3:13 The "I AM" standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
3:14 The "I AM" will enter into Judgment of the elders of His people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the share that belongs to the poor [is] in your houses.
3:15 What mean ye [that] ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the "I AM" Lord of hosts.
3:16 Moreover the "I AM" saith, Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing [as] they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
3:17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the "I AM" will lay bare their secret parts.
Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of My Knowledge:
because thou hast rejected My Knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou
shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten The Law of thy God, I will
also forget thy children.
4:7 As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: [therefore] will I change
their glory into shame.
Bible quotes from The King of kings' Bible
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Homosexual Sex Exploding With US Women
15 Fold Increase In 10 years
By Suzanne Rostler and E. J. Mundell
3-15-1
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Positive media images of gay life--like hit TV shows "Ellen" and "Will and Grace"--may be helping spur an increase in gay sexual activity among Americans, a new study suggests. A national survey has found the percentage of US women who say they recently had gay sex has increased 15-fold from 1988 to 1998, with rates among American men doubling over the same period.
"This is about people expressing who they are," said Cathy Renna, news media director of the watchdog group Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). She believes that "changes in the cultural environment have contributed to a culture where gay and lesbian people can be more safe, more comfortable and more self-accepting of who they are."
In her study, Amy C. Butler of the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, examined 1988-1998 data from the General Social Survey, a poll of adult Americans over the age of 18 conducted every two years by the National Opinion Research Center.
According to the survey, the number of men who said they had recently had gay
sex rose from 2% in 1988 to 4% in 1998, while rates among women climbed from
0.2% in 1988 to nearly 3% ten years later. The results are published in a recent
issue of the Journal of Sex Research.
While the study did not investigate the reasons behind the increase, Butler suggests in the report that positive images of gay people in the media and declining legal and economic barriers "may have made it easier for people to recognize their same-gender sexual interest and to act on it."
GLAAD's Renna agrees. "Having a show like "Will and Grace," "If These Walls Could Talk 2," or (other) films that are out there--that's a way to really reach people in an accessible, non-threatening way," she said in an interview with Reuters Health.
Changes in the nation's courtrooms and workplaces may also be fueling Americans' shift in attitude towards gay sexuality. Butler points out that the number of US companies providing domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples rose from six in 1990 to hundreds in 1999, for instance. In the meantime, gay and lesbian parents have been granted parental rights in several states and sodomy laws have been repealed in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
And over the last couple of decades women have gained more earning power, allowing them to support themselves and their families.
"Equalizing the earning potential of men and women may enable women to consider family structures and sexual partnerships that do not include men," Butler explains. In fact, women, but not men, were increasingly likely to report decreases in exclusively heterosexual relationships in the past five years. More than 90% of women said their sexual relationships were heterosexual only in 1988, compared with 86% of women in 1998.
"I think lesbian visibility is something that in particular has been increasing over the years," Renna said. "If you look at the years the study was done, 1997 was really a historical landmark in terms of "Ellen" and Ellen (Degeneres) coming out."
But while economic, social and legal constraints may be loosening, many gay individuals still face discrimination on a daily basis. One study cited in the report found that more than half of Americans believe that gay sex is "always wrong."
Butler cautions against interpreting the results as estimates of the percentage of people who are gay or lesbian, since some people may experiment with same-gender sex but still identify themselves as heterosexual.
SOURCE: Journal of Sex Research 2001;37:333-343.
