Ricky Martin Comes Out

Today, Ricky Martin announced what many had suspected for years – he is homosexual. Martin came into the spotlight as a teen when he joined Menudo, a boys band that replaced members when they turned 16, their voice changed, they grew facial hair, or grew too tall – whatever came first. Martin made a comeback in the early ‘90s with the hit “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” but even then, many question his sexuality, despite a 14 year on-again/off-again relationship with TV host Rebecca de Alba. He avoided the topic, choosing instead to talk about his music rather than his personal … Continue reading

A Completely Changed Life

After reading some of the forum posts by tmwhalens, I thought I’d share a story of lives and one marriage that has had more than the usual problems and every day hassles to overcome. Ron Brookman says when he first married he says ‘it was for all the wrong reasons.’ It was more about keeping up appearances and trying to subvert and hide his homosexuality. Ron had two children with his first wife. The marriage was dysfunctional and unhappy. After she left him, from time to time he visited places in search of a homosexual relationship. This was despite the … Continue reading

Mental Health Week in Review June 11-19

We’ve had another big week in Mental Health where we looked at a range of topics, including the ongoing debate as to whether homosexuality is an inborn trait or simply learned and therefore a choice. Researchers utilized sex hormones found in male sweat and female urine to conduct an interesting experiment on the differing reactions of heterosexual and homosexual participant’s brains. This article attracted several reader comments and you can read the articles by clicking on the links below. We also looked at the myths and misconceptions that surround counseling and psychotherapy. What do people really expect when they go … Continue reading

Homosexuality: Inborn or Learned Behavior? (2)

In our previous article on this topic we saw how researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden found that testosterone compounds found in male sweat were attractive to both heterosexual females and homosexual males. Conversely, estrogen compounds found in female urine were attractive to heterosexual males, but not homosexual males. Dean Hamer, a geneticist from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland concluded that “this is one more line of evidence that there’s a biological substring for sexual preference”. In short, when homosexual men inhaled the odor of male sweat, the region of their brain that governs sexual response … Continue reading

Homosexuality: Inborn or Learned Behavior? (1)

Scientists have long debated whether homosexuals are born or bred. Ongoing research by neuroscientists at the Karolinska Institutet, one of Europe’s largest medical universities in Stockholm, Sweden, presents more evidence for the former being the case. Homosexuality has gone from being once classed as a mental illness to being regarded as either a sin or an acceptable variation of human behavior. Whatever your view, research in this area points to a biological origin for homosexual behavior. In the Swedish study, the scientists exposed heterosexual man and women as well as homosexual men to naturally-occurring chemicals containing male and female sex … Continue reading

Life isn’t black and white. It’s a million shades of grey.

Being human, we often look at others through the tunnel vision of our own life experience. But it doesn’t take an Einstein to realize that using our own limited vision of life can lead to discrimination, misunderstandings, even hatred. Although we are much more similar than dissimilar, we all have our own unique upbringing. Some of us have had a relatively easy ride, being born into financial comfortability and possessing a stable and encouraging family life. Others are not so lucky. Some children are born into situations which are, quite frankly, almost guaranteed to remove any hope of that child … Continue reading

Sharing One View on Homosexual Marriage

I have heard people say that homosexual marriage is not hurting anyone, and that those who are gay deserve to be happy having the same rights as heterosexual couples have. I have been very reluctant to write about this because it is such a heated topic. I would just like to share my thoughts on homosexual marriage and why I believe the acceptance of it to be part of the subtle decay of morality which was foretold in the Bible. I do not support gay marriage, the marriage of more than 2 people, marriage to animals, adults marrying children, or … Continue reading

A Name on the Quilt – Jeannine Atkins

Laura and her family have gathered together to make a special quilt to remember her Uncle Ron, who has died. Some of Ron’s friends came over and they are helping, too. As they stitch, they share memories of the fun things that Ron used to do with them. He took Laura ice skating, they went to the lake, they played Scrabble, and they loved to dance in Ron’s living room. By the time the quilt is finished, everyone has contributed their thoughts about Ron and how he will be missed. What the story portion of the book doesn’t say outright … Continue reading