Sweat scent preference suggests gay men's brains differ
A new study shows that gay men's brains respond differently from those of heterosexual males when exposed to a suspected sexual stimulus.
New sweat scent study suggests gay men's brains differ from straight men when exposed to pheromones, a suspected sexual stimulus.
For the study, 82 straight and gay men and women were asked to sniff underarm sweat collected from 24 donors of different gender and sexual orientation.
The study, which was published in the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the preferences of gay men were strikingly different from those of heterosexual men and women, and lesbian women.
Pheromones are important to attraction in people of different sexual orientation. In many animals, pheromones are a major force driving sexual attraction, and there is some evidence they might also play a role in human mate-selection.
The findings suggest that brain activity and sexual orientation are linked. "Our findings support the contention that gender preference has a biological component that is reflected in both the production of different body odours and in the perception of and response to body odours," said neuroscientist Charles Wysocki, who led the study.
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Hong Kong gay group to organise march on May 16 to mark International Day Against Homophobia
The Tongzhi Community Joint Meeting (TCJM) of Hong Kong, a coalition of gay and lesbian activist groups, are organising a march next Monday, May 16, a public holiday in the territory to mark the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO).
The first IDAHO is scheduled to take place on 17 May 2005, the 15th anniversary of the day the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders and is a new initiative of Louis-Georges Tin, editor of the Dictionnaire de l'homophobie (Presses Universitaires de France, 2003). Its goal is to articulate action and reflection in order to combat all physical, moral or symbolic violence related to sexual orientation or gender identity.
Organisers hope for a turnout of some 200 to 300 people to join the march at Causeway Bay.
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Mayor Jim West, who was known to be a strong opponent of gay rights legislation, last week denied the decades-old molestation allegations but acknowledged he had visited a gay online chat room and had relations with adult men.
James West, the mayor of Spokane, Washington's second-largest city after Seattle, has taken a leave of absence to prepare to defend himself against a newspaper's allegations of recent abuse of office and decades-old child molestation.
A federal prosecutor confirmed yesterday that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an inquiry into a possible "public corruption" case involving accusations that the Republican mayor offered city jobs to young men he met online.
Well known for opposing gay rights including barring gays and lesbians from working in schools and day-care centers in 1986, the 54-year-old former state legislator was accused by a local paper of offering city jobs to two young men he met through a gay Internet chat room and that one of them briefly accepted a city appointment.
The Spokesman-Review, which broke the story last Thursday, said it spent three years devising and activating the covert operation to test rumours that the city's mayor was being less than truthful about his politics. It also reported last week that West had sexually abused two boys 25 years ago, when they were members of his Boy Scout troop.
The newspaper also said that West had tried to arrange a sexual liaison with a "17-year-old high school student," who was in fact an IT consultant hired by the newspaper, on a major gay web site.
After the stories appeared, West acknowledged in his statement that he had been leading "a double life" as a homosexual, but denied the newspaper's molestation claims. Several prominent Spokane politicians have called for West's resignation, including a member of the city council and a former county prosecutor.
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