+ According to the New York Post, “gay or straight, guys are reluctant to say I do.” The ratio of lesbian marriages to gay man marriages is, apparently, 3-2. In Connecticut since 2008 (when it was legalized), 3,252 lesbian couples have tied the knot, compared to 2,053 gay male couples.
The New York Post interviews a “family studies” teacher who says this is because “this is the way men and women have been socialized from the time we’re born. Go out, don’t commit too early’ . . . It’s the message all men receive.”
That’s a fun theory, but a lot of what we talk about when we talk about gay marriage are the financial incentives, particularly for health benefits and filing taxes. White gay men are consistently showing up in the top percentile as far as income is concerned and lesbians — not so much. Think about it.
+ While we’re on the topic of stereotypes, The New York Times made this map that I feel is relevant to your interests:
+ The show will go on for Lee Hall’s Beached, with all 300 schoolchildren in tow. The show was cancelled over disputes about the gay lead character of the opera. Hall was forced to compromise — the word “queer” has been removed from the show.
+ A Brooklyn Bishop has “banned” all politicians who support gay marriage.
+ Is Coronation Street too gay? A bunch of assholes think so.
+Is there still doubt that Obama supports marriage equality? It looks like probably not, for the most part.
+ Competitive eating is dangerous and potentially deadly but still weirdly entertaining to watch.
+ Today the D.C police are addressing concerns about gay hate-crime documentation.
+Don’t ever threaten anybody online or gay marriage will never be legalized ever.
+Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell, aka the guy who cyber-stalked the gay student body president at University of Michigan, requested a seal trial to protect him from physical harm from those pesky gays. The court shut him the fuck down.
+The US Embassy hosted a gay rights rally in Pakistan last week, but Pakistan conservatives protested and said some really horrific things.
+ Is Trouty Mouth Gonna Leave Glee? Nobody’s certain if Chord Overstreet will return this fall.
+People in Holland, Michigan who want to add sexual preference and gender identity to the city’s equal employment and anti-discrimination policies are not circulating a petition that would force the city council “to pass an ordinance amendment or put the matter up for a public vote.” Instead, they are pressuring the council directly. Hmm.
+A group of people physically and verbally attacked two gay soliders in Colorado. The assailants haven’t been caught yet, and the soldiers are withholding their names because being gay is “definitely frowned upon” in their city.
+Are girl music geeks a trend in movies?
+ Someone made a sweet cartoon about the secret lives of a group of muscular princesses. I love the Internet.
+ While speaking at a conference about AIDS, India’s health minister warned that gay sex is “completely unnatural” and that homosexuality is a disease.
+ President Barack Obama appointed openly-gay Army veteran Brenda S. “Sue” Fulton to his advisory board from West Point. She is the first openly LGBT person to serve on this board.
+Things are looking up on the gay immigration rights battle! It looks like authorities are working to postpone/stop deportation hearings for three gay couples, which is a step in the right direction.
+ Just a quick warning:
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRLEF4kRAKQ’]
Oh I am so amused by the stereotypes chart. “Cana-who?”
I love that map. I especially love the arrogance knot over Europe, because it makes me feel better to think that Europeans think other Europeans are jerks too, and it’s not just one big AMERICA THE JERK show all the time.
I think it’s also a really interesting observation that the “coasts” generally seem to think all of us midwestern-northwest plains people are total freaking idiots who wouldn’t know culture if it shot us in the groin with our cousin’s unlicensed shotgun. Montana: Yes, we have electricity!
Generally, we take pride in our arrogance.
I liked the “crazy about cheese” stereotype in the arrogance knot.
obviously that arrow’s pointing to the French ;)
I love AlsoAlsoAlso
and that stereotype map is pure genius.
It’s University of Michigan not Michigan University.
I can understand why people in Holland wouldn’t want to put it up to a vote. Holland is a pretty conservative area, isn’t it? (I’m from the eastern side of the state but that is what I had always heard. My sister is going to college there next fall.)
Fixed, thank you! I don’t know why I did that. I go to Ohio State. It is possible that I subliminally did that on purpose. But not actually on purpose. My brain is not working right this week. I’m sorry.
I wouldn’t put it past you Ohio-Staters, having lived in both states :)
It is sooo conservative. There’s no way it would pass a public vote.
I went to school there! Also, I don’t think a public vote would work, this seems the best option considering how conservative the area is.
I *wish* a queer thing would happen to America. All of it. Queer queer queer.
I’m pretty queer. and in america. IT’S HAPPENING.
also that video reminded me of the prop 8 thing: “STOP IT STORM”
I was just thinking that if I saw that cover at Half Price Books, I would snatch it the fuck up. I want to read about these Queer Things happening to America, and the front of that book looks delightful – I love it when men wear pink fuzzy slippers.
I guess I did not realize that men wearing pink fuzzy slippers are a sign we’re indoctrinating our children’s children with the gay agenda.
Almost just died at the “iceberg-with-ranch-dressing-eating” stereotype.
I’m so guilty of judging people like that. Like “I’ll bet they’re into the Olive Garden. Eye roll.”
