Tag Archives: attitudes

“Country Gravy” dishes out relationship advice at Theater LaB Houston

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Julia Laskowski and Patti Rabaza play the fiesty southern ladies with an opinion on everything

Anyone who’s lived in the south long enough knows this woman. She may be found at the local beauty salon, or in the canned foods aisle at the Piggly Wiggly, and her attendance at church potlucks is mandatory. Wherever you find her she knows exactly what you’re doing wrong in your relationship and how to fix it. From January 13 through 29 you can see her and her friends in all their glory in Country Gravy and Other Obsessions at Theater LaB Houston (1706 Alamo), produced by Magic Butterfly Productions. Co-writers and stars Julia Kay Laskowski and Patti Rabaza play two Texas women who decide that their myriad opinions on matters of the heart qualify them to lead a relationship seminar. When their antiquated attitudes meet real-world relationships musical hilarity ensues.

The original production features Aaron Ellisor on the piano and is directed and choreographed by Michael Tapley. Tickets are $25 and are available by calling the theater Box Office at 713-868-7516

—  admin

Islamist Attitudes By Nation

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Andrew Sullivan links to a story about a Pew report on attitudes towards Islamist punishments.

Should adulterers be stoned? Should robbers be whipped, or their hands amputated? Should apostates from Islam be subject to the death penalty? On the x-axis you see the proportion who accept that adulterers should be stoned. On the y-axis you see the responses to amputation and apostasy. The red points are the proportion who agree with the death penalty for apostates, and the navy points those who believe in whipping or amputation for robbers. … Compare Turkey to Egypt. They’re in totally different regions of the scatter plot. There is simply no comparison between these societies on these issues, despite both being Muslim and Middle Eastern.

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—  David Taffet

Study: positive family attitudes have major health and well-being implications for LGBT kids

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For the first time, researchers have established a clear link between accepting family attitudes and behaviors towards their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) children and significantly decreased risk and better overall health in adulthood.  The study shows that specific parental and caregiver behaviors — such as advocating for their children when they are mistreated because of their LGBT identity or supporting their gender expression — protect against depression, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in early adulthood. In addition, LGBT youth with highly accepting families have significantly higher levels of self-esteem and social support in young adulthood.

This may seem obvious to we LGBT folk, but as we know it is not necessarily obvious to parents, friends and other family members.  For example, watch members of a California family describe their individual paths to understanding these truths in this amazing video.

Major research findings include:

* Family accepting behaviors towards LGBT youth during adolescence protect against suicide, depression and substance abuse.

* LGBT young adults who reported high levels of family acceptance during adolescence had significantly higher levels of self-esteem, social support and general health, compared to peers with low levels of family acceptance.

* LGBT young adults who reported low levels of family acceptance during adolescence were over three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and to report suicide attempts, compared to those with high levels of family acceptance.

* High religious involvement in families was strongly associated with low acceptance of LGBT children.

Results of the research are being translated into practical tools for parents by the study’s author Dr. Caitlin Ryan and her team at the Family Acceptance Project in collaboration with Child and Adolescent Services at the University of California, San Francisco, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  They use a behavioral approach to help ethnically and religiously diverse families decrease rejection and increase support for their LGBT children to reduce risk for suicide, depression, substance abuse, and HIV, to promote well-being and to prevent homelessness and placement in custodial care. This approach helps communities and providers to engage diverse families as allies in decreasing their LGBT children’s risk and increasing their well-being while respecting the family’s deeply held values. This work is being conducted in English, Spanish and Chinese with families from all ethnic backgrounds, including immigrant and very low income families, and those whose children are out-of-home in foster care and juvenile justice facilities.

The study is published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, a journal of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses, in a peer-reviewed article titled “Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults.”
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Futbol fans becoming less homophobic

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While looking at how the rescue of the Chilean miners was covered by local papers, I found an interesting study in the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio. According to the paper, futbol fans are becoming less homophobic.

El Mercurio reports that the sample consisted of 3,000 interviews.

“Attitudes towards members of the gay community who practice this sport have improved,” according to the report.

Of those interviewed, 90 percent said the only thing that mattered was the performance of a player and not their sexual orientation.

An even larger number — 93 percent — believe that homophobia in soccer is not applicable.

The percent that want professional soccer players to come out, however is lower. Only 60 percent would like the gay footballers to reveal their sexual orientation. But of the 40 percent who said they should not, the main reason was that they believed it was a private matter.

—  David Taffet