Gay life: Change and challenge

[nevadamedic]

(CNN) -- To understand how much gay life in the United States has changed -- and how challenging it remains -- consider the story of the Dillards, Sharon and Tanya, who describe themselves as "a typical family with soccer, brand new puppies, church, choir and not enough time in the day."

When Sharon was born in 1962, homosexuality was treated in the country as a sin, a crime and a mental illness.

It was only in 1974 -- the year after Tanya was born -- that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders.

In 2003, the year Sharon and Tanya became a couple, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the laws in states that singled out same-sex relations for criminal prosecution.

Is homosexuality still viewed as a sin? A recent Gallup Poll found Americans nearly evenly split between those who saw homosexual relations as "morally acceptable" (47 percent) and those who saw them as "morally wrong" (49 percent).

Some religious denominations now welcome gay parishioners and accept openly gay members of the clergy. The Episcopal Church in America has even consecrated an openly gay bishop. But some of those same denominations, including the Episcopalians, are now threatened with schism as a result. (Read more about why the schism is possible)

Sharon, who grew up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, has a saying about the reaction of the religious in her home state: "In Oklahoma, I have more people praying for me than with me."

In one instance, the couple applied for membership in a Lutheran church in Oklahoma. Though they were eventually accepted, it was only after much debate and an unprecedented vote by the elders of the church.

A couple of years after they met in Ponca City, Oklahoma, Sharon and Tanya decided to make a big move to Massachusetts, which since 2004 has been the only one of 50 states to permit same-sex couples to get married legally. More than 8,500 couples have done so, including at least one couple from Oklahoma.

They did so for at least three reasons. First, both wanted to adopt the son and daughter that Sharon had adopted as a single parent.

Second, Tanya was a police officer and says she started having problems on the job because of her sexual orientation.

Third, the couple say they wanted to "validate" their relationship.

The were legally married on January 21, 2005, in a small ceremony at the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, at which time Sharon took Tanya's last name of Dillard.

Now, the Dillards have decided to move back to Oklahoma -- one of 27 states that have passed an amendment to their constitutions outlawing same-sex couples from getting married and denying recognition of such a marriage "performed in another state."

In doing so, they will be forced to navigate a shifting patchwork of state and federal laws giving them different rights in different states. (See a map of state laws about same-sex spousal rights)

But they say they want their children to be near their grandparents, and Sharon has "a wonderful job offer in Oklahoma," where she'll be working as director of oncology services at a university medical center. "We are hopeful that views are beginning to change there."

Who is gay?
Anthony Wilfert is hoping change will come too -- to the military. For him, though, it will come too late.

Now 22 and originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Wilfert reached the rank of sergeant while serving for three years in the Army, including a recently completed 12-month tour of Iraq. Then he was discharged for being gay.

"There are many, many gay and lesbian and bisexual members of the military who are hiding," he said.

But how many? How does one count people who are hiding? As visible as homosexuality has become, especially in politics and popular culture, there are still some basic questions about what supporters now call the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community that are only beginning to be answered.

"Sexual orientation is not a routinely asked question on surveys," explains Gary Gates, a demographer with the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Gates has nevertheless pieced together a picture based on what little data exists, with the aid of what he calls "statistical wizardry."

Gates offers as a "reasonable estimate" some 8.8 million Americans who identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. "We know very little about transgender," he says.

He extrapolates from U.S. census data that there are at least 770,000 same-sex couples who live together, and that such couples live in 99 percent of all counties in the United States.

"About 27 percent of same-sex couples have children in the home," Gates says. Most are natural-born offspring and the remainder are adopted, stepchildren, or relatives such as nieces and nephews.

Using the same statistical methods, Gates estimates there are some 65,000 gay and lesbian Americans on active military duty or in the reserves.

Rest of the article..........
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/19/gay.life/index.html

[Gunny]

(CNN) -- To understand how much gay life in the United States has changed -- and how challenging it remains -- consider the story of the Dillards, Sharon and Tanya, who describe themselves as "a typical family with soccer, brand new puppies, church, choir and not enough time in the day."

When Sharon was born in 1962, homosexuality was treated in the country as a sin, a crime and a mental illness.

