about homosexuality? Actually, it says very little. Jesus said nothing at all, which is most significant. Considering the relatively small amount of attention the Bible gives to the subject, we must ask ourselves why this is such a volatile issue while other subjects (e.g., judgment, pride, hypocrisy) about which the scriptures say a great deal receive much less passionate attention. Before looking at specific passages, let us note that everyone understands the scriptures on and through the light of what they have been taught. The Bible was written in a cultural void, and many of it's instructions and laws we simply classify as less relevant today (e.g., prohibition of eating pork).
Nowhere in the Bible is the idea of persons being homosexual addressed. The statements are, without exception, directed to certain homosexual acts. Early writers had no understanding of homosexuality as a psycho-sexual orientation. That truth is a relatively recent discovery. The biblical authors were referring to homosexual acts performed by persons they assumed were heterosexuals.
The Sodom Story
A chief text for condemnation of homosexuality has been the Sodom story. This story has often been interpreted as showing God’s abhorrence of homosexuality. In the story, two angels in the form of men were sent to Sodom to the home of a man called Lot. While they were there, all the men of the city, “both young and old, surrounded the house – everyone without exception,” and demanded that the visitors be brought out, “so that we might know them” (verse 5). Lot begged the men to leave his guests alone and take his daughters instead. The men of the city became angry and stormed the door. As a result, they were all struck by the angels.
There are several problems with the traditional interpretation of this passage. Whether or not the intent of the men of Sodom was sexual, the inhospitality and injustice coming from the mob and generally characterizing the community were “the sin of Sodom”. Jesus himself refers to the inhospitality of Sodom. If, indeed, the men were homosexuals, then why would Lot offer them his daughters? What is threatened here is rape. The significant point then is that all rape is considered horrible by God. The story deserves another reading by all of us.
It should be noted that all of the men of Sodom could not have been homosexual or there would have been no need to destroy them since they would have died off with no heirs. Quite likely they were a mixed group of evil men attempting to be abusive to people who were different. Ironically, lesbian and gay people are often the victim of that sin.
Although the traditional interpretation of the Sodom story fails as an argument against homosexuality, there are several other Old Testament passages which do condemn homosexual acts. Again, it should be noted that these passages do not deal with same-sex orientation, nor is there any reference to genital love between lesbian or gay persons.
The Bible never addresses the issue of homosexual love, but has several examples of same-sex love.
Homosexual Acts
Of the thousands of Old Testament passages, only two make explicit reference to homosexual acts; Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13. Both of these passages are a part of the Levitical holiness code, which is not kept by any Christian group. If it were enforced, almost every Christian would be excommunicated or executed. It has been logically argued that science and progress have made many of the Levitical laws irrelevant for us.
For example, although Levitical laws prohibit intercourse during menstruation, medical authorities do not view it as harmful and, therefore, it should not be viewed as sinful. Those laws were given 3,500 years ago before showers and baths were convenient, before tampons, disinfectants, and other improved means of sanitation had been invented. Much of the holiness code is now irrelevant for us as moral law. Thus, having children, which was of exceptional importance to the early Hebrews, is now made less relevant by overpopulation, just as the prohibition against eating pork and shell-fish has been made irrelevant by refrigeration.
The Bible never addresses the issue of homosexual love, but has several examples of same-sex love. David’s love for Jonathan was said to exceed his love for women. Ruth’s relationship with Naomi is certainly an example of a deep, bonding love. The Bible does value love between persons of the same sex.
Jesus’ Attitude
In the context of the New Testament there is no record of Jesus saying anything about homosexuality. This ought to strike us as very odd in light of the great threat to Christianity, family life, and society some would have us believe homosexuality is. Jesus saw injustice and religious hypocrisy as a far greater threat to the Realm of God.
Episcopal priest, Dr. Tom Horner, has written that the Gospels imply in two places that Jesus’ attitude toward lesbians and gays would not have been hostile. The first is found in the story of Jesus healing the Centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5). The word used for the servant is ‘pais’ which in the Greek culture referred to a younger lover of an older more powerful or educated man. Clearly the story demonstrates an unusually intense love, and Jesus’ response was wholly positive.
The other hint of Jesus’ attitude is seen in his comments about eunuchs. Jesus opposed divorce in opposition to the abuses experienced by women. It is in the context of marriage which Jesus said that “some eunuchs were born so, others had been made eunuchs, and still others choose to be eunuchs for the Kingdom’s sake.”
Jesus’ remark about celibacy and castration are clear, but a male child being born without testicles is a rare birth defect. It is only in our day that the Kinsey Institute has demonstrated that sexual orientation is likely determined prior to birth. It could well be that those to whom Jesus refers as being “born eunuchs” are the people we call lesbian or gay.
