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Weiye Loh

How Gay Marriage Will Change Couples' Financial Lives - NYTimes.com - 0 views

bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/...change-couples-financial-lives

Homosexuality Rights Marriage Economics

shared by Weiye Loh on 25 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • there’s still a long list of federal benefits that will remain out of reach. Since the federal Defense of Marriage Act — which defines marriage as between a man and a woman — is still being enforced, gay couples in New York will still need to file separate federal tax returns. They will not be eligible for Social Security spousal or survivor benefits. And they will continue to owe extra income taxes on their spouse’s health insurance benefits — a cost that opposite-sex married couples don’t have to pay.
  • Income Taxes Married couples will be able to file their state tax returns jointly, though they will still need to file separate federal tax returns (either as single or head of household). Some couples who jointly earn less than $65,000 may end up paying less in state income taxes than if they filed individual tax returns because they will get what known as a marriage bonus. But some couples with higher income may be end up in a higher tax bracket by filing jointly. In other words, they would owe less if they remained single and filed separate returns, said Tina Salandra, a New York accountant with expertise in planning for same-sex couples. Filing joint state returns is also likely to complicate matters for federal tax purposes, and it’s likely to cost the couple more in tax preparation fees (or time, if they fill out their own returns). Here’s why:  Even though the couple must file separate federal tax returns (as single or head of household), they must still prepare a dummy federal tax return using a married filing status, so that they can use that data for filing their joint state return.
  • (Generally speaking, couples with similar incomes or really high incomes save money by filing individual tax returns, Adding their income together often pushes them into a higher tax bracket. But couples with a stay-at-home parent or a couple with disparate incomes would typically pay less if they could file joint returns).
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Estate and Gift Taxes Individuals with large estates will benefit because New York State allows spouses to transfer an unlimited amount of assets at their death. Everyone else must pay state estate taxes on estates that exceed $1 million. But same-sex married couples will continue to be subject to federal gift taxes and estate taxes, unlike their opposite-sex counterparts.
  • Health Insurance People who work for companies that offer domestic partner insurance must pay income taxes on the value of their partner’s benefits, unless they are considered a dependent. Heterosexual married couples aren’t subject to the tax since the federal government recognizes them as an economic unit. Now that same-sex couples have the ability to marry in New York, they won’t owe those taxes at the state level, but they will still owe the taxes at the federal level, experts said.
  • Inheritance Rights It’s always wise to have a basic will outlining your wishes. If you don’t, your estate will be divided according to New York State law, which puts spouses first in line of inheritance. But if the deceased spouse has children, the spouse will get $50,000 plus one half of the estate, while the children share the rest. Surviving spouses can also determine what they want to do with their spouse’s remains.
  • State Employee Benefits The spouses of gay people who work for the state in some capacity — whether they’re governmental office workers or professors at the State University of New York — will be able to treat their spouses as just that. That means they’ll be eligible for health insurance, pension survivor benefits and any other benefits normally extended to spouses.
  • Parentage When a married lesbian gives birth to a child in New York,  the woman who did not give birth, but who is recognized as a parent, will be automatically put on the child’s birth certificate (even if she doesn’t  have biological ties to the child or hasn’t adopted the child). Even so, it may be wise to adopt. “Having a birth certificate reflect the child’s parentage from the start is a big help for the family,” Ms. Sommer said. For instance, it allows the nonbiological parent to easily put the child on her health insurance, as well as make health care decisions for the child. “But an adoption is the best way to secure the child’s legal relationship to both of the child’s parents not just in New York, but everywhere.” For two married men, however, the situation remains a bit more complicated. If two men are using a surrogate to carry their child, only the biological father can be automatically listed on the birth certificate. Because of New York State law, the surrogate must first relinquish her rights to the child, at which point the nonbiological father can adopt the child.
  • Potential future benefits If the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, is ultimately struck down, being able to marry in New York will open the door to the many federal benefits that come with marriage.
  • Other Rights If a person dies from a work-related injury or illness, their spouse may be entitled to worker’s compensation benefits. Spouses also have the ability to bring wrongful death claims on behalf of their significant other.
  • Weiye Loh on 25 Jun 11
     
    While New York had already recognized same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, that recognition didn't extend to state income taxes. Now, couples who marry and live in New York will be able to file their state tax returns jointly. Wealthier couples may end up paying more in taxes, but families with lower incomes may owe less.
Weiye Loh

