Comments on: Almost-seen in Provo

By: KIm Reece-Lairson

KIm Reece-Lairson — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:05:25 +0000

I have seen magazines covered here in INdiana, too, and I can understand why some people would be offended at some things. I have a gay son, and I raised him LDS. He knew he was gay five years before he said anything to me. He is a wonderful human being.He chooses to act on his feelings.I love him, but I worry about him, especially since Matthew Shepard was killed in Wyoming. Tolerance is so important.

By: LW

LW — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:55:31 +0000

I live in Tallahassee, Florida and we also have covers over the magazines in the stores. So it doesn’t just happen in Utah.

By: Stirling

Stirling — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:53:19 +0000

Yes, Bookslinger (to the funny looks).
I haven’t photographed eel and squid, but have bought (and caught) them. In fact, I’ve got some smoked eel from the Netherlands in the fridge right now. One of my first travel photos, taken in 1982 on a freshman class trip, was of animal heads at a market in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Now, 26 years later, as one evidence of the cool diversity brought to Utah by the large influx of Mexican immigration, you can get those in Orem at the Tenochitlan market.

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:34:25 +0000

Stirling, Do the clerks look at you funny when you take pictures of magazine racks?

I used to make fun of my mom (or at least roll my eyes) when she’d take pictures of her food at restaurants.

Then one time, I had some sushi that looked so good, I took a couple pictures of it with my cell phone. And I realized that I had turned into my mom.

Also, fun things to photograph can be found at ethnic grocery stores: eels, squids, tongue, animal heads (cow, lamb, pig).

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:26:20 +0000

“If your kids are gay, they’re gay. If they’re straight, they’re straight. Clay Aiken’s sexual orientation or any publicity thereabout is not going to make any difference.”
An article cited by The Kinsey Institute highlights a significant discrepency between those who experience some same gender attraction but no homosexual behavior versus those who do report homosexual attraction and behavior.
Sell, Wells, and Wypij (1995)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/qq42716198161858/
“Researchers determining the prevalence of homosexuality in nationally representative samples have focused upon determining the prevalence of homosexual behavior, ignoring those individuals whose sexual attraction to the same sex had not resulted in sexual behavior. We examine the use of sexual attraction as well as sexual behavior to estimate the prevalence of homosexuality in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France using the Project HOPE International Survey of AIDS-Risk Behaviors. We find that 8.7, 7.9, and 8.5% of males and 11.1, 8.6, and 11.7% of females in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, respectively, report some homosexual attraction but no homosexual behavior since age 15. Further, considering homosexual behavior and homosexual attraction as different but overlapping dimensions of homosexuality, we find 20.8, 16.3, and 18.5% of males, and 17.8, 18.6, and 18.5% of females in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France report either homosexual behavior or homosexual attraction since age 15. Examination of homosexual behavior separately finds that 6.2, 4.5, and 10.7% of males and 3.6, 2.1, and 3.3% of females in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, respectively, report having had sexual contact with someone of the same sex in the previous 5 years. Our findings highlight the importance of using more than just homosexual behavior to examine the prevalence of homosexuality.”
Who can say exactly how the public discourse plays into these types of discrepancies and decisions to act on homosexual attractions or how they may in the future but the descrepencies appear to be there nonetheless.
And from my own experience there is movement across the orientation spectrum.
“Hewitt analyzed past surveys on the prevalence of homosexuality in the United States, from 1970 to 1994, looking critically at the methodology of these studies. He offered a metanalysis of the typologies used in these surveys to classify the homosexual. He found five types: (1) open preferential homosexuals, (2) repressed preferential homosexuals, (3) bisexuals, (4) experimental homosexuals, and (5) situational homosexuals. ”
I have never been a 1, was a 2 most of my life, would now be considered a 3. That’s movement and as I stated earlier, Ellen’s narrative almost convinced my young self that such movement was impossible.

By: MikeInWeHo

MikeInWeHo — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:58:46 +0000

re: 72 I think Chris Bigelow is serious and articulates a common idea among social conservatives. This viewpoint has become more nuanced in recent years. In the past it was common to hear that homosexuality is a choice. Today one hears that while sexual orientation is not chosen, homosexual behavior is and can therefore be eschewed.

Images of happy, successful gays are threatening to those who believe that homosexual behavior is sinful. But we exist nonetheless. If you “can’t fathom” how the gay civil rights are going to “turn out good,” maybe you should make some gay friends and get to know their families.

By: Richard Cranium

Richard Cranium — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:16:32 +0000

Chris Bigelow, are you serious? If your kids are gay, they’re gay. If they’re straight, they’re straight. Clay Aiken’s sexual orientation or any publicity thereabout is not going to make any difference.

Personally, I get offended when I see magazine covers about short people because I want my kids to be tall. If they start thinking that it’s acceptable to be short instead of tall, they may choose to be short when they’re going through confusing times in their lives.

By: Sara R

Sara R — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:55:56 +0000

I appreciate the covered magazines in Utah valley. It’s not a matter of censorship; it’s a matter of not wanting to open up awkward conversations with 5-year-olds in the checkout line. I prefer to open up those kinds of conversations at a time and place of my choosing, when I feel my child is ready for it. I appreciate having all awkward and inappropriate material covered, from half-naked people to sex topics. I have to shop for food, and sometimes my kids have to come along.

By: Adam Greenwood

Adam Greenwood — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:28:06 +0000

Are y’all trying to tell me you *don’t* find photos of Clay Aiken offensive?

By: Norbert

Norbert — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:08:32 +0000

I've been very confused. I thought this Aiken fellow was the actor who played Sheriff Lobo back in the day, and that he had received alarming plastic surgery, was gay and had a baby somehow. Of course, that was Claude Akins. I am American Pop Culture Frozen Caveman.