It’s a raw, conflicted moment for queer and LGBT communities — on the one hand, we’re celebrating our increased rights and protections (at least in some parts of the world), the fruits of some serious labor. On the other hand, the events of last weekend cast a shadow on everything we’ve accomplished — a stark reminder of the hostility we still face.
A short film called “Golden” has been making the rounds, offering a hopeful message to anyone who ever felt they didn’t quite fit in.
In an email to Queerty, filmmaker Kai Staenike wrote:
“In the wake of the tragedy in Orlando a friend asked me to put my short film Golden online so she can share it with some friends. If it can spread just a tiny bit of love in these devastating times, the film fulfilled its purpose. Wherever you are and not matter how tough times are right now: You are never alone. You have a place in life and together we gonna make sure it’s a safe one. Here’s to all streets being safe spaces one day!”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Watch below:
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Billy Budd
This is nice. I like it.
Daniel-Reader
Very well done.
Billy Budd
By the way, I know this is very controversial and goes against what most gay guys say, but I personally believe that it is mostly the phenotype (i.e. life experiences), not the genotype (i.e. genetics) , that determines if a person is going to be gay or not. If there is a genetic influence, it is small, and most people would be bisexual anyway like our closets relatives in the animal kingdom, the apes. I don’t believe they will ever find a definite gay gene.
Billy Budd
I say this because in the movie the boy is BORN golden.
natriley
This lovely. It takes the fear of isolation that often keeps us closeted, but has become hard to portray. A constant theme in “gay” art that often feels cliched. But this fresh look fully conveys the emotional intensity and sense of liberation when we discover others love us because we have these feelings.
Black Pegasus
@Billy Budd: You are wrong. It is purely a biological function that determines your sexuality, NOT experiences. As for the “gay gene”. There may not be one. Scientist are most likely looking in the wrong places to discover and chronical why people are born gay.
Billy Budd
@Black Pegasus: You are wrong. As a scientist I know that there is no proof that human sexual inclination is purely biologically determined or if it is purely determined by the environment. It is still a debate.
DMRX
That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever watched. Thank you, Kai.
connorlarkin19
@<a href="#comment-11The ScientistNews & OpinionDaily News
Can Epigenetics Explain Homosexuality?
Scientists propose a new model for how homosexuality develops, but observers say it will be difficult to test.
"Researchers looking for a genetic signature of homosexuality have been barking up the wrong tree, according to a trio of researchers in the United States and Sweden. Instead, the scientists posit, epigenetic influences acting on androgen signaling in the brain may underlie sexual orientation. In a paper published last week (December 11) in The Quarterly Review of Biology, they propose a model describing how epigenetic markers that steer sexual development in males could promote homosexual orientation in females, and vice versa. The scientists offer their model to explain both the tendency of homosexuality to run in families, and the fact that so far no “homosexual gene” has been identified.
“It’s a very provocative, very interesting new twist that is plausible,” said Margaret McCarthy, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland who studies how hormones influence brain development and was not involved in producing the model. But, she cautioned, so far the theory “is not supported by any data.”
Indeed, Andrea Ciani, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Padova, thinks that a variety of factors, including genes and epigenetics, influence sexual orientation. “It’s a little bit vain to think we’ll find the answer to homosexuality as a whole.”
The model was developed by William Rice, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Sergey Gavrilets, a mathematician at the University of Tennessee; and Urban Friberg, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Uppsala. The notion that epigenetics, rather than genetics, is the primary force promoting homosexuality sprang from several observations, explained Rice.
First, evidence shows that homosexuality can run in families. Still, only 20 percent of identical twins are both gay, said Rice. Furthermore, linkage studies looking for a genetic underpinning to sexual orientation have not turned up any “major” homosexual genes, Rice noted. “This made us suspicious that something besides genes produces heritability that isn’t genetic.” Epigenetics fits the bill.
The model focuses on the role of epigenetics in shaping how cells respond to androgen signaling, an important determinant of gonad development. The researchers suggest that androgens are also important factors in molding sexual orientation, and that various genes involved in mediating androgen signaling are regulated by epigenetic modifications. These epigenetic marks, they argue, can be passed on between generations."
As an example of how androgens shape sexuality, the researchers point to girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), who produce very high levels of testosterone and often display masculinized genitalia and higher rates of same-sex attraction. But testosterone levels are sometimes the same in normally developing male and female fetuses—without masculinizing the females—suggesting that something else must be playing a role.
BillyButts & Black, soi-distant 'scientists', a post doc in Trumpism? Neuroscience, evolutionary biology and genetics are factors in determining sexuality. Yes, the brain and neural pathways are affected and altered by behavior.