My stepmom is one of those crazy people who eats nowhere but Olive Garden. She’s kind of a clone of Paula Deen so there’s that too. Needless to say I don’t see her except for when I have butter or garlic breadstick cravings.
That’s totally the TRUEST stereotype on the thing though. I live most of the year in Oklahoma where I go to school, and the other parts in Texas where my parents live. I eat ranch dressing with like everything LOL.
I wish that stereotype chart had something about Australians! It would probably say something like “likes Fosters” or “blonde” or “drunk”.
I would say adorable accents and my future wifey. But I guess that doesn’t fit the overall theme, huh?
Based on my travels here in the US, people keep asking me about Alice Springs.
or “drunken convict-descendants” or “carry really huge knives”
I learned that Australians are drunks from call center training:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/indian-call-center-americanization
from my travels everyone seems to think we’re super fit, at the beach and constantly eat BBQs. But sad that we didn’t make the map :(
Coronation St too gay? It was originally created by an openly gay man. Way to go NZ Herald. Write an article filled with spoilers. We’re so far behind on Coro in NZ that most of that really gay stuff has yet to happen. At least now I have cross-dressers and lesbians to look forward to.
Re: the anti-discrimination ordinance in Holland:
Now there’s a Christian ‘activist’ offering to fund campaigns to oust the board members who voted yes on the ordinance in June. According to this guy GLBT people are not the “best and brightest”, also “high employment risks” because they choose to sleep with someone of the same sex?
Also apparently we also have a higher risk of mental illness and cancer and hepatitis and all the diseases. Therefore, we should be discriminated against?
here’s a link to the story:
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2011/07/conservative_christian_activis.html
Gah sometimes I really hate west Michigan
Come to the East side. We have delicious middle eastern food.
Holy desperation. The name resumes all that vaina!!
Is sooooo stupid. And im not even from America, or great in english. But that’s so pendejo…
I think my favorite part of the map is that the NYC boroughs are the size of the entire rest of the US, or all of Asia, but there’s still no Staten Island.
Girl music geeks are a trend in life, not movies. and by trend, I meanb normality
stereotypes map lovers should read The Onions atlas book
I’m trying to work this out in my head. To be honest, as a female music geek, I’ve always felt a little bit outnumbered by my male counterparts. It seems like the music scene is so male dominated, especially thinking about the ratio of male to female band members. But I don’t agree with the claim that there are more male music geeks than female music geeks. It seems to me that men and women are both equally inclined to listen to good music, or listen to crappy music, or to not be that into music at all. In other words, men and women are both just as likely to be engaged in the music scene.
However, on the site, someone made a point about how male music critics outnumber female music critics and I’m not sure what to make of that. Maybe men tend to be more open about their geekery?
Sorry to comment so much, but I was just thinking about how maybe ‘geekery’ is a more socially acceptable trait in men. Which sucks for me.
Also, I really enjoyed the muscular princess video.
Coronation Street? Too gay to function? I hoped that at one point when talking about ‘Lez Girls’, the writers would be incredibly apt and say that the film would be “too gay to function” when saying that Lindsay er I mean, Niki’s character couldn’t be a lesbian as the film would be “too gay”. Why couldn’t they add the “to function” on the end? WHY?! Oh, and Tina Fey is G-d.
I love the fact that New York is bigger than the WHOLE united staes in the stereotypes chart -.- Also… also…also FAIL for the video’s message
let me just say that the US embassy announcement was terribly timed. pakistan’s going though a pretty bad time right now, though perhaps karachi especially. the city’s in a bad state, over a hundred people have died over the past four to five days, and the number might increase today, who knows. in addition many parts of the city have inadequate water, there’s a great deal of power outages going on. in some areas people haven’t had electricity for eight-nine days. the fact of the matter is that people are frustrated. i understand that it is a big deal for the embassy to side with the gay community, i understand. but they must also be able to see the situation! random people are getting shot all over the city. gay rights is a touchy matter here and of all the things that they could’ve said, they had to talk about gay rights? it’s common knowledge that a lot of the citizens think that the US is meddling with pakistani affairs. this statement has hence not made matters any better. in the middle of july (the heat) while the violence in the city escalates, when there’s no electricity and no water and there’s police and rangers deployed all over the city to stop the violence (they’re not doing much), the last thing people want to hear about is gay rights.
i’m not saying the reaction is justified, but it’s got to be put in a context. and just by the way, the article’s pretty biased too. there’s beginnings of a gay rights movement in pakistan ( http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/6704/were-here-were-queer-deal-with-it/ , http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/6628/is-it-time-for-gay-rights-in-pakistan/ ) but most people are just really pissed off when the subject comes up because they claim that it’s important to ‘prioritize’. over 30,000 people have died here because of the war against terror, and the number is rising. there’s ‘target killings’ and political instability to deal with for example.
yes, of course it sucks to be closeted and unable to come out and all those things. but it sucks more that every time i leave the house i’m preparing myself for something bad to happen. it’s just that way. so yes, i hate to say this, and i really appreciate the sentiment, but the embassy could’ve waited.