Sexual Orientation

Last month, Sen. John McCain dropped by “Saturday Night Live,” drawing laughs from his promise, if elected president, to fight expensive federal projects -- such as, he spoofed, a Department of Defense device to "jam gaydar." That was a joke. But some scientists are, in a way, working on gaydar, the supposed ability to discern whether a person is homosexual by reading subtle cues from their appearance. Just don't refer to it that way. The preferred term is "sexual orientation correlates."

California's state colleges and universities are laying plans to ask students about their sexual orientation next year on application or enrollment forms, becoming the largest group of schools in the country to do so. The move has raised the hopes of gay activists for recognition but the concerns of others about privacy. The questions, which students could answer voluntarily, would be posed because of a little-known state law aimed at gauging the size of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)

Hong Seok-cheon stands beaming before an adoring studio audience. It's a place he has always felt at home - basking in the celebrity spotlight. For years, the veteran actor has been an instantly recognizable media personality here, famous as the onetime host of a children's show that was South Korea's version of "Sesame Street" and costar of a popular 1990s sitcom. But on this Saturday afternoon, the slender 41-year-old with the signature shaved head is playing himself, an out-of-the-closet gay man talking about what it's like to be a pariah in a conservative society where 77% of Koreans in one poll said they believed "homosexuality should be rejected.

State lawmakers may have had the best of intentions when they approved legislation last year to require that California judges be asked in an annual demographic survey about their sexual orientation. The goal was to assess diversity on the bench. Instead, the Legislature has inappropriately and ineffectively intruded into the private lives of judges. A good portion of the judiciary seems to think so too. Answering all or any of the survey questions is optional, and 40% of those who responded opted not to answer the question about sexual orientation, according to the recently released survey, which also queried jurists about their race, ethnicity and gender.

Each year in the United States, perhaps a few dozen pregnant women learn they are carrying a fetus at risk for a rare disorder known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The condition causes an accumulation of male hormones and can, in females, lead to genitals so masculinized that it can be difficult at birth to determine the baby's gender. A hormonal treatment to prevent ambiguous genitalia can now be offered to women who may be carrying such infants. It's not without health risks, but to its critics those are of small consequence compared with this notable side effect: The treatment might reduce the likelihood that a female with the condition will be homosexual.

There was nothing complicated about that photograph of Elena Kagan, the one that showed her standing at bat on a playground diamond. Maybe if she had been kicking a soccer ball or diving off the high board, there wouldn't have been as much fuss. But the Supreme Court nominee's sexual orientation was already the stuff of rumors, given that she was single and kept her hair short. Her supporters accused conservatives of trying to damage her chances by whispering that she was gay. Adding softball to the conversation only amped up the volume, all those bloggers and television commentators, and the White House was compelled to reiterate that Kagan was heterosexual.

Gay historian Jonathan Ned Katz, whose book "The Invention of Heterosexuality" asserts that sexual orientation is a societal construction rather than an "immutable, normal feature of human behavior," will speak tonight at Cal State Northridge. The talk will be drawn from the book, which was published last year. In the book, Katz tracks a century's worth of societal views of heterosexuality to prove it is "an invented tradition."

Re "Equal Protection for the Last Outcasts," Commentary, Feb. 27: The belief that homosexual behaviors are the result of an unalterable condition over which one has no choice is not based on science or everyday experience. People are constantly changing their sexual behaviors. Whatever you might believe about the origins or nature of homosexual feelings, people always have choices about their behavior and lifestyle. The attempt to define homosexuality as a class of people to be protected against discrimination does not help people accept their homosexual feelings.

A federal judge who will decide the constitutionality of California's ban on same-sex marriage wants lawyers during closing arguments Wednesday to discuss the meaning of "choice" in sexual orientation and a possible finding that Proposition 8 attempted to "enforce private morality." Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who has been presiding over the federal marriage trial in San Francisco, sent lawyers a list of 39 questions he wants addressed when the trial ends Wednesday after four hours of closing arguments.

California's state colleges and universities are laying plans to ask students about their sexual orientation next year on application or enrollment forms, becoming the largest group of schools in the country to do so. The move has raised the hopes of gay activists for recognition but the concerns of others about privacy. The questions, which students could answer voluntarily, would be posed because of a little-known state law aimed at gauging the size of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 91 to 6 to confirm Los Angeles attorney Michael W. Fitzgerald to a seat on the federal court for Central California, making him the first openly gay federal jurist in the state and one of a few in the nation. Fitzgerald, 52, was nominated by President Obama eight months ago, but his confirmation was held up by partisan wrangling in the upper house that also has blocked appointments to 20 other vacant federal judgeships. The gay community hailed Fitzgerald's confirmation as a milestone for sexual orientation diversity in the federal courts.

