Bisexuality in women appears to be a distinctive sexual orientation and not an experimental or transitional stage that some women adopt “on their way” to lesbianism, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

The study of 79 non-heterosexual women over 10 years found that bisexual women maintained a stable pattern of attraction to both sexes. In addition, the research appears to have debunked the stereotype that bisexual women are uninterested in or unable to commit to long-term monogamous relationships.

Full Story: Science Blog

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To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don’t appear in the least unusual. To those in the quiet Oregon community where we live, we are viewed just as we are — a happy couple deeply in love. Our desire to work hard, buy our first home, and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child.

I am transgender, legally male, and legally married to Nancy. Unlike those in same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships, or civil unions, Nancy and I are afforded the more than 1,100 federal rights of marriage. Sterilization is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights. Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.

Full Story: the Advocate.

(via Grinding

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I’ve had this open in my browser for over a week, hoping I’d have time to put some analysis into the role religion plays in the treatment of women in each of these countries. I don’t have the time to work on something of this scope right now, so I’m just passing this article along without comment. The ten worst, according to the article, are:

Afghanistan
Democratic Republic of Congo
Iraq
Nepal
Sudan
Mali
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Somalia

Full Story: the Star.

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“What people have to remember is that Wicca; man and woman, God and Goddess is a fertility cult - a heterosexual fertility cult.”

Wiccan author Keith Morgan, interviewed at Autumn Link-Up ‘89

“The Wiccan cult stands for fertility and re-creation and not the sexual union between two ’spiritual’ members of the same sex as some groups like to believe.”

Kevin Carlyon, Hastings & St. Leonards Observer, 1985.

“Thus the blasphemy of the homosexual formula, for it denies Babalon and breeds devils in chaos.”

Kenneth Grant, Nightside of Eden.

Many more at Phil Hine’s web site.

(via Lupa).

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Homosexual relationships are banned in Iran, but the country allows sex change operations and hundreds of men have elected for surgery to change their lives.

“He wants to kill me. He keeps telling me to come home so he can kill me. He had put rat poison in my tea.”

For Ali Askar, at age 24, the decision to become a woman came at a heavy cost. His father threatened to kill him if he went ahead with surgery.

Now renamed Negar, she says she would not have had the operation if she did not live in Iran.

“If I didn’t have to operate, I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t touch God’s work.”

But as Ali, he felt he had no identity.

Full Story: BBC

(via Disinfo)

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The issue of being transgender usually pops up with students in high school. However, a 2nd grade biological boy wants to dress as a girl and be addressed with a girl’s name.

“As a public school system, our calling is to educate all kids no matter where they come from, what their background is, beliefs, values, it doesn’t matter,” said Whei Wong, Douglas County Schools spokesperson.

Wong says the staff at one of Douglas County’s schools is preparing to accommodate the student and answer questions other students might have. In order to protect the child as much as possible, 9NEWS has chosen not to reveal his school or other names that might identify the child.

Full Story: 9 news).

(via Lupa).

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The other day I watched eXistenZ. Afterword, I reached into the box of old Mondo 2000s that Bill Whitcomb recently gave me, and pulled out an issue at random. It just happened to have an interview with David Cronenberg (an excerpt from Cronenberg on Cronenberg, which I was also flipping through). Here’s an interesting bit where he talks about gender:

William Burroughs doesn’t just say that men and women are different species, he says they’re different species with different wills and purposes. That’s where you arrive at the struggle between the sexes. I think Burroughs really touches a nerve there. the attempt to make men and women not different - to pretend that little girls and boys are exactly the same and it’s only social pressure, influence, and environmental factors that make them go separate ways - just doesn’t work. Anyone who has kids knows that. There is a femaleness and a maleness. We each partake of both in different proportions. But Burroughs is talking about something else: will and purpose.

If we inhabited different planets, we would see the female planet go entirely one way and the male another. Maybe that’s why we’re on the same planet, because either extremes might be worse. I think Burroughs’s comments are illuminating. Maybe they’re a bit too cosmic to deal with in daily life, but hear it reflected in all the hideous cliches of songs: “You can’t live with ‘em, and you’ve can’t live without ‘em.”

Burroughs was fascinated when I told him about a species of butterfly. They couldn’t find the male of one species and the female of another. One was huge and brightly colored, and the other was tiny and black. It took forty years before lepidopterists realized were the same species. When Burroughs talks about men and women being different species, it does have some resonance in other forms of life. But there are also hermaphrodite version of this same butterfly. they are totally bizarre. One half is huge and bright and the other halve - split right down the middle of the body - is small and dark. I can’t imagine it being able to fly. there’s no balance whatsoever.

(See also my article on Breyer P-Orridge).

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I have a piece up in the new issue of Key 64:

Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, born Jacqueline Breyer in 1969, passed away Tuesday 9th October 2007. Lady Jaye and her partner Genesis Breyer P-Orridge spent the past several years living an “art as life project” sometimes called “Breaking Sex.” The couple altered their own appearances to look more and more like each other, forming a third ” pandrogenous” entity they called Breyer P-Orridge.

Lady Jaye met Genesis in 1993 and the couple began to align their appearances. Eventually, Genesis had gone as far as he could in making himself more feminine without surgery. So for their tenth anniversary, on Valentines Day 2003, the couple got matching breast implants together.

Full Story: Key 64.

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Full Video at Key 64.

Buy Androphilia here.

Check out Jack’s site.

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Portland, OR. August 10-12, 2007.

Paul Laffoley. Foolish People. Viking Youth. Freeman. Many more.

esoZone tickets are now available! The sooner you buy your ticket, the less expensive it will be. So act now!

The web site has been updated with more information about the event.

As a special bonus for anyone who buys a weekend pass, we will include an exclusive reprint of the Akashic Record of the Astral Convention zine edited by Hakim Bey. In 1987 Hakim Bey invited several friends and allies to astrally project to Antarctica for a convention. Afterwords, visitors sent their accounts to Bey and he compiled them into this zine. This collection was originally sent only to the contributors and has never before been reprinted. It features lost works by:

Ticket Prices:
3/15 - 4/15

Friday - $14.95
Saturday - $24.95
Sunday - $24.95

Weekend Package - $49.95

4/16 - 6/15

Friday - $14.95
Saturday - $34.95
Sunday- $34.95

Weekend Package - $74.95

6/16/ - 7/31

Friday - $14.95
Saturday - $59.95
Sunday - $59.95

Weekend Package - $124.95

At the door:

Friday - $15
Saturday - $70
Sunday - $70

Weekend Package - $150

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Brad Richert, a philosophy and religious studies student at the University of Alberta, has recently written a series of entries entitled “Women and Religion” on his blog, The Audacity of Individuality. Not that I know anything about either — women or religion — so worth taking a look-see:

• Women and Religion: BUDDHISM
• Women and Religion: CHRISTIANITY
• Women and Religion: HINDUISM
• Women and Religion: JUDAISM
• Women and Religion: ISLAM
• Women and Religion: MORE BUDDHISM

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