Heterosexuals

A federal trial on same-sex marriage focused Wednesday on the similarities and differences between homosexual and heterosexual couples, with a psychology professor citing "remarkable similarities." Letitia Peplau, an expert on couple relationships, testified that studies have found that the quality of heterosexual and homosexual relationships was on average "the same" as measured by closeness, love and stability. "On average, same-sex couples and heterosexual couples are indistinguishable," said Peplau, a UCLA professor of social psychology called by attorneys for two same-sex couples who are trying to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that reinstated a state ban on same-sex marriage.

WASHINGTON - During last week's Supreme Court arguments on gay marriage, Justice Antonin Scalia asserted that "there's considerable disagreement" among experts over whether "raising a child in a single-sex family is harmful or not. " Two other justices agreed that gay parenting was a new and uncertain development. Those comments startled child development experts as well as advocates of gay marriage, because there is considerable research showing children of gay parents do not have more problems than others.

The Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Community Churches, the only religious denomination that primarily serves gays and lesbians, had decided to hold evangelistic rallies to appeal to heterosexuals. The Rev. Troy Perry, the denomination's founder, said the first rallies will be held late next year in Orange County, Dallas and Ft. Lauderdale. He also said that by 1993 a schedule will be established for six rallies a year.

Re "Gay marriage opponents attempt unusual tack," Jan. 27 Same-sex marriage opponents Paul D. Clement and Charles J. Cooper seem to have discovered a solution for the potential threat of "irresponsible procreation" posed by heterosexuals. The answer is clear: Only same-sex couples should procreate because they engage in "substantial advance planning. " Still, what to do with the millions of heterosexuals? Clement's and Cooper's answer is also clear: Heterosexuals, once married, will begin to act like homosexuals and also engage in "substantial advance planning.

Everybody who has HIV has it tough, Richard is saying, but maybe straights have it harder than gays. You feel more alone, he says, and people suspect you're lying when you say, no, I've never had sex with a man and, no, I don't shoot drugs. Jim, a Vietnam veteran, nods in empathy. "I told my mother," he says. "She was telling everybody I got Agent Orange. She didn't want anybody to think her son has AIDS."

Heterosexual sex has caused the infection of 75% of people with the AIDS virus worldwide, and such transmission of the virus is rising in Western countries, the World Health Organization said Monday. The majority of the heterosexually infected people are in the developing world, particularly in Africa, and it still remains only a small percentage of cases in North America and Europe, the Geneva-based U.N. agency said.

Once, being a never-married bachelor entering middle age was considered to be a pretty good gig. There were romantic role models: the sophisticated Henry Higgins, the dashing James Bond. That all-time good guy, Superman. Lifelong bachelors, at 40, were considered rugged individualists, urbane, worldly, self-aware, blissfully free, with unlimited options. They were even objects of envy.

The Crystal Cathedral church in Garden Grove is involved in another controversy, this time over a covenant that choir members were asked to sign stating that God intends sex to be between married heterosexuals. "Crystal Cathedral ministries believes that it is important to teach and model the biblical view," reads the paragraph in the Crystal Cathedral Worship Choir and Worship Team Covenant that has raised the ire of some choir members. "I understand that Crystal Cathedral Ministries teaches that sexual intimacy is intended by God to only be within the bonds of marriage, between one man and one woman.

Rob Hershman's colleagues at "48 Hours" began to suspect something was amiss with the veteran CBS News producer last September. "A couple of people mentioned it to me: 'Hershman's not pulling his weight,' " says Andrew Heyward, executive producer of "48 Hours." "I made a mental note to check with him." But before his boss even had a chance to ask, Hershman, 39, raised the issue himself. "He asked for a meeting. He told me he had AIDS and that he was physically deteriorating," Heyward says.

Given the history of sexual misconduct by members of the military, maybe we should ban heterosexuals from the service. RICHARD HALLABRIN San Diego

In an action hailed by gay rights activists as a turning point in a solidly conservative state, a bill that would allow same-sex couples most of the legal rights of heterosexual couples cleared a Wyoming subcommittee by a 7-2 vote and is headed to consideration in the full House. The sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Cathy Connolly of Laramie, is the first openly gay representative in Wyoming. She is one of only eight Democrats in the 60-member House. "We passed the first step, but it's a big step," Connolly said in an interview.