The End of 'Marriage' - NYTimes.com - 0 views

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...the-end-of-marriage

Marriage Policy Privatization

shared by Weiye Loh on 25 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • the best way for the state to begin treating all families equally is for governments to avoid the highly contested terrain of licensing marriage and granting a package of rights only to citizens who achieve this status.
  • by eliminating “marriage” and revising state policies to focus on caregiving activities rather than sexual/romantic relationships, the state advances its legitimate interest in insuring that vulnerable citizens receive care and nurturing without illegitimately interfering in the private sphere of marriage.
  • Second, by licensing a wide range of caregiving units, the state treats families that are differently structured equally.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Unfortunately, this proposal has some serious problems. First, “privatizing” marriage will not cause it to disappear — it will just leave it to be regulated by private institutions, especially religious and ethnic ones. For many centuries, marriage has been the primary mechanism by which people who are not related “by blood” become relatives, and it is unclear that civil unions will acquire this social power. Many families will then be structured and governed primarily by private marriage customs and practices now freed of state regulation. Because of the deep and rich cultural significance of marriage, in many cases marriage arrangements will take precedence over the terms of civil unions. When these arrangements exist in tension with widely shared public values — like those that subordinate wives and daughters and limit their opportunities — privatizing and deregulating marriage will curtail the government’s ability to promote gender equality within families structured by marriage. In other words, privatizing marriage will give private organizations, including inegalitarian ones, more influence over the institution of marriage without giving individuals negatively affected much protection by having access to civil union status.
  • adults who are not in marriage-like relationships may not want to exchange the same set of rights as those who are, such as debt and income sharing. An inclusive institution of civil union then is likely to become equivalent to a system of privately negotiated domestic contracts that the state merely enforces and also protects from outside interference. The problem with this is that, when the terms of civil unions are individually rather than publicly negotiated, they will be less responsive to widely-shared public values and beliefs. Moreover private negotiations will require hiring legal professionals to protect the interests of all parties, which will put civil unions outside the reach of many.
  • Weiye Loh on 25 Nov 12
     
    "many prominent legal and political theorists - such as Cass Sunstein, Richard Thaler, Martha Fineman, Tamara Metz, Lisa Duggan, Andrew March, and Brook Sadler (to name only some of those who have put their views in writing) - are proposing that the institution of marriage be privatized. More specifically, they propose that we eliminate the term "marriage" from our civil laws and policies, and replace it with a more neutral term, such as "civil union" or "domestic partnership." The state would then recognize and regulate civil unions rather than civil marriage, and people would exchange marriage-like rights and duties by becoming "civilly united." Some private organizations, such as religious institutions, might still perform and solemnize marriages among their congregants, but these marriages would have no official state recognition. The primary argument for this change of policy is that the state allegedly has no business regulating marriage, which is a complex cultural and religious practice. However, the state does have an interest in promoting private caregiving within families - the care of children, elderly parents and sick or disabled relatives."
Weiye Loh

