In Brief

Staff Reports

See Someone You're Attracted To? Study Says Your Pupils Reveal Sexual Orientation

ITHACA, NY -- Researchers at Cornell University published a study Friday last week in the scientific journal PLoS ONE revealing that people watching erotic videos had their pupils widen the most watching persons whom participants found attractive. The scientists utilised a specialized infrared lens to measure pupillary changes revealing where participants were on the sexual spectrum from heterosexual to homosexual.

Previous research assessed sexual orientation by either by simply asking people about their sexuality, or by using physiological measures such as assessing their genital arousal. These methods, however, come with substantial problems.

"We wanted to find an alternative measure that would be an automatic indication of sexual orientation, but without being as invasive as previous measures. Pupillary responses are exactly that," says Gerulf Rieger, lead author and research fellow at Cornell. 

"With this new technology we are able to explore sexual orientation of people who would never participate in a study on genital arousal, such as people from traditional cultures. This will give us a much better understanding how sexuality is expressed across the planet."

According to the study, heterosexual men showed strong pupillary responses to sexual videos of women, and little to men; heterosexual women, however, showed pupillary responses to both sexes. This confirms prior research suggesting that women have a very different type of sexuality than men.

This new study also feeds into the debate on male bisexuality. Previous it was argued that a large segment of bisexual men do not base their sexual orientation on physiological arousal but on romantic and identity issues. However, the bisexual men in the new study showed substantial pupil dilations to sexual videos of both men and women.

"We can now finally argue that a flexible sexual desire is not simply restricted to women -- some men have it, too, and it is reflected in their pupils," says Ritch C. Savin-Williams, co-author and professor in Human Development at Cornell.

"In fact, not even a division into 'straight,' 'bi,' and 'gay' tells the full story. Men who identity as 'mostly straight' really exist both in their identity and their pupil response; they are more aroused to males than straight men, but much less so than both bisexual and gay men," Savin-Williams notes.

Jon Stryker, Photo courtesy of the Arcus Foundation

Progressive Billionaire Donates $325K To Fight Proposed Minnesota Same-Sex Marriage Ban

ST. PAUL, MN -- Jon Stryker, chairman of the Arcus Foundation, which supports groups advancing LGBTQ human rights and social justice, has donated $325,000 to assist in the campaign to oppose a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Minnesota.

Stryker gave the money to Freedom to Marry Minnesota's political action committee on Tuesday, according to Minnesota state campaign finance records.

The contribution comes a day after the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign pledged to sink $1 million into four states where voters will consider gay marriage ballot measures. The group is donating $250,000 to Minnesota opponents of the gay marriage ban.

Freedom to Marry is a coalition partner of Minnesotans United for All Families, the main organization working to defeat the constitutional gay marriage prohibition.

Stryker, who is a trained American architect, philanthropist and activist for social and environmental causes is heir to the medical supply company Stryker Corporation, founded by his late grandfather Homer Hartmen Stryker.

Fired Michigan Prosecutor To Face Jury In Civil Lawsuit Brought In Alleged Stalking & Defamation Case

Chris Armstrong, (Left) and Andrew Shirvell

DETROIT, MI -- Jury selection began Tuesday in U. S. District Court in Detroit Tuesday in a civil lawsuit against a former Assistant Attorney General of Michigan, who stands accused of stalking and defaming a gay former student government leader at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Attorney Deborah Gordon, who represents the former UM student, Chris Armstrong, who graduated in 2011, told media outlets that she would drop the case if ex-Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell apologized. Instead, Shirvell refused claiming that Armstrong pursued a “course of action” against him “to make an example out of (me) in order to deter others from criticizing (Armstrong’s) homosexual activist agenda.”

In April of 2011, Armstrong filed the suit against Shirvell, seeking more than $25,000 in damages. Armstrong’s suit claims Shirvell “developed a bizarre personal obsession” with him in early 2010 after claiming the student was a radical homosexual activist.

Shirvell used his blog to continuously attack and harass Armstrong, calling him a “racist, elitist and liar,” and “Satan’s representative on the student assembly.”

Shirvell now lives in North Babylon, N.Y. He says his statements were true or protected because Armstrong was a public figure.

In November 2010, Shirvell was fired for “abusing” the powers of his office.

At the time of his firing, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said, via a press release, that Shirvell was guilty of conduct unbecoming of a state law enforcement official and utilizing state resources to persecute and harass Armstrong.

The state bar’s Attorney Grievance Commission is also investigating Shirvell’s actions because Armstrong has also filed an ethics complaint seeking his disbarment.

Prop 8 Organizers Face $49K in Fines By California Fair Political Practice Commission

SACRAMENTO, CA -- The California Fair Political Practice Commission ordered the campaigns against who worked on the successful state ballot initiative banning Same-Sex marriages- ProtectMarriage.com: Yes on 8- to pay $49,000 in fines Monday after failing to report some of the contributions received for the campaign. ProtectMarriage.com also did not report several donations over $5,000, and failed to properly dispose of an anonymous $10,000 contribution.

According to the enforcement staff of the commission, the two groups representing the opponents of same-sex marriage failed to properly file public reports disclosing late contributions and contributions over $5,000. The commission's staff found that more than $1 million in contributions were not properly reported. In total, the anti equality groups campaign committee faces 18 counts of violating California campaign finance laws.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the campaign committee has admitted to the violations and agreed to the fines, but the FPPC will consider its staff recommendation at an Aug. 16 meeting.

Proposition 8, which limited marriage to a man and a woman, was approved by California voters but struck down by a federal appeals court. Andy Pugno, an attorney who has represented the campaign committee, was not immediately available for comment.