As the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationweighs approval of a radical new method of AIDS prevention - a prescription pill taken once a day - advocates say the results of experimental trials in sub-Saharan Africa argue strongly for the drug's adoption in the United States. The pill was developed to treat people already infected with HIV. But studies published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrate that it can also prevent heterosexual transmission of HIV, the most common mode of contagion in Africa.

Without Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine and its philosophy of unfettered heterosexual hedonism through stimulation of all the senses, there would have been no LeRoy Neiman. Usually mischaracterized as simply a sports artist, he was actually much more than that. Neiman was the painter of the "Playboy Philosophy. " To be more specific, he was the artist for Playboy readers afraid that liking art was gay. Obituaries of the artist, who died Wednesday in New York City at 91, have duly noted his friendship with Hefner and longtime work for the magazine, starting in 1954.

Taking a daily pill containing either one or two anti-HIV drugs can reduce transmission of the virus by as much as three-quarters among heterosexual couples, two studies in Africa have shown — a breakthrough finding that promises to intensify a new focus on AIDS prevention. The results were so compelling that the larger study was halted early and the drugs given to all the participants, researchers said Wednesday. In the absence of a vaccine to protect against the virus, this new approach, termed pre-exposure prophylaxis, may be the best hope for slowing or even halting the spread of the deadly plague throughout the developing world.

Democrats introduced legislation Wednesday that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a renewed attack on the 15-year-old law the Obama administration has said it would no longer defend in court from challenges brought on behalf of same-sex couples. The legislation comes as the Republican-led House has initiated its own legal defense of the act, which prevents gay couples from receiving various federal rights that are extended to heterosexual couples. "It is time to right this wrong," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)

The Crystal Cathedral church in Garden Grove is involved in another controversy, this time over a covenant that choir members were asked to sign stating that God intends sex to be between married heterosexuals. "Crystal Cathedral ministries believes that it is important to teach and model the biblical view," reads the paragraph in the Crystal Cathedral Worship Choir and Worship Team Covenant that has raised the ire of some choir members. "I understand that Crystal Cathedral Ministries teaches that sexual intimacy is intended by God to only be within the bonds of marriage, between one man and one woman.

The "Clipboard" page Nov. 25 on AIDS provided me with some very interesting facts, which are diametrically opposite to what I have been hearing from the media and various AIDS groups. For example, from the tabulated figures "through Sept. 30, 1989," I calculated that 223 of 255 (87.5%) of the county's AIDS cases are homosexual and bisexual men. Am I really expected to believe the pitch that AIDS is not a "gay" disease? The Surgeon General tells us we need condoms because heterosexuals are at just as much risk of AIDS as are homosexuals, but how many heterosexuals in the table have AIDS?

Re "State Court Upholds Firing of Gay Scout Leader," May 23: It is troubling to read that some Boy Scout leaders believe that promoting prejudging, ignorance and discrimination is helpful in the stated goal "to promote citizenship training, character and personal fitness." They may have a right to do it, but to those of us who know that some of the finest examples of citizenship, morality and character are the gay men and women that we know, it is appalling that anyone would use such useless criteria as sexual orientation to determine job qualifications.

The Premise Dr. Nicole Allgood (Annette Bening) and her partner, Jules (Julianne Moore), have taken a non-traditional route to family life. The couple met in the ER when Nic, who is now an attending gynecologist, was a resident at UCLA and Jules was a patient with facial numbness. They became lovers, and when they decided to have children they went to a sperm bank, and each gave birth to a child using the same sperm donor. Flash forward several years, and their son, Laser (Josh Hutcherson)

Sexually speaking, Americans are mixing it up a good deal more than they have in the past. The first comprehensive snapshot of Americans' sexual activity in almost two decades suggests a social landscape changed by HIV and AIDS and by an increasingly open national conversation about sexual acts other than plain old intercourse. Across the lifespan, Americans report they are masturbating, alone or with a partner, engaging in oral sex and experimenting with same-gender sex more often than they owned up to in the 1980s, according to a study released Monday.