Alternative Narratives: The Danger Of Romanticising The Other - 0 views

www.eurasiareview.com/...f-romanticising-the-other.html

Otherizing Narratives

shared by Weiye Loh on 25 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Alternative narratives do lend a more balanced view but romanticising the other is a potential pitfall.
  • Clarissa Oon highlighted the growing interest in Singapore’s alternative history and posed the big question ‘does it really matter’. In answer to this, several academic historians posited that there is a necessity to come to terms with the complexities of Singapore’s history that includes alternative narratives to the state-centric version of events. While recognising the complex diversity of Singapore’s multi-layered and multi-faceted leftist past, Singaporeans should also remember that the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) later known as the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) was responsible for acts of violence and subversion that undermined the security and independence of post-colonial Singapore and Malaysia.
  • Singapore’s left-wing movement was a complex milieu of actors ranging from labour unionists to intellectuals and student activists. This does not, however, hide the fact that the CPM did attempt to overthrow the Malaysian Federation through armed violence and prepare the ground in Singapore for an urban insurrection during the so-called ‘Second  Emergency’ (1968-1989).
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  • The crafting of alternative narratives is necessary to inject greater breadth and depth into Singapore’s historical landscape. But we should be careful in romanticising the actions of those that employed violence in their attempt to overthrow the elected governments of Singapore and Malaysia -- and in so doing took and threatened the lives of innocent civilians on both sides of the Causeway.
  • Recently declassified British and Australian archival material suggests that despite certain reservations, the British and Australian governments recognised the necessity of the counter-insurgency, counter-subversion and nation-building efforts adopted by the Singaporean and Malaysian governments to contain the CPM threat. Many of these documents have yet to be thoroughly analysed but when they do, chances are that they would be read against the grain by academic historians seeking to challenge the narrative of the state.
  • Academic Trends: The Right Benchmark?In academic history, alternative narratives have become the norm rather than an exception.  For example, research councils in the United Kingdom and the United States are more likely to fund projects that look at marginal or alternative narratives instead of those with state-centric agendas. In the field of historical scholarship, challenging the state up to the point of post-modern fragmented incoherence has become the intellectual ‘in-thing’.
  • This intellectual fad in looking between the interstices and challenging state-centricity, however, does not always challenge what we already know. Moreover, even renowned academic historians are not immune to character-assassination of political figures and romanticising the deeds of their opponents. In short, just like the official state version of events that it seeks to challenge, mainstream academic history does possess its own set of credibility problems.
  • Alternative histories written by academic historians do not come with a ‘bias-free’ guarantee. Like official histories, academic works do carry the biases and the agendas of their authors. More often than not, young Singaporean historians are prone to the intellectual trend of challenging the state-centric narrative albeit in a critical way. This trajectory however presents an important question: Should scholars in Singapore be given a free rein in the crafting of alternative histories?
  • Should scholars in Singapore be given a free rein in the crafting of alternative histories?
  • Should scholars in Singapore be given a free rein in the crafting of alternative histories?
  • Critical alternative narratives do enrich the understanding of Singapore’s past and goes a long way in explaining what it means to be Singaporean. In this endeavour, academic historians play an important role in plugging the gaps left by the state. The state however has to be the gatekeeper on contemporary historical issues that still present a threat to national security or social cohesion. The conviction of David Irving in 2006 under Austria’s Volksverhetzung (incitement of the people) law for his trivialising of the Holocaust is an example of how shoddy historical scholarship can be contrary to national interests and social cohesion.
  • Critical academic freedom is a privilege to be respected, but it cannot be at the expense of national security and social cohesion. Singapore’s historical narrative would be poorer without a more nuanced view of the leftist heritage in its nation-building past. But any attempt to romanticise the actions of violent revolutionaries that claimed the lives of Singapore and Malaysian security personnel and civilians alike would demean the sacrifices of those who gave their all to protect the independence and security of their respective countries.
  • Weiye Loh on 25 Sep 10
     
    Alternative Narratives: The Danger Of Romanticising The Other
Weiye Loh

If you have no children, who will care for you when you're old? | Sonia Sodha | Opinion... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...-social-care-population-family

Aging Population Public Policy Social Welfare Family Asian Value Japan

shared by Weiye Loh on 14 May 17 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 14 May 17
     
    "We need a more explicit debate about where the responsibilities of the state and families start and stop. The state has a critical but limited role to play. It can't provide love and companionship. It can't fight tooth and nail against itself for you to get a limited slice of rationed resources. But it can and should provide a basic standard of professional personal care as a critical safety net. This requires an honest conversation about how much this will cost and how to pay for it. This is not just important for older people without children. While the state can't replace loving family relationships, it can profoundly affect them. We tend to fetishise Asian cultures that have a greater tradition of care of older people taking place within extended families, such as the Japanese. But scratch beneath the stereotype, and a more complex picture emerges. The Japanese word kaigo-jigoku translates to "care-giving hell". One survey in the 1990s suggested one in two family carers in Japan had subjected older relatives to some form of abuse, with one in three acknowledging feelings of "hatred". Such findings hint at the consequences of expecting families to do too much, especially when the conditions involved include advanced dementia, which requires skilled professional care. Resolving the question of what the state can and ought to do is relatively easy compared with the much knottier problem of how to create a society that has an abundance of the things - love, companionship, emotional support - that the state can never hope to provide."
Weiye Loh

Why Small Countries Should Not Behave Like A Small Country - 0 views

blogs.ntu.edu.sg/...bilahari-smallcountries

Singapore China Race Civilization Diplomacy

shared by Weiye Loh on 23 Apr 18 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 23 Apr 18
     
    " China is not just a normal state or a Leninist state. It also has a third identity of being a civilisational state-China is a civilisation, as well as a state, and that prescribes the third track. It's a track that is of particular relevance for Singapore, and that is the overseas Chinese track. They also have a very elaborate institutional apparatus devoted to this track under party control. The purpose of this track is best encapsulated by a speech President Xi Jinping made in 2014 to a conference of overseas Chinese business associations in Beijing. And the title of that speech was The Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation is of Importance to all Chinese.  In other words, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is of importance to all Chinese means that overseas Chinese are expected, on crucial issues, to define their interests in terms of China's interest. That is something a multi-racial country like Singapore can never accept.  It is an existential issue."
Weiye Loh

