Alex: I thought it was interesting that they found lesbians are not discriminated against when compared with heterosexual women.

"He said although negative attitudes toward lesbians could affect them, lesbians may actually benefit from the perception that they are more career-focused and less likely to leave the labor market to raise children than heterosexual women."

I don't dispute their findings, but Paula at Queercents and Liza at LesbianFamily.org both posted articles (linked above) about how the earnings of lesbian households still come up short when compared to straight couples. The numbers are staggering.

Pretty useless study; it should be no surprise to anyone that besides transgender individuals, male homosexuals are the next most disliked sexual minority, far more so than lesbians. History has revealed it; lesbians faced much more lenient punishments, if any, compared to gay men. What some people miss about this, though, is the sexist element in this situation. People do not understand just how intertwined sexism and homophobia are.

Lesbians are not seen as harshly because in the eyes of heterosexuals, one of them assumes the stronger male role; there is no degradation. Sure, one is usurping the male position, but at least it's a grasp for superiority. With males, though, it's seen as abasing; one of them will be penetrated, an act solely reserved for the submissive feminine. The man is weakening himself by being associated with an effeminizing act, therefore incurring the ire of the patriarchal establishment; he needs to be put in place, to man up.

Straight men don't dislike us just because we like men. They dislike us because we're "somebody's bitch." Males possess, females are possessed. They see us as threatening because either we want to possess them, thus emasculating them, or we misrepresent their beloved, proud gender by letting someone shove their cock, a symbol of power and conquest, up some orifice of ours.

Wow, I have to admit I am surprised. I don't know why...I guess I fell for the propaganda. And my personal experience mirrors sorta what the propaganda said. When I divorced my ex (who was a closeted gay man at the time) as a woman, my income fell drastically. The large disparity in his and my incomes has remained true through 20+ years, my transition to live as a man, and his entry into a long-term relationship with a man (which has endured now longer than he and I were together). Moreover, I'm the one with a master's degree: he doesn't even have a college degree! Though he does work in the lucrative field of IT.

Of course, I'm comparing his experience as a coupled gay man to mine as a queer identified FtM: hardly the scenario suggested by the study!

I always found it interesting how Whitick Colmes (sp?) would talk about how much disposable income gays and lesbians had, while on the other end NGLTF putting out polling about how poverty stricken gays and lesbians were (in 96, I believe).