behavior, morals, characteristics...

As usual, I've said something that started a nearly-very-heated discussion. :-\ In short, to a discussion about the Boy Scouts I added that I did not like their religious bent, someone took that a step further by accusing the BSA of homophobia, and then Howard Tayler said that the BSA's actions are not homophobic, and are instead promoting morals uniformly against any form of sexuality.

I respect Tayler a good deal - he is really smart and funny, and for a Mormon is quite open minded, so I was surprised at his comment, with which I disagree. As I understand it, and as I read it online, the Boy Scouts of America expressly forbids anyone who self-identifies as preferring people of the same gender rather than people of opposite gender. (They also forbid atheists, but that's a different issue.) They do not expressly forbid promiscuity. Their policy is against "known or avowed" homosexuals, does not allow "out" but celibate homosexuals, but does allow promiscuous heterosexuals. To me, this shows a policy directly targeting homosexual preference, not homosexual behavior, and therefore is a homophobic policy, not a morals-based policy.

Dominatrix Defense

This one's thorny. No pun intended, really.

Prosecution says an MA dominatrix bound and beat her client until he died of a heart attack, failed to call 911, and later confessed to chopping up and disposing of his body. Defense says there is no body, no blood, no physical evidence that the client ever died rather than simply absconding for elsewhere, and that the dominatrix's confession was coerced, off the record, and wasn't taped or transcribed. Jury deliberations started today, continue Monday.

To me, it should be an open-and-shut-case considering that there's zero evidence, let alone "beyond reasonable doubt." However the public's view of BDSM, and the prosecuting attorney's flamboyant re-enactment may taint the jury, even in Massachusetts.

(And bizarrely, as I spell-checked this entry, I realized that every misspelling in it was done the British way. Too much BBC for me!)