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The abstract of a scientific study undertaken in 1994 has been making the rounds on social media, and it is shocking on two levels. The first wave of shock (although not surprise) comes at you from what the study discovered: the mothers of gender dysphoric boys tend to suffer from a host of mental illnesses of their own.The study (full text can be found here), “Mothers of boys with gender identity disorder: a comparison of matched controls,” was performed by researchers Sonia Marantz and Susan Coates, both of whom are Ph.D.s. The abstract details their predictable but sad nonetheless findings:This...

In many ways I am a girly-girl. I love pretty dresses and going out for afternoon tea. I could sit with a book for hours, snuggled under a blanket, without feeling the need to move. Pink is one of my favorite colors, second only to powder blue. I’m not a huge fan of getting dirty and my relationship with bugs is strained. But my son is all boy. Yesterday I watched him sit on the ground, placing handful after handful of dirt methodically into his lap. Then he stood up, grinned, and fell over onto a plant that, somewhat inexplicably,...

Some years ago, I conceived a business idea which I hereby make available free and for nothing to any enterprising soul who wishes to do a bit of good for the community. You know how there are services that store "cord blood" of newborns which, being rich in stem cells, could be used later in life to treat various diseases? My idea is somewhat similar. Here's how it would work. Whenever an aspiring academic bureaucrat is appointed to the presidency of a college or university, this service would undertake, for a small recurring fee, to receive and safely store his...

The recent success of two female officers, both West Point graduates, in passing the Army’s grueling Ranger School has bolstered arguments for the full integration of women into the military’s front-line combat units. In becoming the first women to receive the coveted Ranger tab, the two officers proved that women can handle not just the physical challenges but also the psychological and leadership tests posed by the nine-week course. cut As that deadline looms, the Marine Corps is dealing with its own gender-related controversy. In June, Lt. Col. Kate Germano was removed from her position as commander of the Fourth...

Elise Passamani's article "Oedipus Child: When Children Are Born Motherless, Problems Await" (The American, 7/25/07)[http://www.american.com/archive/2007/july-0707/oedipus-child], deals with the case of a man, Roberto d.B., who had biological twin daughters through a surrogate mother. She explains, "When the hospital put the surrogate’s name on the children’s birth certificates as the legal mother, Mr. d.B. sued to have the certificates reissued without a mother, on the grounds that the surrogate is not genetically related to the children." Passamani is critical of Roberto, and warns against "motherless" babies. I'm against Roberto, but not completely against him. Just as it is bad for children...

She has sometimes been dismissed as a tanned and bleached blonde "trophy wife", only ever glimpsed in sleek and glamorous outfits on the arm of her much older spouse. Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri, is a lawyer and a Republican political operative. But in the past few days Jeri Thompson has suddenly emerged as the real political power behind her husband Fred's presidential campaign. Mr Thompson, 64, a former senator and actor who is running second in most polls of Republican nominees even before he has officially declared his candidacy, last week replaced his campaign manager in a shake-up of his...

Not surprisingly, the gay press has fired back at me over my comments earlier this week in my blog post "Nationally-Syndicated Cartoonist: It's Better to Have Two Moms than a Mom and a Dad," [glennsacks.com/blog/?p=214] in which I criticized the OPUS Father's Day week cartoon "Davie Dinkle has two moms." In the cartoon, which appeared in many of America's largest newspapers last Sunday, two elementary school boys discuss a classmate who is being raised by two lesbian moms. One boy says, "Makes you wonder how he'll do without a male role model in the house." Right afterwards, the drunken, idiot...

<p>The San Francisco Chronicle's recent series on domestic violence movingly portrays the tragic murder of Nadine Nunes at the hands of her ex-husband Todd Vernon, who also killed his three children. However, there is no credible evidence to support the series’ principal contention that “men are murdering their partners in increasing numbers.” The only evidence offered is the vague assertion of a local domestic violence advocate. In place of facts and research the series substitutes emotion, ominous references to firearms, and the implication that any normal guy becomes a homicidal maniac the moment he can’t find a job.</p>

During an emotional court session, Torrance mother Sheryl Graham is sentenced to five years of probation and must register as an offender for the rest of her life. By Denise Nix Daily Breeze A Torrance mother of five pleaded guilty Wednesday to engaging in a sex act with a West High School student and was sentenced to five years of felony probation, community service and counseling, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life. While making her plea, Sheryl Graham, 42, cried hard enough to cause Torrance Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold...

So-called nuptial gifts – often consisting of food or tokens – are typically bestowed by males on females as part of courtship and copulation rituals in many species. By manipulating the nuptial gifts that female insects receive during copulation, researchers have now shown that female preferences can be exploited by males who are "cheating" on their reproductive investment by presenting easily obtainable token gifts. Gift-giving during courtship and copulation occurs across the animal kingdom, including in humans. Nuptial gifts can range from valuable nutritious food items to inedible tokens such as leaves or silk balloons. Gift-giving is of clear benefit...

When a mighty force overstuffs a container, it shatters. Scott Trobec shattered, in 1996, after a lifetime of never saying an angry word to anyone. Sound impossible? Not to mental health experts who counsel men suffering from what could be called anger over-management. These men don't know how to get mad. They are not just gentle or easy-going types, the experts stress. They are the opposite extreme of the common view of men and anger -- violent, out-of-control guys who stab their wives or beat their children or shoot up the office where they got fired -- and they leave...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- For the first time in a decade, Afghanistan's national police academy is training female officers to serve in the capital, interior ministry officials said Tuesday. More than 60 women began a six-month training course several months ago at the police academy in Kabul and are expected to graduate in two months, said Interior Minister Taj Mohammed Wardak. "We need more policewomen, and we're asking more to come," Wardak told The Associated Press. "Eventually we want 50 percent of our police forces staffed by women." The women will be deployed across the city at checkpoints, at the...