Great point Sandy, sadly too many women have been abused by men and it all boils down to a trust and a feeling safe issue. A womens group sounds good to me for those who would feel better having one.

The one thing I loved about what my niece told me about living waters was how the men stand on one side of the room and the women on the other and how they put the cross between the two, then the two sides meet in the middle and a healing process begins, it doesnt mean you will suddenly be straight from it all, it just means the hurt and pain from either side has a chance to be healed…..I think the guys apologise to the women that they hurt them as a gender and vice versa, they either hug or shake hands or do whatever they feel comfortable doing and God does the rest…..my niece has never looked back. The seminar went for a week.

Far out, this is an oldie ressurected 😀 cool, will have to think on this one 8)

Not really… Im not apart of the research team (I promised myself I’d never make homosexuality my career) and I just thought I would lend the people who are doing it a hand because I have ‘contacts’ 😆 and because I can’t leave well enough alone.

Assumptions are good if you can back them up with your experiences. We are looking for observable behaviours in everday life so if you were to say that, for example, gay men are more prone towards squealing in church (those responsible will remain nameless of course 😆 ) than lesbians I need to know why you assume this. The documentation on this kind of validity test is always extreemly light, its just a safegaurd again reseracher bias basically. None of it goes into the actual paper and doesn’t influence the findings in any way.

So… thats a long winded way of saying as long as you explain your assumptions you can format it anyway you’d like. I may edit a few things (personal comments, repitition) before I hand it over to my friends but that is no drama. I thought it would be fun to talk about and I thought Anthony you would jump at the chance since this is Sandy asking avb for his subjective experinces! Miracles do happen. 😆 😆

Also, the study is fighting against a myriad of other studies for funding from the university to go ahead, so there is a good chance it may never get beyond the theoretical stages. The more likley the study is to be accurate and make some kind of substantial contribution the better the chances of getting funds… so validity is crucial.

Thanks for that Anthony.

I think its my fate to always have gay men in my life and I’ll admitt that it is often a challenge. Different things tend to hold more value than others and I have often be caught saying “for goodness sake, why does that even matter?!” about something that holds alot of importnace to my father in particular. Combine the ‘gay factor’ with the usual father/daughter relationship and you have a recipie for both disaster and intense love.

I find it so interesting because its all so diverse. Its unwise to assume that ‘lesbians will act this way’ and ‘gay men will act this way’. Within the lesbian community there is still the distinction between butch and femme though the obvious role characterisation is not as socially acceptable or necessary these days. Still, I think the butch/femme dicotomy has some validity still in the personal realm, power is still often divided that way as it is in heterosexual relationships. So what drives a ‘butch lesbian’ with a more masculine gender identity is different to what drives a ‘femme lesbian’ with a feminine gender identity. In alot of cases it’s the beginning of a great relationship but not always compete understanding of each other.

So the does the distinction the have to be made between butch, femme and gay male in order for this study to sucessed? What about distinctions between men?

Gay and lesbian activities with the obvious exception of the Mardi Gras are usually seperate anyway. I don’t know much about the way F2b is structured but I would find walking into a room full of gay men intimidating esepically if the idea is to get emotionally intimate about personal aspects of your lives. Actually, reading a comment Maggie made previously about the lack of lesbian only social events I think that what she said gets truer and truer every year. The internet has taken over the lesbian community, esepically in terms of dating. There is less initial face to face interaction and less of a casual air to any club scene that does exist. I wince when people try and sterotype lesbians as all looking for their soulmate and pretty much sexless until they get there. Probably in the same way people wince about homosexual promiscuity but I think their is a great differnece in socialisation between gay men and lesbians.

You are always so much more susinct than I am! 😆 Forgive my ramblings. Thanks for your thoughts, anyone else have any comments?

I could go on all day but surprisingly Im never half as facinating to other people as I think I am… no idea why 😆 😆