Dream Job It’s scarcely news any more when a priest gets in trouble for a deed involving minors and sex. But the arrest last fall of one Christopher Jarvis on charges of possessing a vast trove of child pornography stood out from the pack. For starters, Mr Jarvis is not a priest but a UK official charged with—wait for it—investigating sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Church. It seems the Child Safeguarding Officer for the Diocese of Plymouth, when not investigating the crimes of accused priests in the 120 churches on his beat, was amassing a collection of 4,389 images of child porn, of which 120 were classified as “Level Four” (child rape) and twelve as “Level Five” (torture and sadism). The inevitable question was raised: how was it possible for a fox like Mr Jarvis to be hired to guard the Catholic henhouse? One possibility is that the applicant pool for this job was very slim, because, when you stop and think about it, who really wants the job of investigating a bunch of aging ex-priest queens whose role in any sex act you’d rather not think about? But there was Mr Jarvis (now serving a one-year prison term), who really wanted the job, making up in enthusiasm for what he may have lacked in references. And he did appear to be quite knowledgeable in the matter at hand…
Get It While You Can Do hard times make men hornier? That, in effect, is the conclusion of a recent study which found that men become more promiscuous during recessions than at other times. This phenomenon has been observed before—a surge in sexual activity when the economy heads south—as indicated by things like condom sales and Internet activity. At the start of the great recession of 2008, for example, the sale of Durex condoms rose by 32 percent, sex toys in general got a bump, and on-line dating sites like Match.com and Manhunt saw a nice rise. To help explain this phenom, psychologist Omri Gillath of the University of Kansas designed a study to test the connection between pessimism and promiscuity, and found that men who were induced to contemplate their own mortality were, in fact, more responsive to sexual imagery than were the men in a control group. Taking his cue from evolutionary psychology (where else?), Gillath reasoned that in lean times, when survival is less assured, men become more motivated to procreate quickly lest their time run out. A simpler explanation might be that under-employed men simply have more time on their hands and—voilà. But to go with the mortality theory, we all know how every man answers the question, “If you knew the world was going to end in a day, how would you spend your last 24 hours on earth?” All men, gay or straight, are alike in this respect. So perhaps it has nothing to do with procreation at all, just: “It’s later than you think.”
An Ex-Therapist Comes Clean In the world of disciplined, determined “ex-gay” ministries, the Memphis-based center Love in Action had few rivals, and its leader John Smid was the best in the biz, a true believer who enjoyed a cult-like status with his clients and staff. But in a stunning reversal, Smid recently admitted that the therapies he once trafficked in are essentially worthless. Quoth Smid: “I’m sorry, this transformation process may not meet the expectations of many Christians. I also want to reiterate here that the transformation for the vast majority of homosexuals will not include a change of sexual orientation. Actually I’ve never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual.” This includes Smid himself, who’s still married to his wife but learned the hard way that good intentions are not enough to persuade (choose your organ) the heart, the brain, the gonads. You can apply all the aversive therapy you want to make homosexual acts repellent, just as Alex in A Clockwork Orange was conditioned to become nauseous by the mere thought of violence. But that did not make Alex a man of peace, only a guy who was no longer Alex.
Games of Survival Deciphering the molecular structure of HIV and related viruses is an immense challenge for scientists, and one particular enzyme had thwarted them for decades. But using a video game called Foldit, a group of gamers was able to crack the structure of a monomeric protease enzyme in a matter of just three weeks. The problem at hand was to use the flat images from a microscope to construct a 3-D image that “unfolds” the complete structure of the molecule and allows it to be rotated in all directions—needed to reveal points of vulnerability that can be targets for drugs. Foldit is a “fun-for-purpose” video game in which teams compete to unfold chains of amino acids using a set of on-line tools. What it facilitated is seen as a major breakthrough in the development of better HIV drugs, future users of which may have to thank a bunch of gaming freaks who needed a break from Dungeons & Dragons.
Tables Turned Do homophobes constitute an oppressed minority? Anti-gay groups are increasingly claiming that they are victims of harassment, and they’re using this argument in court to avoid compliance with election disclosure laws. The main offender is the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a highly secretive but well-financed outfit that’s behind much of the anti-gay-marriage activity across the USA. In California, for example, NOM was the biggest force behind the passage of Propostion 8, and ever since it has steadfastly refused to reveal the names of its donors, claiming to be exempt from federal law. In its latest gambit to support this claim, NOM cited a number of instances in which Prop 8 petitioners were jeered or insulted, or the time a few pro-gay demonstrators showed up at an ice cream parlor in Sacramento to protest its support for Prop 8. Even if “harassment” of anti-gay forces had taken place, as claimed, it’s not at all clear how that qualifies NOM for the exemption. Yet this argument has been advanced in similar cases in Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington. Fortunately, judges aren’t buying it. In the California case, the judge ruled last November 4th that the “harassment” involved ordinary campaign activities. In fact, in all seven cases where the victim card was played, judges have pretty much laughed NOM out of court. Still, one has to be impressed by the temerity of an organization that can tie disclosure laws in knots by claiming that homophobes are the real victims as it endeavors to thwart equal rights.