It was only in 1974 -- the year after Tanya was born -- that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders.

In 2003, the year Sharon and Tanya became a couple, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the laws in states that singled out same-sex relations for criminal prosecution.

Is homosexuality still viewed as a sin? A recent Gallup Poll found Americans nearly evenly split between those who saw homosexual relations as "morally acceptable" (47 percent) and those who saw them as "morally wrong" (49 percent).

Some religious denominations now welcome gay parishioners and accept openly gay members of the clergy. The Episcopal Church in America has even consecrated an openly gay bishop. But some of those same denominations, including the Episcopalians, are now threatened with schism as a result. (Read more about why the schism is possible)

Sharon, who grew up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, has a saying about the reaction of the religious in her home state: "In Oklahoma, I have more people praying for me than with me."

In one instance, the couple applied for membership in a Lutheran church in Oklahoma. Though they were eventually accepted, it was only after much debate and an unprecedented vote by the elders of the church.

A couple of years after they met in Ponca City, Oklahoma, Sharon and Tanya decided to make a big move to Massachusetts, which since 2004 has been the only one of 50 states to permit same-sex couples to get married legally. More than 8,500 couples have done so, including at least one couple from Oklahoma.

They did so for at least three reasons. First, both wanted to adopt the son and daughter that Sharon had adopted as a single parent.

Second, Tanya was a police officer and says she started having problems on the job because of her sexual orientation.

Third, the couple say they wanted to "validate" their relationship.

The were legally married on January 21, 2005, in a small ceremony at the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, at which time Sharon took Tanya's last name of Dillard.

Now, the Dillards have decided to move back to Oklahoma -- one of 27 states that have passed an amendment to their constitutions outlawing same-sex couples from getting married and denying recognition of such a marriage "performed in another state."

In doing so, they will be forced to navigate a shifting patchwork of state and federal laws giving them different rights in different states. (See a map of state laws about same-sex spousal rights)

But they say they want their children to be near their grandparents, and Sharon has "a wonderful job offer in Oklahoma," where she'll be working as director of oncology services at a university medical center. "We are hopeful that views are beginning to change there."

Who is gay?
Anthony Wilfert is hoping change will come too -- to the military. For him, though, it will come too late.

Now 22 and originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Wilfert reached the rank of sergeant while serving for three years in the Army, including a recently completed 12-month tour of Iraq. Then he was discharged for being gay.

"There are many, many gay and lesbian and bisexual members of the military who are hiding," he said.

But how many? How does one count people who are hiding? As visible as homosexuality has become, especially in politics and popular culture, there are still some basic questions about what supporters now call the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community that are only beginning to be answered.

"Sexual orientation is not a routinely asked question on surveys," explains Gary Gates, a demographer with the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Gates has nevertheless pieced together a picture based on what little data exists, with the aid of what he calls "statistical wizardry."

Gates offers as a "reasonable estimate" some 8.8 million Americans who identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. "We know very little about transgender," he says.

He extrapolates from U.S. census data that there are at least 770,000 same-sex couples who live together, and that such couples live in 99 percent of all counties in the United States.

"About 27 percent of same-sex couples have children in the home," Gates says. Most are natural-born offspring and the remainder are adopted, stepchildren, or relatives such as nieces and nephews.

Using the same statistical methods, Gates estimates there are some 65,000 gay and lesbian Americans on active military duty or in the reserves.

Rest of the article..........
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/19/gay.life/index.html

My heart just bleeds for the faggots.:boohoo:

[Guernicaa]

My heart just bleeds for the faggots.:boohoo:
Spoken like a true man of the lord...

[Pale Rider]

When Sharon was born in 1962, homosexuality was treated in the country as a sin, a crime and a mental illness.
It still should be.


It was only in 1974 -- the year after Tanya was born -- that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders.
Only after intense pressure from the homo community, and help from fag doctors was this changed. It's all part of the homo/lezbo agenda to cutsie up their image, along with the highjacking of the word "gay."

[Guernicaa]

It still should be.

Oh really? Are you a doctor? Do you have any knowledge in the field of psychiatry?
If so, where did you get your degree?..Church? LOL

[Gunny]

Spoken like a true man of the lord...

