مدونة ألوان

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هذه المدونة خاصة ب ألوان. نحن شبكة من المثليين والمثليات العرب نعيش في بلاد مختلفة في البلاد العربية والمهجر .

Arab Lesbian Women & Allies Network (ALWAAN) 's Blog

This is Alwaan 's Blog

Alwaan is an online network for Arab lesbians, gay men, bisexual men and women, transgender persons and those who are interested in building bridges with the LGBT Arab community.

Check out our Arab gay and lesbian videos website - also Arabic videos

تفضلوا وزوروا موقعنا الجديد
الكثير من الافلام الخاصة بالمثليين والمثليات

Thursday, February 18, 2010

New on Alwaandykes.com site جديد على موقع الوان

South Of Nowhere episode 1 season 1 


الحلقة الاولى من الموسم الاول
The show followed the lives of the members of the Carlin family (Paula, Arthur, Glen, Clay and Spencer) as they adjust to moving from Ohio to Los Angeles, California. One of the main focuses include the relationship between Spencer Carlin (Gabrielle Christian) and her openly gay friend, Ashley Davies (Mandy Musgrave).  The close friendship between the girls eventually led Spencer to question her own sexuality, a subject which created some controversy before the show's air date. It was the first series on The N to deal with such a subject relating to the main characters, and the first television show ever to have gay teenagers as the top-billed characters.this show has tackled edgy and realistic subject matters for a teen drama like homosexuality, racism, abortion, adoption, homophobia, drugs, teen drinking, drug dealing, teen pregnancy, death, hate crimes, arrest, infidelity, condoms, college, domestic violence, stress, stepfamilies, peer pressure, sex, military and religion.   
بامكانكم خلال هذا الاسبوع فقط مشاهدة الحلقة وتحميلها ايضا (تنزيلها على جهازكم)     ا
You can download the episode this week while it is on . We will try to keep it as long as possible but  space is limited and we have to delete the old material to put new ones
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هذه المدونة خاصة ب ألوان. نحن شبكة من المثليين والمثليات العرب نعيش في بلاد مختلفة في البلاد العربية والمهجر .

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

What the Gay Brain Looks Like

What the Gay Brain Looks Like

What the Gay Brain Looks Like

Michael Prince / Corbis

What makes people gay? Biologists may never get a complete answer to that question, but researchers in Sweden have found one more sign that the answer lies in the structure of the brain.
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute studied brain scans of 90 gay and straight men and women, and found that the size of the two symmetrical halves of the brains of gay men more closely resembled those of straight women than they did straight men. In heterosexual women, the two halves of the brain are more or less the same size. In heterosexual men, the right hemisphere is slightly larger. Scans of the brains of gay men in the study, however, showed that their hemispheres were relatively symmetrical, like those of straight women, while the brains of homosexual women were asymmetrical like those of straight men. The number of nerves connecting the two sides of the brains of gay men were also more like the number in heterosexual women than in straight men.
Just what these brain differences mean is still not clear. Ever since 1991, when Simon LeVay first documented differences in the hypothalamus of gay and straight men, researchers have been struggling to understand what causes these differences to occur. Until now, the brain regions that scientists have come to believe play a role in sexual orientation have been related to either reproduction or sexuality. The Swedish study, however, is the first to find differences in parts of the brain not normally involved in reproduction — the denser network of nerve connections, for example, was found in the amygdala, known as the emotional center of the brain. "The big question has always been, if the brains of gay men are different, or feminized, as earlier research suggests," says Dr. Eric Vilain, professor of human genetics at University of California Los Angeles, "then is it just limited to sexual preference or are there other regions that are gender atypical in gay males? For the first time, in this study it looks like there are regions of the brain not directly involved in sexuality that seem to be feminized in gay males."
Vilain, who studies the genetic factors behind sexuality and sexual orientation, notes that it may turn out that the brains of gay men possess only some 'feminized' structures, while retaining some masculine ones, and this is reflected in how they act on their sexuality. "We know from studies that men, regardless of their sexual orientation, retain masculine characteristics when it comes to their sexual behavior," he says. Both gay and straight men, for example, tend to prefer younger partners, in contrast to women, who gravitate toward older partners. Most men are also more likely than women to engage in casual sex, and to be aroused by visual stimuli. "So I expect that some regions of the brain will remain masculine even in gay men," says Vilain. For something as complex as sexual orientation, it's no surprise that everything from genes to gender to environment may play a role in ultimately determining your perfect partner.

Biological Bases of Homosexuality (part 2)

Biological Bases of Homosexuality (part 1)

1st part of a 60 minutes story about gay twins,siblings, and more. Very informative .

 

APA Rules Out Gay Conversion Therapy

Rachel Maddow-The story behind curing gays

Rachel Maddow-The story behind curing gays

Rachel Maddow takes down gay-to-straight conversion seminarist Richard Cohen (pt 2/2)

Part 2 of 2.
Rachel factually destroys a man whose teachings have essentially been debunked by essentially all national (and even state) psychological associations and associated peer-reviewed assessments.

A Gay Man’s Brain Looks a Lot Like a Straight Woman’s Brain

brain scansThe debate over the roots of homosexuality is possibly the most contentious manifestation of the “nature versus nurture” argument; gay rights advocates, gay rights opponents, and scientists have all joined the fray, advancing and criticizing different theories. With a new brain imaging study, the “nature” proponents seem to have gained a point in their favor.
Swedish researchers did MRI scans of 50 heterosexual men and women and 40 homosexual men and women and found surprising parallels. The brains of lesbians and straight men were anatomically symmetrical while the brains of gay men and straight women had a larger right brain hemisphere.
The researchers also looked at the amygdala, a part of the brain that’s associated with emotions, and found that straight women and gay men both have more connections between the amygdala and brain regions associated with anxiety and mood disorders. Meanwhile, the amygdala of lesbians and straight men had more connections to the region that controls fight or flight reactions.
These clear differences suggest that sexual orientation is determined by biology, not by social factors. The differences are likely to have been forged in the womb or in early infancy, says Ivanka Savic, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. “This is the most robust measure so far of cerebral differences between homosexual and heterosexual subjects,” she says.
Previous studies have also shown differences in brain architecture and activity between gay and straight people, but most relied on people’s responses to sexuality driven cues that could have been learned, such as rating the attractiveness of male or female faces [New Scientist]. In contrast, this new study looked at brain parameters like brain size that aren’t altered by learning.

The findings, which will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [subscription required] tomorrow, didn’t go so far as to suggest a cause for the brain differences between gay and straight folks. The researchers added that the study cannot say whether the differences in brain shape are inherited or due to exposure to hormones such as testosterone in the womb and if they are responsible for sexual orientation. But this is something they plan to look at in a further study of newborn babies to see if it can help predict future sexual orientation [Reuters].
Image: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Rachel Maddow takes down gay-to-straight conversion seminarist Richard Cohen (pt 1/2)

Part 1 of 2.
Rachel factually destroys a man whose teachings have essentially been debunked by essentially all national (and even state) psychological associations and associated peer-reviewed assessments.

Gay Conversion - USA

The Hour: Ex Gay

Psychiatrist and director Alicia Salzar talks about her film Abomination, which condemns the use of electro-shock therapy to turn gays straight.

Montel: Homosexuaity--Is There a Cure? pt 2

Montel: Homosexuaity--Is There a Cure?

Highlights of the show that aired on March 15, 2007. Guest included ex-gay survivor Lance Carroll, president of Exodus International, Alan Chambers.

Ex-Gay Survivors on Tyra

Gay Mormon dad, Steven Fales (http://www.mormonboy.com/) and ex-gay survivor, Peterson Toscano, tell some of their stories on for Tyra Banks

Bookmark and Share هذه المدونة خاصة ب ألوان. نحن شبكة من المثليين والمثليات العرب نعيش في بلاد مختلفة في البلاد العربية والمهجر .

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