Chile Keeps Our Momentum Going

Chile is the latest country to secure the limited monogamous same-sex freedom to marry.

Let's keep going until an adult is free to marry ANY and ALL consenting adults, anywhere on the planet! Let's keep making progress towards full marriage equality!

Some same-sex couples have secured the freedom to marry in The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, Denmark, Brazil, France, Uruguay, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, United States, Columbia, Malta, Germany, Australia, Austria, Taiwan, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Switzerland, and Chile!

Ecuador Advances!

Good news! Ecuador is making progress.

Let's keep moving forward so that in every country, an adult will be free to marry any and all consenting adults!

Still No Good Argument Against Equality

Anti-equality columnist Michael Brown, who constantly bemoans things like anyone who isn't a cisgender heterosexual nonconsanguineous monogamist having their rights, is on a roll lately. Today's column was sparked by a male triad getting legal recognition in Columbia, with Brown lamenting that we're heading toward full marriage equality. What he doesn't do is explain why he thinks that's a bad thing. Maybe we have to buy one of his books to read that? In fairness, nobody else seems to be able to explain why people should be denied their rights, either.

Here in the States, the Associated Press notes that, “More courts [are] allowing 3 parents of 1 child.” An example would be when a lesbian couple has a child with the help of another man, all three of whom become parents.

What's the realistic alternative? It's preventing the man from being legally involved. How exactly would that be good? If three people want to take responsibility for a child and they mutually agree to this, isn't that a good thing?

Today, in New York City, you can be fined up to $250,000 for failing to accept the stated identity of a trans employee.

Again, what's the realistic alternative? It's that someone either has to quit their job or deal with a boss who mistreats them in a very serious way.

I asked [the students] if they believed in the concepts of “love is love” and “I have the right to marry the one I love.” They all said yes, no matter how far it went. Three people? Four? Two adult brothers? And should the government be obligated to recognize all these relationships?

They answered in the affirmative to all my questions...

Good for them! The students have compassion and respect for people! Those of us on the right side of history are happy to see more people being free to have the relationships to which they mutually agree and to live out their gender identity.

If you're not doing so already, please check out this blog's sister Tumblr, where questions are being asked and getting answered, and I share content from others that I don't crosspost here. Add it to your bookmarks or, if you're on Tumblr, follow it.

Having What the Royals Had

David Dobbs wrote at National Geographic about consanguineous sex among royals.

Royal incest, notes historian Joanne Carando, was "not only accepted but even encouraged" in Hawaii as an exclusive royal privilege.

In fact, while virtually every culture in recorded history has held sibling or parent-child couplings taboo, royalty have been exempted in many societies, including ancient Egypt, Inca Peru, and, at times, Central Africa, Mexico, and Thailand. And while royal families in Europe avoided sibling incest, many, including the Hohenzollerns of Prussia, the Bourbons of France, and the British royal family, often married cousins. The Spanish Habsburgs, who ruled for nearly 200 years, frequently married among close relatives.

Sadly, those who do as the royals did are now often prosecuted and treated as second class citizens.

He has the obligatory “this can mess up your genes” talk included, noting…

Siblings share half their genes on average, as do parents and offspring. First cousins' genomes overlap 12.5 percent. Matings between close relatives can raise the danger that harmful recessive genes, especially if combined repeatedly through generations, will match up in the offspring, leading to elevated chances of health or developmental problems—perhaps Tut's partially cleft palate and congenitally deformed foot or Charles's small stature and impotence.

Any child can have health problems. But what doesn’t get talked about enough are the potential positives. Dobbs, thankfully, writes…

And the hazards, while real, are not absolute. Even the high rates of genetic overlap generated in the offspring of sibling unions, for instance, can create more healthy children than sick ones.

Thank you.

Yet affection sometimes drives these bonds. Bingham learned that even after King Kamehameha III of Hawaii accepted Christian rule, he slept for several years with his sister, Princess Nahi'ena'ena—pleasing their elders but disturbing the missionaries. They did it, says historian Carando, because they loved each other.

Imagine that. Some family members love each other in ways that include sexual. That certainly doesn’t fit the bigoted stereotype of “rape and incest.” Nonrelatives can rape or sexually abuse, and relatives can lovingly engage in consensual sex. The problem isn't consanguineous sex; the problem is rape and abuse. Loving, consensual, consanguineous sex should not be kept buried with the royals of the past. It should be brought into the open and enjoyed by all who want to share the tradition old as time.

