Show tunes?
Hmm, for me at least it was somewhat similar, except for that “eww, they have cooties!” phase. Being male myself and also being into guys I never had that feeling that they were some disgusting other.
Although at the same time, most of my friendships with other kids were with girls, I felt more comfortable with them. So in a way a lot of guys seemed like something different than me since I was never into sports or into girls ‘in that way’ or any number of things that might be called typical guy stuff, so with straight guys at least I had little in common. That’s probably about the closest I experienced to what you describe.
Oh, well, at least it’s better than bein’ a fag!
I’m making no value judgement, I’m just saying. Gay and transsexual are different, is all. Some amphibians, at least, are very lucky when it comes to this issue. Say maybe axolotlito figures he’d rather be axolotlita*. Perhaps having too many hermanos is cramping his style. Not enough hermanas to go around. Well, no surgery or hormones are required! Imagine if we were that flexible!
*I know some species of frog can change gender in response to environmental cues…don’t really know if this works for axolotls…
Pair bonding occurs in birds at a specific time in their development. It generally occurs during some period where the availability of sexually opposite candidates for pairing is highly likely. But, it occurs at that time, or not at all. Most birds that pair bond have at least a small minority of members who bond with a member of their own sex. For reasons not well documented, that happens somewhat more often with male birds.
However, birds can and have pair bonded with members of other species, including non birds. In the case of penguins, that is unlikely, what with the absence of many candidate species in their natural environment. With the low numbers of birds in captivity, compared with flock sizes in the wild, odd penguin out is pretty common. Pair bonds are much more likely to happen regularly between same sex penguins. Since male penguins normally do most of the nurturing of the egg, they would be very much more likely to attempt to raise an orphan egg, or a rock. Female/female pairs could well be entirely uninterested in nesting. Or, they might do the same.
I would like to point out here that what occurs among humans is not in any way related to pair bonding. We have social groupings including polyandry, polygamy, serial monogamy, casual mating, and entirely unengaged members of both sexes. We also have rape, and spousal murder. These are not elements of pair bonding relationships. If we pair bonded, our language would have no term for divorce, or ex wife. You don’t have an ex mother, or an ex sister. Those are biological relationships. Husband and Wife are social relationships.
Tris
Just wait 'til they put that in a storybook.
I’ll have you know that I enjoy, and know, many show tunes AND think that Daniel Craig is cool-ugly enough to play Bond BUT am thoroughly straight, with enough experience to know that for sure, thankyouverymuch.
With my kids, the method I used was the UTEGO method–I’ll explain things Until Their Eyes Glaze Over. Granted, you folks should know by now that I could explain ANYTHING and make my audience’s eyes glaze over, unless they knew enough to call an angry bullshit on me, but it works with kids who know less than Dopers.
Plan B is “Ask your mother.”
Does this mean that Santorum was right? :eek:
Nothing…but nothing…will ever mean that. Ever.
There’s been a downturn in hiring for waitstaff lately. Be charitable.
Sing some Ethel Merman and find out.
No, no, GOOD for Family Values. His Daddy died in a Purifying Fire set by Mankind Itself tm. That makes it okay.
:rolleyes:
I am very very glad that I do not live in Illinois. I wonder what the local cops will do when parents with half a brain and an intact conscience start picketing the school district offices?
Cartooniverse
Something from this, perhaps?
In reading over these posts, I think many are missing the main point, which is that Muldoonthief would like when certain subjects are going to be first discussed with his daughter, he would rather be prepared for the discussion rather than caught completely off guard.
When I was little, I was evidently on a different curiosity level at a younger age than my older brother. There were several times I can remember asking my parents questions and they would look at each back and forth, stammer, and hem and haw. I had no idea why they couldn’t just answer my question and that always made me uncomfortable and I felt bad for even asking. I remembered there must have been something very odd about that subject for them to react so strangely and that scared me.
Now I know the subject matter wasn’t what caused my parents to clam up. It was the fact that I was so young and asking things my older brother hadn’t even asked about yet. I know now that the look that passed between them was, “Oh, I wish I had seen this coming and had a chance to think this through.” They had prepared answers for my brother who was four years older. They hadn’t thought about answers for me who was much younger and probably didn’t need as much detail as my older brother might have needed for his age. After this happened a few times, my parents were prepared, waiting, like WhyNott mentioned, for something to naturally lead into certain discussions. And since they were prepared, those next questions were answered in a very normal tone, as if the subject was quite normal and not anything to dwell on. And with those, I quickly moved on to something more interesting.
I know my friends that have kids have often mentioned they were glad their kids had a gay uncle or some other gay relation that the kids adored. They had prepared ahead of time when the subject came up to use the adored uncle as the example. They knew the child had never found anything strange or creepy about that uncle, and hoped that would be a good start towards having kids who looked at gay people as they would anyone else.
My reading of Muldoon’s account is the he has no problem with the subject matter and agrees the book will be a good way to broach the subject. He is just saying that as a parent, for the book to be a good tool, the parent should have a bit of warning first. With a little thought he might be able to think of some good examples that his daughter could relate to and make the discussion a very positive one.
When those of you who wrote what you thought Muldoonthief should have said instead, did you take a minute to think before you typed out the “correct” response? Did after a bit of thought did you decide one way to say it might be better than another way? I think all Muldoonthief was saying that by not having the information of what the book was about ahead of time, he would have not had a chance to think through the best response and would have preferred not being put in the situation where his daughter wanted to read it immediately and not have a chance to think things through so the conversation would be as positive as possible.
Perhaps Muldoonthief would have liked for his wife to also be there when the questions come up so the two of them both will be answering that it is ok and not a big deal. If his daughter sees both parents are ok with this new idea, she is much more likely to accept it and move on.
There are enough surprises when raising kids that require a parent to react without the chance to think things through. What is wrong with wanting to know ahead of time that a particular book was likely to introduce an new concept, and that some parents might prefer to be prepared so they could use this book in a good way rather than be caught of guard and not handle it as well as they would like to?
Where have you been? It’s Bernadette Peters now.
E.
And that was the moment I knew America was doomed.
Sailboat
If it were really that simple then who could take offense to homosexuality, but its not. Some people think that homosexuality is a perversion of nature (e.g. sexual desire is an evolutionary construct to promote procreation, therefore (the argument goes) homosexuality is either a mistake of nature or some sort of disease).
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m guessing that most of those who view homosexuality as something that is a disease that can be cured would never use evolution as an explanation for human sexuality.
Quite to the contrary, from my experience.
No report on Roy, but I can imagine he’s quite hurt. Custody of Tango could be some time in deciding. No doubt traditional marriage proponents will celebrate. :dubious:
I think one of the most homophobic community I have ever seen is the medical community. It was not too long ago that the medical community classified homosexuality as a mental disorder. Ask any homosexual males about the treatment of homosexuality in medical school. Its not just beer guzzling, bible thumping, inbreeders that think there is something wrong with homosexuality.