When I first began trying to peek into lesbian life, there weren’t very many places to go for information.  Today there are many ways to get information, to help young lesbians through the early years of identification and acceptance.  I had met a few lesbians in my teen years.  My parents paid for private tennis lessons one summer, and the instructor, Marion, was a lesbian.  I didn’t know it at the time, and I didn’t feel an attraction to her then, but I worked out the details later.

I had been taking lessons for at least a few weeks.  She was living in a spare bedroom in a fancy house in what was the wealthiest part of town, and the house had its own tennis court where we met for my weekly lessons.  The woman who lived in the house was in the middle of a divorce and needed income, so she rented out the space.

When I first began trying to peek into lesbian life, there weren’t very many places to go for information.  Today there are many ways to get information, to help young lesbians through the early years of identification and acceptance.  I had met a few lesbians in my teen years.  My parents paid for private tennis lessons one summer, and the instructor, Marion, was a lesbian.  I didn’t know it at the time, and I didn’t feel an attraction to her then, but I worked out the details later.

I had been taking lessons for at least a few weeks.  She was living in a spare bedroom in a fancy house in what was the wealthiest part of town, and the house had its own tennis court where we met for my weekly lessons.  The woman who lived in the house was in the middle of a divorce and needed income, so she rented out the space.

Big Love–the story of a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon family–is a great show.  I just can’t get enough of it.  I grew up among Mormons and attended the church with friends from time to time.  My parents joined up for several years.  And I understand that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has made some noise about exposing sacred rituals on the program and not getting the facts just exactly right.  The show is not really about religion at all; it’s about trying to live the life one chooses within the confines of strict American social structures.  It’s about us.

The show centers around one family, the Henricksons, consisting of Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) and his three wives, Barbara (wonderfully played by Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicole (Golden Globe winner Chloe Sevigny), and the exuberant Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin).  Bill’s first wife, Barb, has had cancer and lost the equipment for child-bearing, and according to the show, LDS people believe large families are essential in the afterlife; they are a duty as well as a joy.  Bill and Barb must find another way to expand their family.  They just don’t have the equipment to do it themselves, just like us.  Each wife lives in a separate home in Utah, side by side in suburban America, and their offspring range in age from infants to age 18.  Behind the three homes, three yards merge into one, and the territory is filled with life and activity.  Bill and Nicole came from Juniper Creek, a compound housing a more radical sect that promotes polygamy and arranges marriages for girls, many of whom are still minors.  Compound members are often caricatures, manipulative and malignant or extremely naïve.   It is a culture of its own.

Big Love–the story of a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon family–is a great show.  I just can’t get enough of it.  I grew up among Mormons and attended the church with friends from time to time.  My parents joined up for several years.  And I understand that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has made some noise about exposing sacred rituals on the program and not getting the facts just exactly right.  The show is not really about religion at all; it’s about trying to live the life one chooses within the confines of strict American social structures.  It’s about us.

The show centers around one family, the Henricksons, consisting of Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) and his three wives, Barbara (wonderfully played by Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicole (Golden Globe winner Chloe Sevigny), and the exuberant Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin).  Bill’s first wife, Barb, has had cancer and lost the equipment for child-bearing, and according to the show, LDS people believe large families are essential in the afterlife; they are a duty as well as a joy.  Bill and Barb must find another way to expand their family.  They just don’t have the equipment to do it themselves, just like us.  Each wife lives in a separate home in Utah, side by side in suburban America, and their offspring range in age from infants to age 18.  Behind the three homes, three yards merge into one, and the territory is filled with life and activity.  Bill and Nicole came from Juniper Creek, a compound housing a more radical sect that promotes polygamy and arranges marriages for girls, many of whom are still minors.  Compound members are often caricatures, manipulative and malignant or extremely naïve.   It is a culture of its own.

Most if not all behavior has genetic underpinnings.  There is just no question about it.  Psychologists’ take on the causes of homosexuality has not changed much in recent years.  Studies examining fraternal and identical twins indicate that genes are part of the equation.  If one of a pair of identical twins is gay, the likelihood that the other twin is also gay is much higher than for fraternal twins.  If the roots are entirely genetic, both fraternal twins would invariably be gay barring mutation.

Human sexuality is fluid; no two people are alike in how they view people of the opposite sex and people of the same sex.  It has long been known that human sexuality is a continuum of sorts.  There are people who feel they are 100% homosexual.  They never feel attraction to members of the opposite sex, and they have had no heterosexual experiences at all, but that’s rare. Similarly, there are people who feel no attraction to members of the same sex and have never had homosexual experiences.  But these are outliers on the bell curve, extremes that are far less common than people who fall somewhere in between.

Most if not all behavior has genetic underpinnings.  There is just no question about it.  Psychologists’ take on the causes of homosexuality has not changed much in recent years.  Studies examining fraternal and identical twins indicate that genes are part of the equation.  If one of a pair of identical twins is gay, the likelihood that the other twin is also gay is much higher than for fraternal twins.  If the roots are entirely genetic, both fraternal twins would invariably be gay barring mutation.

Human sexuality is fluid; no two people are alike in how they view people of the opposite sex and people of the same sex.  It has long been known that human sexuality is a continuum of sorts.  There are people who feel they are 100% homosexual.  They never feel attraction to members of the opposite sex, and they have had no heterosexual experiences at all, but that’s rare. Similarly, there are people who feel no attraction to members of the same sex and have never had homosexual experiences.  But these are outliers on the bell curve, extremes that are far less common than people who fall somewhere in between.

I’d like to welcome new writer Leslie Basden to AWOP’s GLBTQ page.  Leslie is a writer and a substance abuse counselor who works primarily with male inmates and parolees coming through the criminal justice system.  She resides with her long time partner (and now spouse) and is second mother to their grown daughter.

I admit that I’m still reeling from the voters’ setting aside of equal marriage rights for Maine citizens exactly as California voters did in 2008.  Maine even blocked the implementation of equal rights until citizens had an opportunity to vote on the question.  In California, thousands of marriages took place during 2008, and mine was one of them.  When California took up the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the west coast version of Maine’s Question 1, the California Supreme Court refused to annul the same-sex marriages that took place while it was legal in that state.  Eighteen thousand same-sex California couples tied the knot in 2008.

I’d like to welcome new writer Leslie Basden to AWOP’s GLBTQ page.  Leslie is a writer and a substance abuse counselor who works primarily with male inmates and parolees coming through the criminal justice system.  She resides with her long time partner (and now spouse) and is second mother to their grown daughter.

I admit that I’m still reeling from the voters’ setting aside of equal marriage rights for Maine citizens exactly as California voters did in 2008.  Maine even blocked the implementation of equal rights until citizens had an opportunity to vote on the question.  In California, thousands of marriages took place during 2008, and mine was one of them.  When California took up the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the west coast version of Maine’s Question 1, the California Supreme Court refused to annul the same-sex marriages that took place while it was legal in that state.  Eighteen thousand same-sex California couples tied the knot in 2008.