Balderdash: Patterns of Racial-Ethnic Exclusion by Internet Daters - 0 views

gssq.blogspot.com/...acial-ethnic-exclusion-by.html

Racism Gender Discrimination Gender Stereotype Race

shared by Weiye Loh on 06 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Women are more likely than men to state preferences for all characteristics except body type... Women tended to state preferences for many more characteristics than males (50% vs. 34%)...
  • We see few racial differences in the percentages stating racial preferences. For those who state a preference, both white males and females are the least open to interracial dating within their genders – 29 percent of white males and 65 percent of white females prefer to date only whites... White women (4%) are less likely than black women (8%), Latinas (16%), and especially, Asian women (40%) to prefer to date only outside of their respective racial group...
  • women are much more likely to state a racial preference than men (74% vs. 58%, pr = .001, not shown). However, we see that only some groups of women prefer to be more racially homogamous than men. Among those who state a racial preference, more white women (65%) and black women (45%) prefer to date only within their race than their male counterparts (29% vs. 23%). However, Latino males and females do not differ in preferring racial homogamy, and Asian women are much less likely than their male counterparts to prefer to only in-date (6% vs. 21%)...
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Asians, Latinos and blacks are more open to dating whites than whites are to dating them. Of those who state a racial preference, 97 percent of white men exclude black women, 48 percent exclude Latinas, and 53 percent exclude Asian women. In contrast, white men are excluded by 76 percent of black women, 33 percent of Latinas, and only 11 percent of Asian women. Similarly, 92 percent of white women exclude black men, 77 percent exclude Latinos, and 93 percent exclude Asian men. White women are excluded by 71 percent of black men, 31 percent of Latinos, and 36 percent of Asian men... For Asian women, only 11 percent of whom exclude white men as dates, far less than the 40 percent excluding Asian men...
  • Latinas’ dating preferences are inconsistent with racial-economic exchange theory as they exclude Asian men (90%) at higher rates than black men (76%)...
  • we find significant gender differences in the exclusion and inclusion of Asians and blacks. White females, black females and Latinas are all much more likely to exclude Asian men as dates than their male counterparts are to exclude Asian women. In contrast, the gendered pattern to the exclusion of blacks is unique in that it is the only case where women from a particular minority group are more excluded than their male counterparts. That is, white men, black men, Latinos and Asian males are all more likely to exclude black women than their female counterparts are to exclude black men...
  • Weiye Loh on 06 Jun 11
     
    "Racial exclusion in dating is gendered; Asian males and black females are more highly excluded than their opposite-sex counterparts"
Weiye Loh

UC Berkeley study finds California progressive policies help economy - 0 views

www.dailycal.org/...licies-help-job-growth-economy

Minimum Wage California United States Public Policy Labor Economy

shared by Weiye Loh on 18 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 18 Nov 17
     
    "The report, published to the UC Berkeley Labor Center's website Tuesday, examines some of the 51 policy measures enacted by the state of California between 2011 and 2016 addressing workers' rights, environmental issues, safety net programs, taxation, infrastructure and housing. The idea for the study came out of Perry's master's degree thesis at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, which he worked on for about 10 months. Averages taken from data on issues such as wage growth and employment growth of 19 Republican-controlled states were compared to averages taken from California's data. According to the report, total employment has risen by 16.9 percent on average in California, compared to 12.2 percent in Republican states."
Weiye Loh

Why I finally got married (Opinion) - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

Marriage Homosexuality Institution Tradition

shared by Weiye Loh on 21 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Ever since the voters of our state enacted marriage equality in a 2012 referendum, dozens of friends have entered into same-sex marriages. Many had been together for years or even decades but rushed to get the seal of the state on their unions. What has struck me about this boomlet of connubial bliss -- a steady parade of weddings with double white dresses or double tuxedos, and all the traditional trappings and rituals -- is that something very deeply American is happening: We are using progress to conserve an institution. And/or: We are conserving something to make progress.
  • Weiye Loh on 21 Sep 14
     
    "They showed us that marriage is different. That "wife" and "husband" are different from "partner" or "girlfriend/boyfriend." That vows spoken publicly are different from assurances whispered privately. That if fear should block us from exercising a right like the right to marry, then we should consider how it'd feel to be denied the right altogether. That the reason this institution is vital is that in the end it's not about rights; it's about responsibility -- of one spouse to the other; of the couple to their people, and vice versa. Opponents of marriage equality have claimed that letting gays and lesbians marry would devalue marriage, subvert its purposes, lead to the collapse of families. In poll after poll, across the country, the anti-equality advocates are losing. More importantly, though, in state after state, they're being proven wrong. Marriage today has a new glow to it, a vibrancy that comes with the entry of all these same-sex newcomers"
Weiye Loh

NY State Stands to Make $391 Million Thanks to Gay Marriage | The Utopianist - Think Bi... - 0 views

utopianist.com/...ge-will-be-boon-to-nyc-economy

Homosexuality Marriage Capitalism Economy

shared by Weiye Loh on 28 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • NYC is hoping to capitalize on all of those couples by promoting wedding deals and venues on its NYC I Do website. The rest of the state looks to make a cool $391 million during the same time period, a point some state senators drove home in the hours leading up to the crucial vote. So far, appeals to basic human rights and dignity have failed to win over many state and federal legislatures in the gay marriage debate. Maybe it’s time gay marriage proponents start appealing to their wallets instead.
  • Weiye Loh on 28 Jun 11
     
    A 2007 study by then City Comptroller William Thompson estimated that marriage equality would add $142 million on a net basis to the city's economy during the first three years after the legislation was passed. Most of that income would come from the increased number of visitors, who would travel here to either get married or attend a wedding. The study estimated that more than 56,000 couples would travel to New York from out of state to marry here
Weiye Loh

Bernie Sanders Is a Social Democrat, Not a Democratic Socialist - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...471630

Democracy Socialism United States Capitalism State

shared by Weiye Loh on 02 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 02 Mar 16
     
    As someone who grew up under socialism and is still, barely, in his 30s, I hope to relate a few ideas to the young people who are "feeling the Bern." First, Sanders is not a socialist, but a social democrat. Second, the United States does not have a strictly capitalist economy, but a mixed one. As such, it combines a high level of private ownership of capital and the means of production with relatively onerous regulation and taxation. Third, to the extent that what anti-capitalist Sanders supporters really want is a Scandinavian-style social democracy, with its high level of wealth redistribution and income equality, they should consider that even some of the most socially democratic countries on earth are, in one crucial way, more capitalist than the United States.
Weiye Loh

Report: U.S most obese in the world, fattest kids by a mile, tops for poor teen health ... - 0 views

www.washingtonexaminer.com/...2573993

United States Obesity Health Health Care

shared by Weiye Loh on 16 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 16 Oct 15
     
    "The United States is home to the most obese population in the Americas, Asia and Europe, has the fattest kids by a wide margin and is tops in poor health for teenagers, according to the latest measure of well-being from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In its "How's Life 2015?" report released Tuesday, the United States is also among the nations with underperforming students and second in murders and assaults."
Weiye Loh

The law was supposed to reduce discrimination. But it made hiring more racially biased.... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...de-hiring-more-racially-biased

Credit Credit Card Race Employment Discrimination

shared by Weiye Loh on 25 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • The researchers also found that when a state passed a credit-check ban, it attracted workers from other states — particularly out-of-state workers from neighborhoods where people had bad credit on average. This is further evidence that these laws did what they were expected to do. They made it more likely for people with bad credit to find employment. These were good jobs too. The laws had the strongest effect on those who were seeking positions paying upwards of $40,000 a year. The results suggest that credit checks were mostly keeping people out of higher-paying jobs.
  • If a credit-check ban went into effect, job postings were more likely to ask for a bachelor’s degree, and to require additional years of experience. There are other ways that employers could have also become more discerning, Shoag says. They might have started to rely on referrals or recommendations to make sure that applicants were high-quality. In the absence of credit information to establish trustworthiness, they may even have fallen back on racial stereotypes to screen candidates. The researchers couldn’t measure these tactics, but they’re possibilities.
  • Weiye Loh on 25 Mar 16
     
    "Medical debt, not credit card debt, is the top reason that people file for bankruptcy. When employers regularly reject applicants bearing the scars of financial distress, poverty becomes an airtight trap. For these reasons, one of the hottest ideas among lawmakers right now is to ban employers from running credit checks on job applicants. Since 2007, eleven states, as well as Chicago and New York City, have passed such laws. Supporters of these restrictions often frame the issue as a civil rights problem. In particular, they say, credit checks impede employment among minorities, who disproportionately have low credit scores."
Weiye Loh

Conversion therapy: she tried to make me 'pray away the gay' | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...sion-therapy-patrick-strudwick