Jesus’ attitude toward eunuchs differed greatly from the fundamentalist Pharisees of his day. To them, eunuchs were excluded from the covenant and barred from worship and participating in the community of faith. Jesus’ graceful approach to eunuchs is beautifully pictured in the promise of the prophecy of Isaiah 56:4–8, “To the eunuchs… I will give them an everlasting name that will not be taken away.”
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Continued from previous column
In Jesus’ day there were three types of persons called eunuchs: celibates, those who were slaves and were castrated so that children would not be born to them, and those who were “born eunuchs”, or homosexuals. Royal and wealthy households would use castrated slaves to work with and guard the concubines and women slaves. However, when assigning slaves to female members of the royal family they would choose homosexual slaves. With female members of the family, the concern was not just unwanted pregnancies, but also rape.
In is against this background that we must read the story found in Acts 8:26–40. In this passage, the Holy Spirit sends Philip, the Deacon, to witness to and baptize an Ethiopian eunuch of Queen Candace of Ethiopia. One of the earliest converts to Christianity was a person excluded for sexual reasons from the Old Testament community.
Paul’s References
Paul’s statement in Romans 1:18–32 has been taken as the strongest New Testament rejection of homosexuality. He is concerned about the influences of the pagan culture on the Roman Christians. After giving a detailed description of a world that “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator,” he continues, “Therefore, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty of their perversion.”
Most reputable scholars believe that Paul was referring to homosexual temple prostitution, which was performed by various cults (though far more cults used heterosexual prostitution). Again, Paul is nor referring to same-sex love, and he clearly has no concept of persons for whom this lifestyle is natural.
Paul’s other reference to homosexual acts is similar to that of 1 Timothy 1:8–11. Both passages contain lists of persons to be excluded from the Realm of God. The interpretation of these passages depends on two Greek words which have always presented a problem for translators. In the King James Version, they are translated effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind.
In the Revised Standard Version, they were combined and rendered homosexuals; however, these are not the Greek words for homosexual, so that translation reflects the scholars’ bias.
The New International Version illustrates the difference in these two words by translating them male prostitutes and homosexual offenders.
The Jerusalem Bible uses the term catamites and sodomites. Catamites were youth kept especially for sexual purposes; they were usually paid large sums of money. Neither passage refers to persons of same-sex orientation, but for people who use their sexuality for personal gain.
The Love of Christ
Jesus did a great deal to change many social customs and ideas. He elevated the position of women, and they were ultimately his best and most faithful disciples. He did this by example and by commandments that were absolutely inclusive of the rights of all people. Yet, in the name of Christ whose love encompassed all, the Church has been the most homophobic of all institutions.
The final and central message of the New Testament is that all people are loved by God, so much that God’s Son was sent as a means of redemption from a disease by which we are all afflicted. The cure for this disease cannot be found in any set of actions. Neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality is redemptive. God’s love through Christ was given to all people.
The Theological Reflection
For the Christian, sin must be understood as a disease that results from a broken relationship with God and which results in a broken relationship with one another and with ourselves. Hence, Jesus’ supreme command is to love God and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
Christianity is not a religion with new rules and laws, but is rather a new relationship with God. Those things that the legalists are fond of labeling sins are actually just symptoms of the much deeper disease of alienation and estrangement. Much of the energy of the Church has been spent dealing with symptoms while leaving the disease intact. Jesus did not seem overly concerned about the legal transgressions of those to whom he ministered. Rather, he was much more concerned with healing the physical, spiritual, emotional, or relational brokenness of people. Perhaps, if the Church would again give itself to the healing/reconciling ministry of Jesus, then some of the symptoms about which we are so concerned would begin to disappear.
That brings us to the question: Is homosexuality a symptom of brokenness? In some few cases, perhaps so. Yet, obviously, pointing fingers of blame and accusation is not Christ’s way. Rather, Jesus accepted people as they were and allowed love and acceptance to work its miracle. However, most lesbians and gays have been lesbian or gay for as long as they can remember. For them, it is as much a natural characteristic as their eye colour or their left or right handedness. Kinsey Institute research has suggested that homosexuality may well be genetic, or at least linked to some prenatal factors. Certainly most competent psychologists say that sexual orientation is set prior to the age of five in most persons. It is, therefore, not a matter of choice, so it cannot be a moral or ethical issue.
