Adultery the Military and Same Sex Marriage

I have been deliberately not paying attention to the David Petraeus story for various reasons, not the least of which it reminds me a lot of The Scarlet Letter, a novel I enjoyed teaching but never thought of as a model for good government.  Still, when I heard an explanation on the BBC this morning of the US Military’s prohibition of adultery and the possible punishments, I wondered how those policies work after the appeal of Don’t Ask Don’t tell and the advent of legal gay marriage in some states.

If a same sex couple gets married and then one partner, a member of the military, commits adultery, can he or she be punished under the Uniform Code of Military justice?  I would think the Defense of Marriage Act would prohibit the military, a government entity, from recognizing the marriage and thus there could be no punishment.  Any other ruling would lead a patchwork in which it would depend on when and where the marriage ceremony took place and also when and where the individual was based when committing the transgression.

So, to stretch things just a little bit, the root of Petraeus’s problem is that he is in a different sex marriage as was the woman with whom he had an affair.  Had they been in same sex marriages, there would be no problems (at least with adultery in the eyes of the military).

Close Race I am Watching: Arizona District 9

Of all the yet to be resolved races, the one I am keeping an eye on is the US House race in Arizona’s 9th district between Krysten Simena (D) and Vernon Parker (R).  This race pits Simena who has been a strong advocate of civil rights for LGBT individuals and would be the first openly bisexual member of Congress vs. Parker a former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights in the George W. Bush administration and the first black mayor of Paradise Valley.

There is so much interesting back story here related to diversity in many forms, I can’t help but be drawn in.  In addition to sexual orientation and race there is the religious element in that Simena is the rare non-theist with a chance at electoral success.   Then there is the class element in that Parker grew up poor in Houston and according to Wikipedia his grandmother and mother worked cleaning houses to get him through law school.  Then there is the background that this is happening in Arizona, a red state, whose immigration policies have to some shown a reluctance to accept other forms of diversity.

At the moment Simena has a narrow lead.

Krysten Simena

Vernon Parker

Gallup Poll: Nonwhite Individuals More Likely to Identify as LGBT

Check out this data from today’s Gallup poll asking individuals ”Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?”

The overall percentage identifying as LGBT was 3.4%, but the numbers by race and ethnicity are what struck me.  My biases and assumptions would have led me to think the numbers for the nonwhites would be lower than for the whites.  I am not sure where I picked up those biases and assumptions but now I see I am wrong, at least according to this data.

 

 

OSU Haters Tumblr

OSU Haters, a tumblr dedicated to posting racist, hateful tweets and posts by members of the Ohio State community, is trying to do a public service.  They are posting comments that show the attitudes of some people at OSU in the hope that shining this light will lead to improvement.  I wonder, though, if this posting will do any more than sadden those who read the posts.  Those who sent the original posts likely knew they were not within the bounds of acceptable polite discourse.  Will publicizing them do anything to change their attitudes or is this just the kind of attention they desire?

 

Tweets reproduced on OSU Hates

 

These posts also add to my dislike of Twitter. A lot of what was said might be ill advised late night dorm banter now available for collection and review.

Binge Drinking as Path to Status in College

According to a recent study, binge drinking is ”what the most powerful, wealthy, and happy students on [a college] campus do”and thus “When lower status students binge drink, they may be trying to tap into the benefits and the social satisfaction that those kids from high status groups enjoy” (Carolyn Hsu quoted by the American Sociological Association).

This study is based on one unnamed liberal arts college in the Northeast, so it is clearly not looking at a wide sample.  However, its findings, ”that binge drinking and social satisfaction were strongly connected” are nonetheless troubling.  The idea is that those who feel marginalized or lack power (women, LGBT individuals, non-members of Greek organizations) can feel a sense of belonging by binge drinking like members of  ”higher status groups (i.e., wealthy, male, white, heterosexual, and Greek affiliated undergraduates).”

There are, however, differentiated levels of satisfaction.  As the summary of the article delineates, “The authors found that while binge drinking increased social satisfaction for students from a range of lower status groups, the positive effects of binge drinking on social satisfaction were particularly strong for low income, non-Greek affiliated, and female students. LGBTQ and minority binge drinking students enjoyed increased social satisfaction in college, but were not as socially satisfied as their binge drinking peers from higher and other lower status groups.”

The study makes sense to me on a certain level.  It is an extension of the old idea that the popular kids drink, so to be one of the popular kids, one has to drink.  Who are the popular kids?  They are the rich white kids.  One would like to think that dynamic does not continue into college, but why would it cease?  The problem with the study’s conclusion is that there are many students who may have smaller friend groups, or not such a raucous, publicly exuberant social life who get the most out of college.  Whoever said the point of college is maximum social satisfaction?  Then again perhaps as an inveterate teetotaler, I just do not like any study that wrongly implies that I would have been happier in college if I had been drunk on a regular basis.

 

Use of Stereotypical Exaggerated Transgender Images

These two screen shots are from advertisements that ran in Anchorage, Alaska opposing Proposition 5 which would have protected individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

In this ad the voice over talks of how Proposition 5 would force a gym owner to allow a transgender individual to use the women’s locker room, thus driving away the gym’s customers.  Note that the transgender individual is drawn in a stereotypical, unattractive, and unrealistic fashion to maximize audience revulsion.
In the same way this ad speaks of how a daycare center would be forced to hire a transgender individual thus leading to an exodus of clients.  Once again the stereotypical image is used including the chest hair under the dress, the high heels contrasting against the unshaven legs, and the protuberant jaw.