Religion Sexuality Psychology Law

shared by Weiye Loh on 27 May 11 - No Cached
  • despite the decades of abuse that gay patients have received from therapists and psychiatrists – despite the electro-convulsive therapy used until the 1980s, despite the chemical castrations, the aversion therapy (where pain is inflicted to dissuade same-sex fantasies) and despite the recent rise in fundamentalist talking therapy – no one has ever been held to account.
  • in April 2009. I heard that a conference was taking place in London for therapists and psychiatrists who wanted to learn how to convert their patients to heterosexuality. Homosexuality was removed from psychiatry's glossary of mental illnesses in 1973. How then could anyone treat something healthy? I went along to find out, posing as someone looking to be "cured". Two people agreed to treat me. The first was a psychiatrist – we'll come to him later. The second was Lesley Pilkington.
  • She set about trying to find the childhood "wounds" that she believes led to my homosexuality. But she found none. "There was no sexual abuse?" she pressed."No.""I think there is something there . . . you've allowed things to be done to you." She then prayed: "Father, we give you permission to bring to the surface some of the things that have happened over the years." I asked who could have committed this abuse – a member of my family? "Yes, very likely," she replied.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • Was homosexuality a mental illness, an addiction or an anti-religious phenomenon? "It's all of that," said Pilkington.
  • in January 2010, I made a formal complaint about Pilkington to the BACP.
  • Four days before the hearing Pilkington gave an interview to the Sunday Telegraph, contrary to BACP guidelines that neither party speak publicly about the case. I had not named her in my original article. She then went on the radio to talk about it. In response to Pilkington's disclosures – 48 hours before the hearing was due to take place – the BACP adjourned it and issued us both with confidentiality agreements.
  • The signed agreements would have prevented either side from ever talking about the case. My barrister, Sarah Bourke, advised me not to sign. But I couldn't decide. I didn't want to jeopardise the case but was it worth pursuing if it could never be discussed publicly? The BACP wouldn't tell me what would happen if I refused to sign.Meanwhile, Pilkington's representatives – the Christian Legal Centre – were making intriguing claims. On the day the hearing would have taken place, they stated that it had been postponed because one of the expert witnesses she had cited in her defence had been subject to "menacing phone calls, threats and intimidation". I was the only person named in her lawyers' statement. Although she submitted testimony from several witnesses, I never knew their names and the BACP did not call any of them.
  • But the Daily Mail ran a story regardless: "Trial of therapist who tried to 'cure' gay man is halted after 'expert defence witness is intimidated'," screamed the headline. Countless Christian websites repeated the claims. Hate mail poured in. Pilkington continued to give interviews and gave a talk at another conversion-therapy conference in London. With the agreements unsigned, the BACP decided to go ahead regardless. What was the point of adjourning the case for four months? The BACP would not explain.
  • During the hearing, Pilkington said she still "feels there's a need" for my homosexuality to be treated.
  • Was it, the panel asked, her belief that homosexuality was wrong, sinful or unnatural? "Oh yes," she replied. "There's no question about that . . . but there's a way out."
  • Equally startling, however, was what the panel asked me: on what basis did I assert that the BACP was publicly opposed to conversion therapy? I read aloud the letter the BACP had written to the Guardian in 2009 describing such therapy as "absurd" and stating that it "makes people with gay thoughts suffer extra pain". The panel was unaware of the letter and the BACP's position on the subject. After lunch the chair announced that they would disregard the statement as they "don't know who authorised it".
  • I was cross-examined at length by Pilkington's barrister and by the panel. How would someone with mental-health problems cope with that? And it isn't just the emotional challenges that could deter a complainant. Without being well educated and having free legal help to interpret the BACP's jargon-dense literature and legal letters, I would have found the process incomprehensible and intimidating.
  • although this case will serve as a precedent, it does not solve the wider problem. Even if Pilkington had been struck off completely she would still be able to carry on practising. Anyone can claim to be a therapist in Britain because there is no state regulation of the profession. "Psychotherapist" and "counsellor" are not protected titles. The BACP is a self-regulating, independent body. No one has to be a member. Thus you can't stop a bad therapist seeing clients any more than you can a fortune-teller.
  • as Michael King, professor of psychiatry at UCL, points out: "There is an error in the GMC's logic: homosexuality is not a diagnosis. To therefore offer any kind of treatment can be damaging." He added: "Self-regulation is a problem. Professions are inward looking. People don't like to criticise each other."
  • Miller told me that homosexuality "represents a pathology". He added: "The men you were having sex with or falling in love with are just as wounded as you." He concluded that because my father is a physicist, and I was always more creative, that prevented a "gender-affirming process" which in turn led to my sexualising men.
  • I complained to the General Medical Council (the Royal College of Psychiatrists has no remit for disciplinary procedures). The RCPsych has stated: "There is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed." Yet the GMC let Miller off without even a warning – in fact, without even a hearing.After receiving my complaint they appointed a consultant psychiatrist – whose identity was redacted – to write a report about the taped evidence I submitted. The crux of the report was that conventional therapeutic practices used by many psychotherapists have "as much or little scientific evidence" as conversion/reparative therapy. And yet reparative therapy is based on the work of self-proclaimed psychologist Elizabeth Moberly, who is not trained – her degree was in theology – and whose theories were not based on clinical research. The professional guideline document Good Psychiatric Practice, to which all psychiatrists are bound, states: "A psychiatrist must provide care that does not discriminate and is sensitive to issues of sexual orientation." The GMC report relating to my experience concludes: "I do not consider that Dr Miller's actions were inconsistent with Good Psychiatric Practice." I will appeal.
Weiye Loh

