From the “Good-Lord-THIS-Is-Multiculturalism?” file, The New York Times (11/1) reports the case of the 15-year-old French teenage boy who was given a ride in the United Arab Emirates by three Emirati men the boy knew slightly who took him into the country and raped him. The authorities 1) told his family not to press charges, 2) neglected for weeks to inform the boy’s parents that one attacker was HIV positive and, are you ready for this, 3) said that the boy could be charged with illegal homosexual behavior.
Psychology Today magazine (Dec.) in a bow to positive multiculturalism details the whys and wherefores of “Lingering handshakes, handholding, embraces and sometimes kisses between heterosexual men” because these practices “… are the norm in much of the Muslim world.” “In Afghanistan, men write love poems to friends and Taliban fighters give one another flowers.” Because homosexuality is taboo in most of the Middle East, “straight men feel free to show affection … because no one will assume they’re gay.” Even when they are.
The NY Times magazine (Oct. 28) did a major overview called “End Times for Evangelicals” in which these religious folks are portrayed as rapidly coming to the conclusion that they’ve sold their votes for a mess of pottage: right-wing Republicans are not especially interested in the Evangelical agenda. And further, that agenda is, dare we say it, evolving — here’s a change on homosexuality (yes, it really is a change): the Rev. Gene Carlson, a prominent conservative Christian pastor, told his congregation that any extramarital sex was a sin and homosexuality was not worse than any others. Other Evangelicals are following suit on this and more issues like environmental concerns. As a telling and amusing follow-up to this item, The Economist magazine (Nov. 10-16) has a little story on Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s personal, Tennessee, down-home, patriotic, very Christian-friendly theme park. It’s not zillion visitor Disneyland but it’s popular. Among people it’s popular with are Ms. Parton’s gay fans who hold get-togethers there much to her pleasure. She has always acknowledged them, drag versions of her and all.
A strange little book, The Third Sex by Willy is reviewed in The NY Times Book Review (Nov. 11). Written (more likely, produced) in the 1920s by a cultural impressario and husband of Colette, it is supposed to be a “quasi-scientific tour of the male homosexual world in France,Italy and Germany.” (Think “Cabaret.”) Willy has concocted a guidebook “complete with street addresses and hours of operation, to warn impressionable young people away from all these places,” now all, of course, vanished.
Straight, ahem, from the pages of Psychology Today magazine (Dec.): “Sapphic Signals: Ovulatory hormones actually amplify lesbian lust” because “… ovulation increases flirtation, regardless of the object of desire.” Those little eggs are hard-wired to look for papas but dykes are hard-wired to look for women. Dykes win.