When one chooses to live outside the conforms of society, so does one suffer society's consequences.

It's called personal responsibility for one's own actions. Try looking it up sometime.

[Gunny]

Oh really? Are you a doctor? Do you have any knowledge in the field of psychiatry?
If so, where did you get your degree?..Church? LOL

Where'd you get YOUR degree in assuming? Seems to be all you do.

[nevadamedic]

It still should be.


Only after intense pressure from the homo community, and help from fag doctors was this changed. It's all part of the homo/lezbo agenda to cutsie up their image, along with the highjacking of the word "gay."

How do you know the doctors were gay?

[Pale Rider]

Oh really? Are you a doctor? Do you have any knowledge in the field of psychiatry?
If so, where did you get your degree?..Church? LOL

It was a sickness then, it is a sickness now, and it will continue to be a sickness in the future. I don't need a degree to know that a man sticking his cock up another man's ass is wrong.

Evidently you do.

[Pale Rider]

How do you know the doctors were gay?

Some of them were. I've read it time and time again. I could look it up "again," but I get tired of it, just to post it, and then have one of the queer apologists dismiss it away and ignore it.

[OCA]

(CNN) -- To understand how much gay life in the United States has changed -- and how challenging it remains -- consider the story of the Dillards, Sharon and Tanya, who describe themselves as "a typical family with soccer, brand new puppies, church, choir and not enough time in the day."

When Sharon was born in 1962, homosexuality was treated in the country as a sin, a crime and a mental illness.

It was only in 1974 -- the year after Tanya was born -- that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders.

In 2003, the year Sharon and Tanya became a couple, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the laws in states that singled out same-sex relations for criminal prosecution.

Is homosexuality still viewed as a sin? A recent Gallup Poll found Americans nearly evenly split between those who saw homosexual relations as "morally acceptable" (47 percent) and those who saw them as "morally wrong" (49 percent).

Some religious denominations now welcome gay parishioners and accept openly gay members of the clergy. The Episcopal Church in America has even consecrated an openly gay bishop. But some of those same denominations, including the Episcopalians, are now threatened with schism as a result. (Read more about why the schism is possible)

Sharon, who grew up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, has a saying about the reaction of the religious in her home state: "In Oklahoma, I have more people praying for me than with me."

In one instance, the couple applied for membership in a Lutheran church in Oklahoma. Though they were eventually accepted, it was only after much debate and an unprecedented vote by the elders of the church.

A couple of years after they met in Ponca City, Oklahoma, Sharon and Tanya decided to make a big move to Massachusetts, which since 2004 has been the only one of 50 states to permit same-sex couples to get married legally. More than 8,500 couples have done so, including at least one couple from Oklahoma.

They did so for at least three reasons. First, both wanted to adopt the son and daughter that Sharon had adopted as a single parent.

Second, Tanya was a police officer and says she started having problems on the job because of her sexual orientation.

Third, the couple say they wanted to "validate" their relationship.

The were legally married on January 21, 2005, in a small ceremony at the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, at which time Sharon took Tanya's last name of Dillard.

Now, the Dillards have decided to move back to Oklahoma -- one of 27 states that have passed an amendment to their constitutions outlawing same-sex couples from getting married and denying recognition of such a marriage "performed in another state."

In doing so, they will be forced to navigate a shifting patchwork of state and federal laws giving them different rights in different states. (See a map of state laws about same-sex spousal rights)

But they say they want their children to be near their grandparents, and Sharon has "a wonderful job offer in Oklahoma," where she'll be working as director of oncology services at a university medical center. "We are hopeful that views are beginning to change there."

Who is gay?
Anthony Wilfert is hoping change will come too -- to the military. For him, though, it will come too late.

Now 22 and originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Wilfert reached the rank of sergeant while serving for three years in the Army, including a recently completed 12-month tour of Iraq. Then he was discharged for being gay.

"There are many, many gay and lesbian and bisexual members of the military who are hiding," he said.

But how many? How does one count people who are hiding? As visible as homosexuality has become, especially in politics and popular culture, there are still some basic questions about what supporters now call the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community that are only beginning to be answered.

