Shock! UTAH Gov Vetoes Anti-Sex Education Bill

Well, this is a surprise. The Mormon Republican governor of Utah Gary Hebert refused to go along with his homophobic, theocratic and Republican-dominated legislature to ban sex education or any mention of homosexuality in Utah schools.

Instead Gov. Hebert vetoed HB 363, as reported by Reuters:

In vetoing the measure, dubbed HB 363, Herbert said that as a parent and grandparent he considered proper sex education in public schools an important component to the moral education youngsters receive at home.

"If HB 363 were to become law, parents would no longer have the option the overwhelming majority is currently choosing for their children. I am unwilling to conclude that the state knows better than Utah's parents as to what is best for their children," he said.

"In order for parents to take on more responsibility, they need more information, more involvement, and more choice—not less. I cannot sign a bill that deprives parents of their choice," he added.

Supporters of the bill argued that sex education was best left up to parents.

When even the Republican Governor of Utah won't go along with your know-nothing policy agenda, don't you think perhaps you may have gone too far?

Apparently not. Here is what the Salt Lake Tribune attributed to HB 363 proponents (read it and puke!):

"It never entered our minds that the governor who told us he was conservative would veto such an appropriate piece of legislation," she said. "By vetoing this bill, he just sent the message that Utah’s stamp of approval [is] on teaching children how to have sex, teaching contraception and saying this is the safest way to have sex." 

Sen. Margaret Dayton, co-sponsor of the bill, said she was disappointed the governor hadn’t contacted her to discuss his concerns and said teaching children about contraception is comparable to telling kids not to do drugs, then showing them how to "mainline" heroin.

Yes, a state senator did just compare teaching about contraception to promoting drug addiction. I really have no words in response. How can one engage in meaningful dialogue or debate with a raving lunatic? I bet she thinks mentioning homosexuality makes kids gay. But then again, she probably didn't have any sex education and wants to make sure that Utah produces more, ignorant, homophobic adults who share her views!

All I can say to the kids of Utah, "It Gets Better" (when you leave Utah)!

Map of Status of Gay Rights in Africa

Joe.My.God links to this interesting map about the state of the law towards homosexuality throughout Africa, provided by ILGA.

Interestingly, friend of MadProfessah.com, Rod McCollum is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for an international AIDS conference and is posting some amazing first person reports of his trip on his blog, Rod 2.0. Check it out!

Likability Perceptions Vary With Sexual Orientation

Zack Ford over at the LGBT Think Progress blog calls attention to an interesting academic article which explores how the perceived sexual orientation of strangers changes their perceived likability.

The results in "Impressions at the intersection of ambiguous and obvious social categories: Does gay + Black = likable?" are published in Journal of Experimental Psychology:

In one study, 22 women and nine men viewed 104 photos of straight and gay black and white males and rated their likeability on a scale of one (not likable) to seven (extremely likable). Participants were not informed that some of the men pictured were gay. While overall, white straight men were rated as more likable than white gay men, black men were rated in the opposite manner: gay blacks were more likable than straight black men.

"We observed that people judge others based on sexual orientation even if they are not consciously aware of whether someone is gay or straight," said doctoral student Jessica Remedios, lead author. "By understanding how sexual orientation affects the rapid evaluations we form about others, we can learn more about predicting and minimizing the negative consequences of homophobia."

In a second study, 36 women and 14 men were divided into groups to view the same 104 photos. One group was instructed to approach whites and avoid blacks by pulling a joystick toward them when a white face appears and pushing the joystick away when a black face appears; the other group was instructed vice versa, to approach blacks and avoid whites. Among participants approaching whites, the responses were faster for the straight men than for the gay. Among participants approaching blacks, however, responses were faster for gay than straight men. "Given that faster approach responses indicate greater positivity toward stimuli, the second study is consistent with the liking expressed in the first study," says Remedios.

"These findings suggest that sexual orientation, despite lacking explicit perceptual markers, infiltrates the automatic impression that is formed. Further, our judgment of gay men depends on whether they are white or black."

Curious result, eh?