Many Christians insist that God can change or cure the homosexual. In the book, The Third Sex, there are six reported cases of homosexuals whom God has cured. Of these six, at least four are known to have returned to their gay lifestyle. Many lesbians and gays spend most of their lives trying, with no success, to persuade God to change them. It is like trying to get God to change their eye colour. What option then is left to these persons? They have been told that they can’t be gay and be Christians; and since all efforts have failed in their struggle not to be gay or lesbian, then their only recourse, according to the Church, is that they can’t be Christian. As a result the Church has discounted or discarded as many as 10% of the population.
If they are excluded from the life of the Christian community, who then will tell them of God’s inclusive love and of Jesus’ reconciling death? Are they left to assume that God is so narrow-minded as to exclude them for something over which they have no control and for a choice they did not make? When will the Church finally be brave enough to say with Paul, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, gay or straight” (Galatians 3:28)
God has enough love for all!!
fter reading this little gem you will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so difficult. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new and larger challenge appeared.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first pot she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” replied the daughter.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked her daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked her daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity – boiling water – and each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior but after sitting in the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they changed the water.
“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks at your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? Think about this analogy; where do you stand? Are you the carrot that appeared strong, but with pain and adversity do you wilt and become soft and lose yours strength and commitment?”
“Are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Do you have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a relationship breakup, a financial hardship, or some other trial, have you become hardened and stiff? Does your shell look the same, but on the inside are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?”
“Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstances which caused the pain. When the water got hot, it released the fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest you elevate yourself to another level?”
How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? Count your blessings, not your problems. Putting others first makes relationships last. There are moments in life when you miss someone so much you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real. Don’t go for looks, they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth, even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile, because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Look for the one who puts a smile on your face.
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they make the most of everything that comes along their way. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live you life so that at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
 ome gay men marry heterosexual partners because getting married is what we all learned is the right thing to do. Our culture is geared toward heterosexual married relationships, and gay people, like their heterosexual brothers, want to fit in and do the right thing.
Some gay men who marry partners of the opposite sex do so in the hope that they will get over their homosexual feelings. That was exactly what Edward, a friend of mine, expected when he married Katherine. “We were both young,” said Edward, “and neither of us knew anything about homosexuality. I even told Katherine that I had these feelings but the psychiatrist I was seeing reassured me I would get over it, and the best thing I could do was to get married and have children.” Shortly after the birth of their second daughter, six years into their marriage, and after ten years of seeing the same psychiatrist, Edward left his wife.
“I didn’t get over it,” said Edward. “In fact, by the time I left Katherine and fired the psychiatrist I couldn’t have been more certain that I was gay and that my psychiatrist was a quack.”
Edward’s experience is not uncommon. This belief is still around today.
Some gay men enter heterosexual marriages for cover, hoping to fulfill family and professional expectations. Some don’t tell their opposite-sex spouses beforehand. Some do, and these include a number of closeted Gay celebrities who have made arrangements, financial and otherwise, with opposite-sex spouses to enter marriage.
Sometimes gay men marry heterosexual people for love, friendship, and companionship. Sometimes the gay spouse informs the heterosexual partner prior to the marriage and other times not. I know several gay male/heterosexual female marriages in which the wife knew prior to marriage that their husbands were gay, including one marriage that has lasted for several decades.
Many gay men at the time of their marriage are either in denial about their sexuality or are simply not fully aware of their sexual feelings. Many years later, after 20, 30 years or more of living a straight lifestyle their authentic sexuality emerges and can no longer be denied.
Spouse Reactions
How do straight spouses react when they find out their spouse is gay?
According to Amity Pierce Buxton, author of The Other Side of the Closet, a book about the coming out crisis for heterosexual spouses of gay men, heterosexual spouses greet the disclosure as a denial of the relationship. “Shocked spouses,” she writes, “typically feel rejected sexually and bereft of the mates that they thought they had, and although relieved to know the reason behind changes in the partner’s behaviour or problems in marital sex, most feel hurt, angry and helpless. And though their homosexual partners most often feel relief stepping out of the closet, and are likely to receive support from other gay people, the heterosexual spouses suddenly find themselves in a closet of their own, fearful of telling anyone the truth about their gay spouse.”
Marriage Survival
Do any of these marriages last after a spouse finds out?
According to Buxton, although a number of couples succeed in preserving the marriage, the majority do not. Despite sincere efforts, the sexual disparity coupled with competition for the partner’s attention or unconventional, and for some immoral, arrangements eventually become intolerable for most spouses.
Those men who leave heterosexual marriages frequently report feeling emotionally liberated and at last able to be their authentic self. However, leaving a marriage carries with it much emotional pain and distress to every member of the family as well as social and financial disruption. Often, the later the marriage breaks up the more costly it is likely to be in both financial and emotional terms.
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