Does porn induce erectile dysfunction?
Probably not. In a Globe and Mail op-ed Nov 2o, Leah McLaren warns that young men who watch porn will find themselves limp, psychologically scarred and terrible in bed. Tech Dirt points out, however, that McLaren’s article is based almost entirely on a single, dubious and self-promoting source. A quick search of the literature likewise confirms that McLaren’s claim that “porn-induced erectile dysfunction is now well documented by the mainstream medical community” is bogus.
Putin: Russia is not anti-gay
The idea that Russia is anti-gay is just a “label put on Russia by other states,” President Vladimir Putin told Russian human rights officials Friday. “Russia is not intending to breach the rights of gays, though the priority of the country is a traditional family,” he said. He went on to say that the United States is, in fact, a more homophobic country because Russia does not prosecute gay sex criminally (some states still have sodomy laws on the books, though all have been legally invalidated).
Gambian activist: US ignored us until LGBT arrests
A Gambian human rights activist told BuzzFeed Dec 4 that the US has ignored years of abuses by the Gambian government but that the arrests of 15 LGBT people this month have suddenly ignited “a firestorm.” President Yahya Jammeh has recently cracked down on gay people in Gambia and said publicly that they should be killed. Banka Manneh, who works for a Gambian civil rights group, says he hopes the newfound focus on LGBT rights will finally draw the West’s attention to a president who has been “killing people with reckless abandon” for two decades.
Democrats hope for a gay civil rights bill
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act extended basic legal protections to black people across the United States. Could the same thing happen for gay people? That’s been the dream of some Democrats since the 1970s, but the political barriers, they say, are still too high. At The New York Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes about what civil rights protections could mean for LGBT Americans.
Gay doctor kills himself after mother tells him to get cured
A Muslim doctor in the UK threw himself out a window and died after coming out to his mother as gay. His mother told him he should see a psychiatrist and try to find a cure for his homosexuality. Nazim Mahmood, a GP and cosmetic surgeon, was in a 13-year relationship with his fiancée.
Read more at the London Evening Standard.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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