The results are in. Of the 1,005 California judges who responded to a government survey released last week, 969 identified themselves as heterosexual, 19 as lesbians and 17 as gay men. We know this - though it's none of our business - because of a highly intrusive law passed by the Legislature last year. Under its provisions, every judge in the state, as well as all judicial applicants, nominees and appointees, is asked to provide information about his or her "gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Even as Washington state has celebrated the passage of a new law legalizing same-sex marriage, lawmakers in nearby Idaho have so far slammed the door on a grass-roots campaign to outlaw discrimination in housing, jobs and education based on sexual orientation. At an emotional session last month in the Senate State Affairs Committee - where onlookers were in tears and the Democratic sponsor of the measure had to pause half a minute just to get his voice back - most Republican senators voted without comment against even printing the bill, preventing its introduction for hearings, discussions and a vote.

Hong Seok-cheon stands beaming before an adoring studio audience. It's a place he has always felt at home - basking in the celebrity spotlight. For years, the veteran actor has been an instantly recognizable media personality here, famous as the onetime host of a children's show that was South Korea's version of "Sesame Street" and costar of a popular 1990s sitcom. But on this Saturday afternoon, the slender 41-year-old with the signature shaved head is playing himself, an out-of-the-closet gay man talking about what it's like to be a pariah in a conservative society where 77% of Koreans in one poll said they believed "homosexuality should be rejected.

Former “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon says she is gay by “choice” - a statement that has riled many gay rights activitists who insist that people don't choose their sexual orientation. Here's what Nixon, who recently shaved her head to play a cancer patient in a Broadway production of “Wit,” told the New York Times Magazine: “I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line 'I've been straight and I've been gay, and gay is better.' And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice.

To say that "Albert Nobbs," starring Glenn Close as a woman passing as a man in 19th century Ireland, is a portrait of conflicted soul doesn't begin to touch the murky depths of the difficult character that is the pale center of this painful-to-watch film. Though sexual orientation is a theme the film tackles in ways both substantial and slight, that's not really the question where Nobbs is concerned. A "boy" who turned up at a hotel looking for work at 14 and grew into the nearly invisible butler we meet 30 years later, Nobbs seems so socially awkward, so scarred by a rape, as to have no sexual inclinations at all. The period piece unfolds in a rather posh Dublin hotel with plenty of upstairs-downstairs antics, a dose of typhoid fever, a range of assignations and all the personalities that would suggest.

"All Over the Guy" is a romantic comedy of wit and substance that actor-writer Dan Bucatinsky and director Julie Davis have moved gracefully from stage to screen with a change of title and sexual orientation. Bucatinsky starred in his play "I Know You Are, but What Am I?" with Nicole Tocantins. In the screen version he's paired with Richard Ruccolo.

Ford Motor Co. shareholders will decide whether to amend the company's equal employment policy to exclude sexual orientation after the Securities and Exchange Commission denied Ford's request to keep the issue off its proxy statement, the automaker said. Ford's policy now says the company won't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, religion and other factors. A shareholder proposed Ford exclude any reference to sexual interests, activities or orientation in its policy.

Noodles may be flung. At the Geffen Playhouse, actors Geoffrey Nauffts and Betsy Brandt are rehearsing a tense hospital scene in "Next Fall. " A box of Chinese takeout — not to mention tempers — is about to fly. Director Sheryl Kaller isn't sure they can make the noodle bit work. It will be Nauffts' call in the end; after all, he wrote the play. After a successful 2010 Broadway run featuring Patrick Breen in the role, Nauffts is finally playing Adam, a character suspiciously close to Nauffts' own personality, in the West Coast premiere of his Tony-nominated drama.

Reporting from Las Vegas -- The New Hampshire Army National Guard is holding a yellow ribbon seminar this week for soldiers returning from the Middle East to help them and their families adjust to life back home, but Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan's partner of 11 years isn't welcome. Morgan, a lesbian who returned from a deployment in Kuwait in August, said her partner is barred from the family support services, healthcare coverage and housing provided to non-gay spouses of service members.