Consanguineous Relationships Might Provide Medical Cures

A friend of FME alerted me to this dailymail.co.uk article by Amanda Williams about an interesting scientific finding in Ecuador.

They are completely free of two of the most debilitating illnesses - diabetes and cancer.

Now scientists hope a community of dwarfs living in a remote corner of Ecuador could hold the key to a cure for both.

The Laron dwarfs, who have a condition believed to be caused by inbreeding, appear to be completely immune to cancer and other age and lifestyle associated diseases.

People who inherit the genetic defect are in perfect proportion but grow only to an average height of 4ft.

For more than 24 years, endocrinologists Jaime Guevara-Aguirre (top left) and Arlan Rosenbloom (top right) have tracked a population of Ecuadorians dwarves who seem to be immune to cancer

Does this mean anything for others? Well, it might...

Now scientists are developing a drug which they hope will do artificially what the genetic defect in Laron syndrome does naturally - protect against DNA damage that fuels cancer growth. 

There's a lot more to this interesting story.

The fact is, inbreeding isn't always detrimental. There can been good results or bad results from inbreeding because recessive genes could have beneficial or detrimental effects. While this blog is here to support relationship rights for all adults, including full marriage equality, we neither encourage nor discourage close relatives from having genetic children together. But we do discourage ignorant statements about the children of close relatives (most of whom are healthy), and we think whether or not adults have children together is decision that should be between them, and whichever medical professionals they choose to involve.

Democrat US Senators, Uruguay Evolve Towards Equality

The good news just keeps coming. Individual Democrats in the US Senate have been announcing, one after the other, that they support marriage equality, or at least the limited same-gender freedom to marry. now the country of Uruguay is poised to adopt the limited same-gender freedom to marry. We continue to make progress in the right direction. Keep evolving, Senators!

Here's what I suggest as an announcement in support of full marriage equality...

An adult, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or religion, should be free to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with any and all consenting adults, without prosecution, harassment, or discrimination.

It is important to remember that, in the US (and much of this applies in other countries as well)...

Spanish Movies With Relevant Themes

If you’re still looking for a movie rental for Valentine’s Day, here’s a list claiming to be the “10 Best Spanish Erotic Movies.” I will point out the ones of interest to the topics of this blog.

1. “Amigo/Amado.”A homosexual professor is in love with his best student in this Spanish movie. It’s an intense and sexual Spanish movie that will have you at the edge of your seat.

Same-sex relationships are still criminal in some places in the world, and there is still the struggle for the freedom to marry someone of the same sex in many places were the relationships aren't criminal.

5. “Broken Embraces.”Pedro Almódovar makes it big again in this movie that was nominated for two “Best Foreign Language Film” awards at the Golden Globes and with the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The story is an erotic portrayal of various forbidden romances.

6. “Belle Époque.”The setting of this erotic tale is the build up to the Spanish Civil War. A young soldier who deserts the army has sex with three sisters one-by-one, but soon realizes that it’s the fourth sister that may be the most marriage-worthy.

7. “Against the Wind.”This movie is a blend of erotic scenes involving incest, passion, and obsession. Juan escapes to the Spanish province of Andalusia, but his sister can’t live without him.

Sibling sexual relationships are illegal in many places, and the freedom to marry is even more scarce than for non-sibling same-sex relationships.

Some other films on the list may be of interest, but I wouldn’t know from the descriptions.

I remind my readers that today, Valentine’s Day, you should remember that there are people who still don’t have the freedom to marry, including loving partners living as spouses but banned from marriage under the law because they are same-sex, or close relatives, or more than two people.

Mexico's Supreme Court Upholds Freedom to Marry

Almost didn't catch this one. The highest court in Mexico upheld Mexico City's new freedom to marry for same-sex couples. It would be great if the rest of the country would follow, and if the freedom to marry was extended to all in Mexico City and in the whole nation: full marriage equality.

Congrats to the newlyweds!

Argentina Increases Freedom to Marry

I was very happy to wake up to the news that in a move towards marriage equality, Argentina has legalized same-sex marriages. Latin America is starting to change. Mexico City has same-sex marriages, but the rest of Mexico still needs to get on board.

Congratulations to all of the couples in Argentina who will now be able to marry.

Argentina also has no laws against consanguineous sex between adults, so they should go ahead and allow those loving relationships to gain marriage as well.

Dear Argentina: Please move forward to full marriage equality.