"Sexual orientation is not a routinely asked question on surveys," explains Gary Gates, a demographer with the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Gates has nevertheless pieced together a picture based on what little data exists, with the aid of what he calls "statistical wizardry."

Gates offers as a "reasonable estimate" some 8.8 million Americans who identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. "We know very little about transgender," he says.

He extrapolates from U.S. census data that there are at least 770,000 same-sex couples who live together, and that such couples live in 99 percent of all counties in the United States.

"About 27 percent of same-sex couples have children in the home," Gates says. Most are natural-born offspring and the remainder are adopted, stepchildren, or relatives such as nieces and nephews.

Using the same statistical methods, Gates estimates there are some 65,000 gay and lesbian Americans on active military duty or in the reserves.

Rest of the article..........
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/19/gay.life/index.html


Don't you just love the media? Lying about how people are evenly split on accepting queers as equals when in reality in states that have put a vote to the people the margin has been more like 80-20 for banning queer marriage.......yeah that sounds accepting to me lol.

What these two dykes need to understand is they aren't normal, they aren't right in the head....all fucked up and shit making horrible lifestyle decisions...and the children! Oyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Almost better to be dead than to be the child of morally void queers.

Good riddance to the cocksucking sargeant too.

[OCA]

Oh really? Are you a doctor? Do you have any knowledge in the field of psychiatry?
If so, where did you get your degree?..Church? LOL

I am, i'm a master at reading the human psyche and yours says homeless, drug addicted male prostitute.:laugh2:

[nevadamedic]

Don't you just love the media? Lying about how people are evenly split on accepting queers as equals when in reality in states that have put a vote to the people the margin has been more like 80-20 for banning queer marriage.......yeah that sounds accepting to me lol.

What these two dykes need to understand is they aren't normal, they aren't right in the head....all fucked up and shit making horrible lifestyle decisions...and the children! Oyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Almost better to be dead than to be the child of morally void queers.

Good riddance to the cocksucking sargeant too.

Is there any evidence that being brought up by gay parents screws up the kids? I haven't herd of any yet.

[OCA]

Is there any evidence that being brought up by gay parents screws up the kids? I haven't herd of any yet.

You need evidence to prove logic?

[nevadamedic]

You need evidence to prove logic?

Until it is proven then it is just a theroy.

[OCA]

Until it is proven then it is just a theroy.


For chrissakes *sigh* let me explain it to you. In a normal family with a mother and father the father brings certain things to the upbringing of a child that ONLY the father can bring and that can't be replaced, vice-versa with a mother.

Now in an abnormal queer family with children the child will be deprived of things it needs in its upbringing one way or another, its highly unfair to the child and highly selfish of the queer parents......as if they really are parents lol.

[Yurt]

I would like to change the word gay back to its original meaning and replace "gay" with fudge packer or brown eyed warrior (er, whatever that funny thing Manu said the other day)

[CockySOB]

Until it is proven then it is just a theroy.

You mean like the Duke lacrosse players alleged guilt? You seemed fine claiming that as proven when in fact all you have is speculation.

[nevadamedic]

You mean like the Duke lacrosse players alleged guilt? You seemed fine claiming that as proven when in fact all you have is speculation.

No, I said I believe they are guilty. But that has nothing to do with this thread you idiot.

[Yurt]

No, I said I believe they are guilty. But that has nothing to do with this thread you idiot.

What about the word gay?

[avatar4321]

Is there any evidence that being brought up by gay parents screws up the kids? I haven't herd of any yet.

do you really want to wait 20 years till the effects have already been inflicted? What do you plan to do when the evidence clearly shows the kids screwed up and they are now having children and screwing up the lives of others?

[nevadamedic]

do you really want to wait 20 years till the effects have already been inflicted? What do you plan to do when the evidence clearly shows the kids screwed up and they are now having children and screwing up the lives of others?

But there is no evidence to prove that.

[Yurt]

But there is no evidence to prove that.

Are you gay? Or sad?

[diuretic]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the GAY word is an acronym for Good As You. That could be an urban myth, I haven't checked Snopes on it but it could be correct.

[nevadamedic]

Are you gay? Or sad?

Neither.

[nevadamedic]

Are you gay? Or sad?

Umm, are you trying to ask me out? :slap: