Gay Penguins Must Mate for Survival

Pedro and Buddy came to the Toronto Zoo this year from Pittsburgh's National Avairy to "pair bond" (aka get hooked up with a couple females). Instead of pursuing the eligible females, Pedro and Buddy became quite the love birds. The cute couple were snuggling, calling to each other, and displaying courtship behaviour. Cute, right? Well until the fact that these African penguins are flirting with extinction...

The Toronto Zoo has decided to isolate the pair for the sake of their species survival. Mr. Mason, curator of birds and invertebrates at the Toronto Zoo, explains the following:

“The two girls have been following them; we just have to get the boys interested in looking at them... If [Pedro and Buddy] weren’t genetically important, then we’d let them do their thing"

They want to be clear that their separation of the homosexual penguins is by no means trying to be anti-gay. The zoo simply cannot afford to go a season without passing on the penguins' genes.

I am curious to see if the males will even be interested in the females. Thoughts?

Article source

I promise to love you in sickness and in health, until 2013.

Sounding much like an informercial, Leonel Luna from the Democratic Revolution essentially wants to give couples a test run of their marriage without having them commit to "until death do us part" right off the bat. Out of 33,000 couples that tied the knot in Mexico City in the past 2 years, approximately 16,000 filed for divorce. Knowing the financial setback a failed marriage creates, Luna introduced a bill to Mexico City's legislative assembly.

"Under Luna's bill, couples would sign a marriage contract that would last two years. Once that term was over, the couple would have the option to renew. The contract would specify if property is owned by both spouses or separately. It would also state who would get custody of the children, if any, and how benefits would be distributed." -CNN

As you could imagine, the two-year marriage bill is causing quite the controversy especially in a country with the second largest catholic population in the world. This clearly goes against their values. Take a look at the CNN report to learn more about the reasoning behind proposing this bill.

What do you think about having a 2 year marriage contract implemented?

For the full article click here

I Heart New York

Gay couples lined up outside the city's marriage bureau in New York excited and anxiously awaiting their opportunity to take advantage of their new right to marry. ABC News stated the following:

"Officials, expecting a rush of gay couples wanting to get married, initially set a lottery capping the number of marriages on Sunday to 764 couples, but later accepted all 823 couples across all five city boroughs."

Above is a photo from the first gay marriage in New York. Kitty Lambert, 54, and Cheryle Rudd, 53, tied the knot at Niagara Falls' State Park's Luna Island. Starting at midnight, couples started saying "I do" all across the state and I could not be happier. New York became the 6th and largest state to recognize same-sex marriage.

Seeing the overwhelmingly joyous reactions warms my heart. Below are a few of my favourite photos from some of the 823 couples' big day.

Phyllis Siegel, 77, and Connie Kopelove, 85, were the first couple to be married in Manhattan. They have been together for 23 years.

I wish New York's newly weds all the best! xoxo

Source

Addicted to Love

**This post has no relevance to "singer" Ke$ha aside from the fact that her lyrics are dangerously related to my quoted FactSnack of the day... **

"In laboratory studies, scientists have learned that, when it comes to love, a very tiny portion of the brain is actually involved. For example, friendship lights up receptors all over the cerebral cortex, but this isn't true with love, which activates parts of the brain more commonly associated with emotional responses like fear and anger. The brain of a person in love will show activity in the amygdala, which is associated with gut feelings, and in the nucleus accumbens, an area associated with rewarding stimuli that tends to be active in drug users. Or, to recap: the brain of a person in love doesn't look like the brain of someone overcome by deep emotion, It looks like the brain of a person who's been snorting coke" - Jodi Picoult's "House Rules" (pages 401-402)