United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office Confirms It Has Receives Complaints From Scots Whose Names Were Falsely Added To Anti-Same Sex Marriage Petition, New Gingrich Believes Being Gay A Choice And That Making Any Correlation Between Civil Rights Movement And Gay Rights “Offensive,” Study Reveals Married Gay Men Are Healthier Than Counterparts

An update on previous posts, The Scotsman is now reporting that dozens of names were “falsely added“ to a controversial online petition against same sex marriage that was handed to the Scottish Government as part of its consultation on the issue. Ministers have been asked to “discount” the online petition of more than 9,000 names, amid claims about the “apparent fraudulent nature” of the document. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office confirmed it had received a series of complaints from Scots who claimed their names had been posted on the website of Scotland for Marriage – a coalition including the Catholic Church formed to oppose proposals to change the law to allow same sex marriage. Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale said a number of “furious” constituents had contacted her to say their names had been placed on the anti-gay marriage petition, which has been signed by former SNP leader Gordon Wilson, as well as senior figures from Scotland’s Episcopalians, the United Free Church of Scotland and the Evangelical Alliance. However, Scotland for Marriage rejected claims it had put the false names on its website and suggested its opponents had deliberately posted them to “undermine” the group. It is understood as many as 27 names have been identified as being “falsely added” to the Scotland for Marriage site, which the group ran alongside a separate campaign that saw 28,000 postcards protesting against gay marriage sent to the government. A group that campaigns in support of same sex marriage, seized on the allegations about the web page to question the validity of the postcard campaign, as well as the online petition. Tom French, policy co-ordinator for the Equality Network, which sent 24,000 submissions to the consultation, said, “We are very concerned to hear that names have been falsely added to this petition. Officials will now have to consider whether they can trust the validity of the petition and the recent postcard campaign run by Scotland For Marriage. This is another good reason why the Scottish Government should make a decision on legalising same-sex marriage based on the strength of the arguments, not on a numbers game.” Gay-marriage supporter Paul Gray, 21, a medical student at the University of Edinburgh, is among those who have complained their name was placed on the Scotland for Marriage site. He said he was “shocked” when he saw his name on the group’s petition. “For the past few months, I’ve been really active on Facebook over this issue and have been involved in the equality campaign,” he said. “Someone from the opposition could have seen my name on the web and just added it to their petition. I was completely shocked and feel as though this was about opponents of gay marriage trying to mock us.” Ms Dugdale’s has written to health secretary Nicola Sturgeon asked her to “discount” the 9,045 names on the Scotland for Marriage petition, which is being considered as part of the gay marriage consultation. The Labour MSP’s letter talked about the “apparent fraudulent nature” of the petition and said she understood constituents had “directly” raised allegations about their names being “falsely added” to it with the police. A spokeswoman for the UK Information Commissioner’s Office said it had received a number of complaints alleging that names had falsely been placed on the Scotland for Marriage site. She said, “We’d advise anyone who didn’t put their name to the petition to contact the campaign and ask it to take their names off. But if they refuse, we’d advise them to get in touch with us and make us aware of it.” A spokesman for Scotland for Marriage suggested that supporters of gay marriage had placed their own names on the site in an “underhand tactic” to make it appear that Scotland for Marriage had dishonestly added names to the petition, adding, “This appears to be a malicious attempt to undermine the campaign. A police investigation would be welcome.” The Scottish Government declined to comment on the row.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested Thursday that being gay is a choice, at least for some people. Asked if an individual can choose to be gay, Gingrich told The Des Moines Register editorial board that he does not "believe in genetic determinism, and I don't think there is any great evidence of genetic determinism." He said that certain people may choose to be gay if they have certain genetic traits and are raised in a certain environment. "I think people have a significant range of choice within a genetic pattern," he said. "I believe it's a combination of genetics and environment. I think that both are involved. I think people have many ranges of choices." Gingrich's appears to be saying people can choose to be gay if they have certain "propensities" and genetic and environmental characteristics. Asked if people can choose to be straight, he responded, "Look, people choose to be celibate. People choose many things in life. You know, there is a bias in favour of non-celibacy. It's part of how the species recreates. And yet there is a substantial amount of people who choose celibacy either out of religious vocation or for other reasons." Earlier in the interview, Gingrich was asked if he saw a correlation between the civil rights and gay rights movements. He called the parallel "ludicrous" and "offensive," saying no one is trying to segregate gay Americans. The former House speaker added that his position reflects "a 3,000 year tradition that is very deep in our culture for very profound reasons,” adding, "I think there's an enormous difference between an inescapable fact of race...and a question about culture. A question about 'what are your values?' I think marriage is between a man and a woman. That's a value proposition. There's a big difference between saying that you are going to have an acceptance of people's lifestyle and saying you now are going to normalize that as the standard for the whole country," he continued, before reiterating his support for reinstating the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Gingrich, whose half-sister Candace Gingrich-Jones is gay, earlier this week said he supported sending a constitutional amendment barring same sex marriage to the states.

Gay men who live in states where same sex marriage is legal are healthier, have less stress, make fewer doctor visits and have lower health-care costs, a new study finds. It included more than 1,200 patients at a large Massachusetts health clinic that provides services for gay men and other sexual minorities. During the 12 months after the 2003 legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, there was a significant decrease in medical care visits, mental health visits and mental health-care costs among gay and bisexual men, compared to the 12 months before the law changed. This led to a 13-percent reduction in health-care visits and a 14-percent reduction in health-care costs. The health benefits were similar for single gay men and those with partners. No reduction was seen in HIV-related health visits by HIV-positive men, which suggests that those in need of HIV/AIDS care continued to use needed health-care services, the researchers said. The study was published online December 15 in the American Journal of Public Health. "These findings suggest that marriage equality may produce broad public health benefits by reducing the occurrence of stress-related health conditions in gay and bisexual men," lead author Mark Hatzenbuehler, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said in a foundation news release. Lesbians were not included in the study because there were too few who visit the clinic. Previous research has shown that not having the legal right to marry can have a stressful effect on gays, lesbians and bisexuals, according to the release. "This research makes important contributions to a growing body of evidence on the social, economic and health benefits of marriage equality," Hatzenbuehler said.