Worms, dating and editorial consequences « Yawning Bread on Wordpress - 0 views

yawningbread.wordpress.com/...ing-and-editorial-consequences

Homophobia Homosexuality Censorship Freedom of Speech

shared by Weiye Loh on 26 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • Freedom of expression is a civil right — this means that the state is enjoined from violating it. Note: the state. Private citizens can do what they please with their private properties. Thus ‘private’. Newspapers traditionally have been mouthpieces of their owners and editors, arguing for and promoting certain viewpoints. Restaurants are not obliged to pin any and every damning review of their food and service on their front doors. Mosques do not have to include Islamophobic letters to the editor when putting together their monthly newsletters. A political party is not obliged to carry criticism of its program on its website. Even when it comes to the role of the state, it is generally accepted that the freedom of expression that the state should protect is not an absolute one. Arguably, states can regulate hate speech — which includes speech that deliberately demean an entire class of persons, urging social and political restrictions on them. Thus, even by that measure, there is a good case for not permitting the airing for homophobic views.
  • Weiye Loh on 26 Sep 11
     
    A continuing difficulty for webmasters is the degree to which homophobic statements, including thinly disguised appeals to pseudo-reason, should be allowed. This seems to be more difficult for webmasters than taking decisions regarding racist statements. Why is this so when homophobia is equivalent to racism? Most probably it's because an intellectual position against racism is longer established, and ordinary people, even if they themselves cannot quite articulate the intellectual arguments against it, have imbibed the conclusion - that racism is wrong - as morally-binding. The intellectual position against homophobia is just as strong, but perhaps not enough time has passed for this to migrate into popular consciousness.
Weiye Loh

As Same-Sex Marriage Becomes Legal, Some Choices May Be Lost - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ed-to-get-health-benefits.html

Marriage Homosexuality

shared by Weiye Loh on 10 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • Corning, I.B.M. and Raytheon all provide domestic partner benefits to employees with same-sex partners in states where they cannot marry. But now that they can legally wed in New York, five other states and the District of Columbia, they will be required to do so if they want their partner to be covered for a routine checkup or a root canal.
  • On the surface, this appears to put the couples on an even footing with heterosexual married couples. After all, this is precisely what they have been fighting for: being treated as a spouse. But some gay and lesbian advocates are arguing that the change may have come too soon: some couples may face complications, since their unions are not recognized by the federal government.
  • there were a variety of reasons — legal, financial and personal — that companies should keep the domestic partnership option at least until gay marriage was recognized at the federal level. Legally speaking, getting married could create immigration issues or it could potentially muddy the process of adopting a child. In some instances, he added, an employee may work in a gay marriage state but live in a neighboring state that does not recognize the marriage. The couple may want to wait to marry until they can be legally wed in their home state.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “There are certainly reasons why a couple may not wish to marry,” added Camilla Taylor, marriage project director at Lambda Legal. “People with certain immigration statuses might want to think very carefully before getting married. There are some types of visas that are meant to be temporary, and if you get married to someone who is a citizen, it could flag your renewal application and reflect your more permanent decision to stay.”
  • Weiye Loh on 10 Jul 11
     
    Now that same-sex marriage has been legalized in New York, at least a few large companies are requiring their employees to tie the knot if they want their partners to qualify for health insurance.
Weiye Loh

Woodrow Wilson - Fortune - 0 views

fortune.com/woodrow-wilson

History Racism United States Princeton

shared by Weiye Loh on 26 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 26 Nov 15
     
    "The 28th president should be studied, debated, praised, and criticized-but not expunged for his deplorably common prejudice against black people. Had Woodrow Wilson not been president of the United States, he would still have been one of the greatest leaders of Princeton University. But it is doubtful that his legacy would be the target of the Black Justice League, which wants Princeton to erase the 28th president's name from all public spaces and buildings and from the renowned Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The league is demanding a Wilson-free university because, as president of the United States, he ordered the segregation of federal offices and assigned black troops to segregated units. Wilson's discriminatory racial policies were not merely a concession to the standards of the day-they reflected his own beliefs. He never outgrew the prejudices of his native Virginia-views that were deplorably common among white Americans not only in the south but also in the north."
Weiye Loh

Why isn't the Indian caste system more protested in the United States? - Marginal REVOL... - 0 views

marginalrevolution.com/...m-protested-united-states.html

Caste India United States Politics

shared by Weiye Loh on 11 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 11 Nov 17
     
    2. Most of the Indians who migrate to the United States are higher caste or at least middling caste, and they sway American opinions of India in a way that South African migrants to the USA never did. 3. Libertarians don't want to focus on the caste system because it persists without active government support being the main driver.  Democrats don't want to focus on the caste system because Indian-Americans are often leading supporters and donors.  It doesn't feel like a Republican issue either.  So who is there to push this one for domestic ideological reasons?
Weiye Loh

America's new working poor - in manufacturing - 0 views

www.seattletimes.com/...-working-poor-in-manufacturing

Manufacturing Welfare Profit Middle-Class

shared by Weiye Loh on 17 May 16 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 17 May 16
     
    But a new report from researchers at theUniversity of California at Berkeleyindicates this is increasingly the outlier in U.S. manufacturing. It also raises questions about returning manufacturing jobs to the United States as a simple fix for rising income inequality. The report found that from 2009 to 2013, the federal and state governments spent $10.2 billion annually on social safety net programs for workers and their families in frontline factory jobs.
Weiye Loh

'Citizens of the World'? Nice Thought, But ... - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...-of-the-world-nice-thought-but

Identity Europe EU Brexit Economics Football

shared by Weiye Loh on 26 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 26 Jun 16
     
    When asked "Where are you from?" almost no one would answer "Europe," because after 50 years of assiduous labor by the eurocrats, Europe remains a continent, not an identity. As Matthew Yglesiaspoints out, an EU-wide soccer team would be invincible -- but who would root for it? These sorts of tribal affiliations cause problems, obviously, which is why elites were so eager to tamp them down. Unfortunately, they are also what glues polities together, and makes people willing to sacrifice for them. Trying to build the state without the nation has led to the mess that is the current EU. And to Thursday's election results. Elites missed this because they're the exception -- the one group that has a transnational identity. And in fact the arguments for the EU look a lot like the old arguments for national states: a project that will empower people like us against the scary people who aren't.
Weiye Loh

Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges | World news | ... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...-pregnant-women-murder-charges

Abortion Baby Rights Law Choice

shared by Weiye Loh on 25 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • "If it's not a crime for a mother to intentionally end her pregnancy, how can it be a crime for her to do it unintentionally, whether by taking drugs or smoking or whatever it is," Robert McDuff, a civil rights lawyer asked the state supreme court.
  • anti-abortion groups were trying to amend the Mississippi constitution by setting up a state referendum, or ballot initiative, that would widen the definition of a person under the state's bill of rights to include a foetus from the day of conception.
  • Perhaps the most persuasive argument put forward in the amicus briefs is that if such prosecutions were designed to protect the unborn child, then they would be utterly counter-productive: "Prosecuting women and girls for continuing [a pregnancy] to term despite a drug addiction encourages them to terminate wanted pregnancies to avoid criminal penalties. The state could not have intended this result when it adopted the homicide statute."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • South Carolina was one of the first states to introduce such a foetal homicide law. National Advocates for Pregnant Women has found only one case of a South Carolina man who assaulted a pregnant woman having been charged under its terms, and his conviction was eventually overturned. Yet the group estimates there have been up to 300 women arrested for their actions during pregnancy.
  • Bei Bei Shuai, 34, has spent the past three months in a prison cell in Indianapolis charged with murdering her baby. On 23 December she tried to commit suicide by taking rat poison after her boyfriend abandoned her.Shuai was rushed to hospital and survived, but she was 33 weeks pregnant and her baby, to whom she gave birth a week after the suicide attempt and whom she called Angel, died after four days. In March Shuai was charged with murder and attempted foeticide and she has been in custody since without the offer of bail.
  • In Alabama at least 40 cases have been brought under the state's "chemical endangerment" law. Introduced in 2006, the statute was designed to protect children whose parents were cooking methamphetamine in the home and thus putting their children at risk from inhaling the fumes.Amanda Kimbrough is one of the women who have been ensnared as a result of the law being applied in a wholly different way. During her pregnancy her foetus was diagnosed with possible Down's syndrome and doctors suggested she consider a termination, which Kimbrough declined as she is not in favour of abortion.The baby was delivered by caesarean section prematurely in April 2008 and died 19 minutes after birth.Six months later Kimbrough was arrested at home and charged with "chemical endangerment" of her unborn child on the grounds that she had taken drugs during the pregnancy – a claim she has denied."That shocked me, it really did," Kimbrough said. "I had lost a child, that was enough."
  • Women's rights campaigners see the creeping criminalisation of pregnant women as a new front in the culture wars over abortion, in which conservative prosecutors are chipping away at hard-won freedoms by stretching protection laws to include foetuses, in some cases from the day of conception. In Gibbs' case defence lawyers have argued before Mississippi's highest court that her prosecution makes no sense. Under Mississippi law it is a crime for any person except the mother to try to cause an abortion.
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