Gayzilla For years the far Right has been insisting that gay people comprise a mere one percent of the population—which somehow bolsters their belief that we don’t deserve equal rights. And for years we’ve worried that this claim would stick, and that would not be good. Worry no more: a recent Gallup survey showed that Americans on average believe that fully 25 percent of all people are gay; and a clear majority, 52 percent, believe that at least one in five is gay or lesbian. These figures are astonishing in light of recent studies that seem to be converging on a figure closer to four percent. How to account for this huge overestimate? Could it be that gays are perceived as such a Godzilla-like menace that their numbers are gigantized? But no, other polling has recorded a steady rise in acceptance of same-sex marriage and GLBT rights in general. Gallup attributes the overestimate to the high visibility of gay issues in the news of late. So activists have been right all along: it’s all about visibility. The more visible we are, the more of us there are. At some point, it seems there are just too many of us to hate.
Say “Ah” Everyone claims to have exceptional “gaydar,” but no one can ever put their finger on what exactly tips them off. Now a study has found that you can tell with some accuracy whether a man is gay just by hearing him talk over the phone—and the telltale signals are the vowel sounds. In the Ohio State study, researcher Erik C. Tracy had seven gay and seven straight men record a series of one-syllable words (“mass,” “food,” “sell,” etc.), and then played the recordings to a sample of non-gay listeners. While an initial consonant sound didn’t help, the vowel sound was the giveaway, with listeners correctly identifying the speaker’s sexual orientation about 75 percent of the time (instead of the expected fifty percent). And all this time we thought it was those sibilant S’s that gave us away!
Bully or Be Bullied A spate of articles has noted that a tipping point was reached recently when a majority of Americans said they supported legalizing same-sex marriage. The Atlantic included as one of its fourteen “big ideas of the year” the notion that “gay is the new normal,” so those opposing gay rights are now in the minority. A piece in Salon.com noted that some anti-gay groups are claiming that they’re the ones who are “bullied” whenever they exercise their God-given right to express homophobic views. They cite, for example, Apple’s caving to pressure to remove two iPhone apps promoting “reparative therapy,” and law firm King & Spalding’s reversal of its decision to defend California’s Prop 8 in court. The new victimhood was given voice by none other than Watergate burglar Chuck Colson, who opined: “The gay-rights groups have shown their fangs. They want to silence, yes, destroy those who don’t agree with their agenda.” In Colson’s zero-sum world, of course, that’s how contests are resolved. If homophobes have spent the last few decades trying to destroy gay lives, the new tolerance can only mean one thing: now they are about to be destroyed.
Down, Boy! Freud posited that people’s strongest aversions often refer to the very things they secretly long for. Thus, for example, men who are vehemently anti-gay often harbor an unconscious desire for sex with other men. A University of Georgia study tested this hypothesis by presenting three types of porn—heterosexual, lesbian, and gay male—to straight men while measuring their degree of sexual arousal. A separate interview had ascertained their level of comfort or anxiety with gay men. Sure enough, the most homophobic men turned out to be the ones most aroused by the gay porn. Interviewed again after the showing, these men reported that they were not in fact aroused by the gay action they just saw. Tell that to your penis! But Freud would not have been surprised: the ego protects its cherished illusions even when the truth is rising up before one’s eyes.
Just Say No to Ma Bell When The New York Times sees fit to editorialize against a GLBT organization and mention its former president by name, attention must be paid. This is a tough story to cover because of the people involved and because it concerns an organization that undoubtedly does some good. What happened, in short, was that the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (glaad) submitted a letter to the FCC in support of AT&T’s bid to acquire T-Mobile—the very same AT&T that gives large sums of money, most recently $50,000, to glaad. The apparent quid pro quo was made all the more glaring by the fact that glaad had no obvious stake in the outcome of a merger between two telecom giants—a deal that most consumer groups saw as a stinker. Glaad’s argument about the anticipated benefits was almost comically convoluted. And then there was another letter, later withdrawn, that seemed to support a loosening of net neutrality rules. The signer of both letters, Jarrett Barrios, was forced to resign as glaad’s president. The Times piece pointed out that glaad was only one of several left-leaning nonprofits whose support AT&T tried to buy, and it lashed out at Ma Bell for launching the gambit. Still, it gives one pause that these organizations were so easily bought.
Hung Chads Suddenly the topic of penis size is on everyone’s lips—blame Anthony Wiener and his obsession with his “package.” Now a 2009 study has come to light, partly funded by an NIH grant, titled “The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men.” Needless to say, the study’s release provoked a stock reaction from the religious Right. But it actually had a valid public health rationale: to see if size is related to the propensity of gay men to play the insertive or the receptive role in anal sex, which in turn could have implications for HIV transmission. And the results of the 1,000-man survey are in. No one will be surprised to learn that more gay men claim to be “above average” than “below” (36% to 7%, with 54% saying “average”). And it turns out porn flicks don’t lie: the well-endowed are more likely to be tops, while smaller guys are most often bottoms. And there were other physical and mental health implications: those in the small-penis category fared the worst on three measures of psychosocial adjustment, while those in the endowed group were more likely to have had gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and urinary tract infections. So there you have it: psychological maladjustment or a lifetime of STDs—take your pick!
