i'm a pixel here, myself

I don't know how many of you have seen it, but there was a very long article on, basically, [The Gays Marrying Young] in the NYT magazine this weekend. I'm all, I dunno. Choked up? That's the life *I* wanted at 22 (okay, not the overly stylized 50's-era couple-at-home portraits, though I admit they're cute), and, for the most part, still do.

Ugh, self-image issues. Why is it so much easier for conventionally attractive people to meet and couple? Grr.

[This] is fascinating. And contains a lot of information about gayness and development than i ever knew. It also (inadvertently, possibly) backs up my distrust of bisexuality -- when you test what gender men's genitals respond to, they only have one: men or women, not both. (Yes, yes, exceptions to every rule, etc.)

On the subject of the "causes" of sexuality, I'm pretty firmly in the "lots of factors" camp. I think there's a large genetic component, considerable influence from hormones in utero, and at least a little influence from the way you were raised. Still, for whatever reason, I love reading stuff like this.

Well, I haven't seen anything about it on my flist so far, so:

[NJ Supreme Court requires outcome of gay marriage, stops short of requiring title 'marriage']. For those legal scholars among you, the opinion (with a v.v. brief analysis before it) is [here] (warning: PDF). Excerpt from the Times article:

The State Supreme Court in New Jersey said today that same-sex couples are entitled to "the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes."

But the court, in its 4-3 ruling, said that whether that status should be called marriage, or something else, “is a matter left to the democratic process.”

The court’s eagerly awaited decision found that an arrangement akin to that in Vermont, which authorizes civil unions between same-sex couples but does not call them marriages, would satisfy the New Jersey constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

The court gave the legislature a six-month deadline to enact the necessary legislation to provide for same-sex unions with rights equal to those of married couples.

Who wants to bet that this'll have a nonnegligible impact on the election?

ETA: [Congressman Barney Frank (gay, D-MA) blasts the hypocrisy of closeted gay Republicans] I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about outing, but I do know that I feel the a venomous rage at the hypocrisy of closeted Republican Congresspeople -- advancing an agenda of demonization while taking advantage of their power and privilege to do in their own homes the same things they demonize in others.