AtticusBennett
there are NO external (nurture) factors that make a person gay or bisexual or transgender. external factors only affect how an LGBT person understands, comes to terms with, and embraces who they are as an LGBT person.
it’s very simple. were there a socializing factor involved, we’d have known it by now. because we LGBT people talk to one another. we share our life experiences. we bond. we talk. we listen.
billybudd is full of s**t. LGBT people come from every type of family and family dynamic. in ever culture. in every religion. in every city and town in every province or territory in every county on every continent.
nothing in our being raised “made us gay”. there is no “debate”.
gayhope1990
@Billy Bud:Stop your bisexual propaganda.Bisexuals are just a minority who pretend to be straight-ish to look down gay people.
AtticusBennett
no, bisexuals are a legit orientation. the problem is not bisexuals, the problem is that billybudd doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Billy Budd
Many, many many psychologists would agree with me that there are behavioral aspects to becoming gay.
Billy Budd
I mean, behavioral determinants involved in having a particular sexual orientation.
Billy Budd
Here’s the TRUE reason why most gay guys prefer to think that they are gay because of their genes:
http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/72/2/291.short
Beliefs About the Origins of Homosexuality and Support For Gay Rights
An Empirical Test of Attribution Theory
Donald P. Haider-Markel and Mark R. Joslyn
Abstract
In this study, we employ Weiner’s attribution theory of controllability to examine beliefs about the origins of homosexuality. If the cause of homosexuality is perceived as controllable (learned, environmental, or an individual choice), negative affect toward homosexuals and reduced support for policies relevant to the group can be expected. If the cause is perceived as uncontrollable (biological or genetic in origin), positive affect and increased support for polices is anticipated. Our analyses of data from two unique surveys of national adults corroborate these hypotheses, showing that positive feelings toward gays, support for gay civil rights, civil unions, and same-sex marriage are strongly determined by a genetic attribution for homosexuality. Attributions are in fact the strongest predictor of support. We distinguish our analysis from previous research by examining the important role of religion, ideology, and experience, in shaping attributions.
Alistair Wiseman
@AtticusBennett:
Thank you, Dr. Bennett.
silveroracle
Very moving video.
MyDadPulledOut
The sequel has him finding another golden boy and cheating on the first. The first gets addicted to meth and commits suicide when he realizes his idolization of the other golden people was misplaced.
iggy6666
@AtticusBennett: Agreed. You’re right on the money
iggy6666
Poor dog. Burying a family dog is very hard to do.:(
seaguy
@Billy Budd: What kind of scientist? Anyone can make themselves something they are not online. But it is pretty much agreed in the scientific and medical communities that sexual orientation is determined biologically and is not something we just choose. If it was a choice then why would so many choose to be gay if they knew that it was going to be mean they would be beaten, discriminated against and etc.?
Karlis
@billy budd. Billy Budd is a character from a book that is set in the late 1700s. Human understanding has progressed since then. Not least in terms of causative factors of human sexuality. If it were even remotely true that life experiences lead to human sexuality, then no one would be gay, or hardly anyone would be. I personally knew that I liked other boys when I was about eight years old. I had never once seen a television program or advertisement that suggested that two boys could be together. On the contrary, everything I saw suggested that it had to be man and woman. And that was in the latter half of the 20th century. Had I known where to look, I would have found the Mattachine Society or “Boys in the Band” (though that would not have been an uplifting movie for a child). I would have known that my home state of Illinois had legalized gay sex — just about at the same time that I was born, and thank you, Illinois, for that. Cheers! But I didn’t know where to look, and my dick got hard thinking about other boys and not girls. Life experiences can form personality and attitudes. I cannot believe that they are causative for something as basic as human sexuality. Because, as others have pointed out, surely no one would have chosen to be gay back when that meant getting burned at the stake. As was the case when the character whose name you have chosen to use was alive.
Billy Budd
@seaguy: @Karlis: You guys don’t need to convince me that it is not a choice. I know that it is not a choice because I AM GAY MYSELF. It is obviously not a choice. But I still believe that it is not biologically oriented, for the most part. In my opinion it is caused by life experiences. I have an identical twin brother and he is totally straight.
martinbakman
@Billy Budd: There is already enough data to indicate your theory is flawed.
Billy Budd
@martinbakman: ……””Researchers looking for a genetic signature of homosexuality have been barking up the wrong tree…..”
Does this look like they have already enough data? Of course not. Of course they don’t. Every well informed human being should know that. You don’t.
man5996853
@martinbakman: Scientists with degrees from Junk Science Technical Institute of Southern Mississippi know their shit. No need to argue with them.
Billy Budd
@man5996853: You probably got your PhD from one of those. I got mine from one of the top 50 schools in the USA.
Donald Dork
@Billy Budd: Exactly what life experiences do you think makes someone gay? [other than overbearing mom/distant dad/lecherous Uncle Ernie/cruel cousin Kevin. If those things made us gay, wed be about 60%of the population]