Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2000 17:44:14 -0800 From: Jean Richter Subject: 1/3/2000 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news, pt. 2 1. CA: Article on Adam Colton 2. Australia: Anti-gay abuse begins in primary school ============================================================= From: SARATOGANY@aol.com Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 20:48:48 EST Subject: Oasis (youth) Magzine: Profiles in Courage - Adam Colton, 18, of Novato, Calif. To: SARATOGANY@aol.com, bdm3g@gateway.net Msg fwd by: The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020 Email to: saratogany@aol.com "The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project" ========================================================= This message has been distributed as a free informational service for the expressed interest of non-profit research and educational purposes only. OASIS MAGZINE (online youth mag) www.oasismag.com December 1999 Profiles in Courage http://www.oasismag.com/Issues/9912/profiles.html (with potos) Adam Colton, 18, of Novato, Calif. By Jeff Walsh, Oasis Editor During his senior year, Adam Colton wanted to change his high school. The week classes began last year, he came out to faculty, board members and students attending an in-service. Colton had previously mentioned a diversity program with school administrators and now he was pushing for a gay-straight alliance. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Colton can be reached at Atom265866@aol.com Oasis Editor Jeff Walsh would love to hear your feedback on this article. =================================================================================== From: SARATOGANY@aol.com Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 08:01:36 EST Subject: Gay abuse starts at primary school To: SARATOGANY@aol.com, bdm3g@gateway.net Msg fwd by: The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020 Email to: saratogany@aol.com "The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project" CSS-NYS Note: The word "Poofter", as used in the below article, equates to fag or faggot. The word is commonly used within the British Commonwealth. This article articulates the problem unlike that in the US. Following below article: American Psychological Association (APA), Journal of Abnormal Psychology "New Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal" (1996) ========================================================= This message has been distributed as a free informational service for the expressed interest of non-profit research and educational purposes only. Melbourne Herald Sun, 27th December, 1999 Gay abuse starts at primary school BY MICHELLE EDMUNDS, Education reporter Boys learn to be homophobic in the primary school playground, an academic says. Associate Professor David Plummer, from the University of New England, NSW, has found homophobia peaks in the mid to late teens, with boys in Years 8 and 9 reporting they use the word "poofter" 25 to 50 times a day. "Homophobic words start being used in mid to late primary school - that is well prior to forming their sexual identity or knowing what homosexuality is," Prof. Plummer said. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] ========================================================= American Psychological Association (APA) Journal of Abnormal Psychology New Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- August 1996 WASHINGTON -- Psychoanalytic theory holds that homophobia -- the fear, anxiety, anger, discomfort and aversion that some ostensibly heterosexual people hold for gay individuals -- is the result of repressed homosexual urges that the person is either unaware of or denies. A study appearing in the August 1996 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), provides new empirical evidence that is consistent with that theory. Researchers at the University of Georgia conducted an experiment involving 35 homophobic men and 29 nonhomophobic men as measured by the Index of Homophobia scale. All the participants selected for the study described themselves as exclusively heterosexual both in terms of sexual arousal and experience. Each participant was exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual and lesbian videotapes (but not necessarily in that order). Their degree of sexual arousal was measured by penile plethysmography, which precisely measures and records male tumescence. Men in both groups were aroused by about the same degree by the video depicting heterosexual sexual behavior and by the video showing two women engaged in sexual behavior. The only significant difference in degree of arousal between the two groups occurred when they viewed the video depicting male homosexual sex: 'The homophobic men showed a significant increase in penile circumference to the male homosexual video, but the control [nonhomophobic] men did not.' Broken down further, the measurements showed that while 66% of the nonhomophobic group showed no significant tumescence while watching the male homosexual video, only 20% of the homophobic men showed little or no evidence of arousal. Similarly, while 24% of the nonhomophobic men showed definite tumescence while watching the homosexual video, 54% of the homophobic men did. When asked to give their own subjective assessment of the degree to which they were aroused by watching each of the three videos, men in both groups gave answers that tracked fairly closely with the results of the objective physiological measurement, with one exception: the homophobic men significantly underestimated their degree of arousal by the male homosexual video. Do these findings mean, then, that homophobia in men is a reaction to repressed homosexual urges, as psychoanalysis theorizes? While their findings are consistent with that theory, the authors note that there is another, competing theoretical explanation: anxiety. According to this theory, viewing the male homosexual videotape may have caused negative emotions (such as anxiety) in the homophobic men, but not in the nonhomophobic men. As the authors note, 'anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection,' and so it is also possible that 'a response to homosexual stimuli [in these men] is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual arousal per se. These competing notions can and should be evaluated by future research.' Article: 'Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal?' by Henry E. Adams, Ph.D., Lester W. Wright, Jr., Ph.D. and Bethany A. Lohr, University of Georgia, in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 105, No. 3, pp 440-445. (Full text available from the APA Public Affairs Office.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington,DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 142,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 49 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 58 state and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare. ================================================================================= Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) These messages are archived by state on our information-loaded free web site: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/