Both ads contrast images of traditional wholesome American life, a blonde, buff white man exercising and a happy white woman holding a blond baby against scruffy looking figures dressed in oddly conflicting ways. In this way the ads are certainly effective in making their political point that this proposed law will lead us (whoever that may be) to have to accept them.

At the end of the ads, the gym and daycare center owners find themselves in jail, adding an element of fear that these outsiders will have us put in jail and enhancing the message.

The question is, especially in terms of transgender issues, how to fight these stereotypes.  The key is likely for people to meet or at least see in the media as many real transgender individuals as possible so to find such stereotypes sad and funny when they are promulgated.

By the way Proposition 5 failed.

Here are the full commercials:

How We Remember Sally Ride

Hearing the news of Sally Ride’s death took me back to 1983 when I was 13 and followed the news of her being the first American woman in space.  I was at that point a student at an all-boys school where the curriculum did not really spend much time on women in science or women in history so seeing her achievement shifted my perceptions of what was possible in the world.  I also remember people singing “Ride Sally Ride” and thinking how cool it was that people were singing about her the same way people sang about famous sports figures.

With her death, I now look beyond that remembrance and see how others interpret her life and legacy.  Certainly almost everyone praises her accomplishments and notes her as a role model.  Then, though, there are those like Laura Helmuth for Slate who talk of Ride as coming way too late, pointing out that the Soviets put women in space much earlier (in 1963) and that there were women back in the Mercury program who should have been there first.

There are also those (for example The Daily Beast) who look at her obituary and note that it contains the first public acknowledgment that she was gay, a reference to her partner of  27 years.  Then there is the piece by Andrew Sullivan criticizing Ride for not being open about her sexual orientation. He concludes by writing, “But the truth remains: she had a chance to expand people’s horizons and young lesbians’ hope and self-esteem, and she chose not to. She was the absent heroine.” I do not want to wade into the politics of coming out, but I think he does go a bit far especially at this moment.  His critique might better serve in later historical reflection.

All these facts taken together make one wonder how Ride will be remembered going forward.  She will likely continue to be an inspirational figure especially for women in science and space exploration, but where will the additional analyses fit in?

Gender Identity Disorder becomes Gender Dysphoria

What is now called “Gender Identity Disorder” may become “Gender Dysphoria” as The American Psychiatric Association revises the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  This change is supported by transgender advocates as it means that transgender individuals will not be labeled as suffering from a “disorder” and will instead will be diagnosed with “dysphoria defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “A state or condition marked by feelings of unease or (mental) discomfort.”

This change fits with earlier changes (1973)  that removed homosexuality as a disorder from the same manual.  It also eliminates the blanket labeling of a group of people.  The article on the current proposed change also mentioned that the “disorder” language was used in a custody hearing against a transgender individual, and this change would eliminate the potential for such general disqualification.

On the other hand, there is the question as to what happens regarding treatment.  Would diagnosis with “dysphoria” lead to coverage for sex change surgery, hormone treatments and other medical inventions the same way a “disorder” would?

I do not know what the answer is exactly, but I find this to be a powerful example of the way language can have very concrete effects on a community’s acceptance in society.

Diversifying the Classics: Not the Best Approach

The publishing house behind the Shades of Grey phenomenon has come out with Clandestine Classics, classic British lit with additional thouroughly described sexual encounters added.  For those who could not make due with Pride and Prejudice as it was and need graphic imagery, here it is.

The update, though, that struck my interest when I heard about on the BBC was the update of Sherlock Holmes where he has a trist with Watson.  The publisher commented that the author of the inserted passages just took the underlying undertones and brought them to fruition. 

Normally, I support diversifying the cannon.  I think we should read the work of LGBT authors and read about LGBT characters.  However, changing an existing text in this way is not ideal.  The hostility I imagine such a change might create could counter any possible benefits in terms of the awareness of LGBT individuals.  Why not just let people read the book and use their imagination? 

On the other hand, I did support the casting of Lucy Liu as Watson in one version of Sherlock Holmes, but still this is an actual change in the text.

Not how I pictured things…

Coming Out: Cooper, Ocean, Rapinoe

Within a week three figures who are celebrities or at least public figures have come out as gay: Anderson Cooper of CNN, Frank Ocean, hip hop artist; and Megan Rapinoeof the US Women’s Soccer team. While all three have received somewhat extensive coverage, especially Cooper, it is refreshing to see that there has not been the need for over the top reaction either positive or negative.  The other element I note is how radically different the three individuals are and how different their fields of performance are.  The question is which individuals fans will have the greatest difficulty accepting the news and which will be the most welcoming. One would think that how one’s talent or skills are assessed as a reporter, musician, or athlete would involve one’s sexual orientation, yet one can never be sure.  In fact, the mere existence of this post shows that in some way there is an issue worth noting here.

Anderson Cooper

 

Megan Rapinoe

 

Frank Ocean