A new report out of Britain’s Open University last week looks at the unique challenges facing the bisexual community and the compounding impact of homophobia and biphobia. A meta-analysis of various studies found that bisexual people face a higher risk of mental health problems — such as depression, anxiety, self harm, and suicidal thinking — than even gays and lesbians. This is because people who are bi face distinct forms of stereotypes and exclusion that come from both the straight and gay communities. Here are a selection of some of the recommendations the study makes for combating biphobia:

• Separate biphobia out from homophobia, recognising that there are specific issues facing bisexual people such as lack of acknowledgement of their existence, stereotypes of greediness or promiscuity, and pressure to be either gay or straight.
• Recognise the role that biphobia and bisexual invisibility play in creating negative outcomes for bisexual people.
• Recognise that bisexual people are also subject to homophobia, heterosexism and heteronormativity.
• Tackle biphobic hate crime by separating out the experiences of bisexual people in national surveys, examining bisexual-specific experiences, and particularly addressing sexual assault.
• Specifically target bisexual youth in sexual health campaigns, rather than subsuming them in lesbian and gay categories. Any restrictions relating to sexual health, such as the donation of blood, should be around safety of sexual practices engaged in rather than the genders or sexual identities of those involved.

The full report is worth a read, as it includes the testimony of many bisexual people and a helpful discussion for understanding the identity’s many possible variations. Given researchers are still wasting time on whether bisexuality even exists — it does — further examination for the unique experiences of bi people can further an understanding of all people’s sexualities and the way society treats them. (HT: Jane Fae.)

During a 2008 “Press & People of Faith in Politics” forum, Rick Santorum described to the Democratic Party as “the party of Woodstock,” and accused lawmakers of “prey[ing] upon our most basic primal lusts.” Asked to name a couple of words he’d heard attached to religion and politics in his years in the Senate, Santorum listed “moderate,” “ultra-conservative,” “liberal,” and “zealous” before launching into a full-on tirade against Democrats:

“Woodstock is the great American orgy. This is who the Democratic Party has become. They have become the party of Woodstock. The prey upon our most basic primal lusts, and that’s sex. And the whole abortion culture, it’s not about life. It’s about sexual freedom. That’s what it’s about. Homosexuality. It’s about sexual freedom.”

Of course Santorum will position Republicans as the “anti-homosexuality” party if he wins the nomination and has pledged to to annul all same-sex marriages and personally campaign in every state against marriage equality.

– Fatima Najiy

During last week’s hearing before the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee, a spokesperson from Catholic Charities testified that if the state legally recognized same-sex civil unions, the organization would halt all adoption and foster care services in the state, as they have in states like Illinois. Senators Pat Steadman (D) and Ellen Roberts (R) pointed out that — unlike in other states’ laws — the proposed bill clearly says that adoption agencies will not be required to place children with gay and lesbian couples, but Catholic Charities threatened to end its services nontheless:

CATHOLIC CHARITIES: We would not be able to adopt to same-sex couples.

STEADMAN: And the bill doesn’t ask you to.

ROBERTS: I just have one clarification as to whether you think the bill would prohibit those services or if you think, under a state of law, you would choose not to provide those services?

CATHOLIC CHARITIES: Under the state of law, Catholic Charities would have to discontinue our service in adoption and foster care. We would discontinue our service.

After some further discussion, Steadman summed up Catholic Charities’ “disappointing position” as, “If we have to serve everyone, we’ll choose to serve no one.” Watch the testimony and discussion:

One Colorado has started a petition encouraging Colorado legislators to “stay strong against these shocking scare tactics and threats.”

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney (D) said that Gov. Chris Christie (R) was “1000 percent wrong” in vetoing legislation expanding marriage to gay and lesbian couples on Friday and vowed to keep the question off of the ballot. “We got elected to make decisions. When the governor cut funding for sexually abused children, that didn’t go on the ballot. When he cut funding for visually impaired children, that didn’t go on the ballot. We get elected to make decisions and this is a decision we have to make,” Sweeney explained during an appearance on CNN this Sunday.

He also predicted that if Republicans could “vote their conscience,” the legislature would have the votes to override Christie’s veto. Last week, the Assembly passed marriage equality in a vote of 42-33, falling 12 votes shy of a two-thirds majority. The Senate was three votes short in its vote. The legislature has until 2014 to build a majority for same-sex marriage. Watch Sweeney’s remarks:

Conservative Arizona sheriff Paul Babeu has gained a lot of prominence as a proponent of the state’s anti-immigration policy, a staunch supporter of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a Congressional candidate, and the volunteer co-chair of Mitt Romney’s Arizona campaign, but he now finds himself mired in a scandal with a jilted lover. In a case of he-said-he-said, his former partner Jose Orozco alleges that Babeu threatened to deport him if he revealed their relationship, though it seems Orozco has legal status in the U.S. Babeu, in turn, alleges that Orozco had refused to turn over passwords he had access to as a volunteer — or possibly had hacked — for Babeu’s campaign.

As a result of the scandal, Babeu has publicly come out as a gay man and resigned from his position with Romney’s campaign. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, he admitted his support for marriage equality, saying he believes “we’re evolving as a country and a nation”:

BABEU: I can tell you my personal beliefs and my political beliefs is [sic]: I believe in freedom of religion. And there are faiths and religions that our government shouldn’t get involved in that absolutely do not condone gay marriage. The government shouldn’t tell those faiths and those religions that they have to.  At the same time, I don’t believe they should tell other faiths that they can’t.  And this is where our government needs to get the heck out of the way.  And if it’s not harming someone else, then what does it matter?  And you can’t legislate love.

Watch it: