MONTANA: Sodomy No Longer Illegal

Joe.My.God. reports:

Montana’s governor has signed the bill repealing the state’s ban on sodomy. 

When Montana Gov. Steve Bullock signed Senate Bill 107 decriminalizing gay sex, cheers erupted in the Capitol’s Rotunda. It had been 16 years after the state Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional and 24 years after gay rights activists began their fight to take government out of the bedroom. “I am not going to speak too long because, frankly, the longer I talk, the longer this embarrassing and unconstitutional law stays on the books,” Bullock said.

The victory, though a powerful one for the gay community in Montana, is highly symbolic with no tangible benefits aside from striking the obsolete law condemning gay sex from Montana code. The outdated code has not been used to prosecute individuals for years. And previous efforts to offer gays and lesbians protection under the law, including a push to prohibit civil discrimination, have been thwarted by a GOP-controlled Legislature.

Towleroad tips us to this clip.

John Corvino: Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin

Denmark: Gay Penguins Become Dads

BuzzFeed reports:

After nearly a year together at the Odense Zoo in Denmark, the same-sex couple attempted to become parents of their own. Keepers witnessed the pair trying to steal other couples’ eggs. And during brooding season, the penguins even tried to incubate a dead herring.
“[The two] seriously wanted to stay with an egg,” zoologist Nina Christensen toldThe Star.
The Odense Zoo reports that the penguins were recipients of an unexpected blessing when a female penguin laid not one but two eggs. She ultimately ditched the second egg, which afforded the male couple to become adoptive parents.
However, before they were given the egg, the males had to practice on artificial eggs. Once proven capable, they received and successfully incubated the egg. The chick was born a month ago but the sex won’t be determined for another eight months.
Congrats to the new dads!

Who says “Homosexuality” isn’t in nature?

SPLC Defends FRC’s Hate Group Status On Bill O’Reilly

So You Still Think Homosexuality Is Sinful? And Therefore Gays Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Marry? 

STUDY: Male Bottlenose Dolphins Engage In Extensive Bisexuality & Exclusive Homosexuality

Queerty reports:

Researchers in Western Australia have recently published a paper that details the very gay lives of male bottlenose dolphins.
According to Discovery News, the study found that, while male dolphins court females during the mating season, they often have longterm gay partners in the off-season (who says homosexuality is going to extinct our race?). The authors of the paper write:

• Male bottlenose dolphins also were found to engage in extensive bisexuality, combined with periods of exclusive homosexuality. Male pairs, or even trios, cooperate to sequester and herd individual females during the mating season. Most males are also members of second order alliances consisting of 4 to 14 males. Such relationships appear to be long lasting, with one known 7-member group still intact after 17 years.
• At first the researchers thought the dolphins lived somewhat like chimpanzees, since male bonding is strong, but in chimps can also lead to patrolling and defending community territory. But because of their open watery range, the Shark Bay dolphins may instead have ranges that overlap with those of other dolphins in the area.
• While dolphins can be aggressive, their “make love not war” lifestyle seems to be more peaceful than that of some other mammals, possibly even humans.

And lest we forget, male dolphins love to “make blowhole” with one another, too.

For those who still think being gay is unnatural. 

Richard Dawkins Explains How The Gay Gene Was Preserved

Yes, the debate isn’t over. Biology is a strong card on this topic.

Canada: “Gay Pinguins” Buddy & Pedro Split Up, One Mating With Female 

With information of The Canadian Press, The Huffington Post reports:

Buddy and Pedro, once one of Toronto’s hottest “It” couples, have broken up amid pregnancy rumours and a budding relationship with what those on Team Pedro will undoubtedly call a femme fatale.
It only took Buddy 72 hours to bond with Farai, a female penguin he was matched with on Nov. 19, after being separated from Pedro. Handlers at the Toronto Zoo split up the pair out of concern the same-sex bond would hamper breeding efforts.
Pedro has yet to get lucky, but zoo officials say it’s not for a lack of trying.
“Pedro is very ready to go, per se, but his prospective mate Thandiwey is a little shy,” Tom Mason, the zoo’s curator of birds and invertebrates, said Monday.
“She’s not quite ready to go yet but they’re beginners, they’re just starting life as a pair.”
The story of the star-crossed birds took on a life of its own when the two African penguins, dubbed Toronto’s “gay penguins,” became an Internet sensation last month amid outrage over their pending separation.
Some cheeky headlines dubbed theirs “the love that dare squawk its name,” while late-night TV comic Jimmy Kimmel took on the story during a monologue, calling it “Brokeback Iceberg.”
But Mason emphasized their bond was social, not sexual � and not at all uncommon.
The two simply had each other’s backs, he said, and preferred each other’s company to that of other penguins.
“We don’t think of gay penguins,” he said. “They’re bonded pairs, they break up in the wild, they break up in captivity.”
The bromance was doomed from the start, said Mason. The zoo simply had to intervene to ensure the bachelor penguins chose wisely and made the right genetic match, he explained.
And unlike the love affairs of other celebrity couples, when Pedro and Buddy split, it was the real thing.
“There will be a dozen birds swimming around together and they’ll interact in that respect, but as for going into the corner, Buddy and Pedro, I don’t believe that will happen,” Mason said.
“They’ll go into a corner and it will be Buddy and Farai and hopefully Pedro with Thandiwey.”
Zoo officials are hoping the first babies will come by April, and “given the amount of breeding activity,” it could happen as early as January if an egg is laid soon.
Buddy, who is 21, had a female mate for 10 years and produced some offspring before his partner died.
Pedro, 10, has yet to produce any offspring.

Documentary: Be Like Others

Clip description: 

Iran has the highest rate of sex changes in the world, most of them. Yet in a country where homosexuality is illegal, the government will provide half the cost of the operation.

Atheists Never…

The Way Of The Mister, Vol. 1: Reparative Therapy (Change Is Possible… For Straights)

Christopher Hitchens: HitchSlap

To Religion On Homosexuality

Pope Benedict: Even If God Did Make You Gay, You Still Should Not Be Gay

Joe.My.God. reports:

In another excerpt from his coming book/interview, Pope Benedict says that he doesn’t know if people are born gay or not. But even if God did make you this way, you shouldn’t BE this way. Or something.

He said it was still an open question whether homosexual inclinations are innate or arise early in life. In any case, he said, if these are strong inclinations, it represents “a great trial” for the homosexual. “But this does not mean that homosexuality thereby becomes morally right. Rather, it remains contrary to the essence of what God originally willed,” he said.

Remember, God doesn’t make mistakes. But if he DOES make mistakes, that’s your problem to deal with. Benedict also says there’s no inherent contradiction in calling homosexuals “intrinsically disordered” and still offering them respect. Got that? Yes, you are a mentally ill freak. But we mean that in the nicest way.