Category Archives: Transhuman

A new trailer for the original science fiction TV animeID-0is now available online, and it introduces more of the setting and characters, including the "mind trance system" that allows people to transfer their personalities into versatile robots known as I-Machines. The trailer also features the song "Stargarden", performed by Sayaka Sasaki.

ID-0 is directed by Goro Taniguchi and features animation by Sanzigen. The series is currently airing in Japan on Tokyo MX, Sun TV, KBS Kyoto, and BS11, and will also be digitally distributed by Netflix.

Netflix describes ID-0 as follows:

"In the midst of a field exercise operating I-Machines, Alliance Academy student Maya Mikuri is thrown into an entirely different kind of adventure. Robots designed for extreme environments are just the beginning. Now she's facing instellar pirates and more."

Source: Ota-suke

Paul Chapman is the host ofThe Greatest Movie EVER! Podcastand GME! Anime Fun Time.

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Crunchyroll - New "ID-0" Trailer Introduces the Transhuman I ... - Crunchyroll News

Change in the direction of humanity is inevitable. Whether Transhuman or Posthuman, we are unlikely to be the humans of recent history in the immediate future that lies ahead. The disruption to normal human life is profound in implication and consequence. From communication to life changing technologies the fabric of human existence is being fundamentally disrupted and re-engineered.

In an era where the developing wisdom encourages continuous challenge of the status quo how do the disrupted generation, shaped by the value systems of the past, adapt to this ever-changing world. The deer caught in the headlights analogy perhaps understates the many challenges facing humans shaped by societal norms of the recent past. Technological progression represents the proverbial oncoming truck of change that threatens to ride roughshod over those of us rooted to the spot unable to adapt.

Value systems centered around life and death, religious moral and philosophical frameworks, pro-creation, family values and capitalism are being inevitably challenged. Global political systems are showing many signs of frailty through the Arab Spring, rise of populism, anti-establishment sentiment and the fragmentation of globalism. These symptoms would appear to represent society grappling with the disruptions to the status quo unfolding around us.

With value systems of the future framed by extended longevity, human-technology integration, space colonization, artificial super intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, universal basic income, and interconnectedness the value systems of the past will become largely defunct. Expected casualties are likely to include current religious doctrines, the capitalist system, accepted norms on the inevitability of death, education systems, employment practices, monetary systems, family, and social systems. In short just about everything will be disrupted and subject to re-invention.

This level of change from accepted norms will undoubtedly face unprecedented resistance and an extended period of turbulence is expected in this transitional twilight as an increasingly interconnected humanity reacts to these life changes. This would be consistent with accepted human reactions to change, of shock, resistance and defensive retreat prior to acceptance and adaptation to the changes. Studies suggest that only approximately one quarter of us actively engage and welcome change, whilst the remainder either go with the flow or resist. To prevent a protracted transitional period of uncertainty and unrest it is therefore imperative that the change agents pursue a cohesive strategy of disruptive evolution.

During this disruptive transition period, how do the affected generations adapt and promulgate a successful transition to a different vision of the future? From the older segments of the population, who are perhaps more fashioned by convention, to the increasingly progressive younger age bracket, embracing change will be required for survival. This survival is in itself being disrupted on many levels is it merely the survival of the individual, or of the species as we know it. And what is survival?

Consider the current generation of humanity as the last bastions of mortality perhaps, faced with the prospect that the immediate future generation, indeed some of the younger current humans, are the forerunners of the first Immortals. Immortality is a strong word that invokes and attracts debate and often distraction. It is simply the opposite of mortal and most of the disruptive technologies with respect to human life extension are indeed trying to address the issues associated with ageing and mortality and effectively break the cycle of life and death.

But is the human populace ready for radical progression through transhumanism? A simple survey was developed to gauge the readiness and/or willingness of those surveyed (broad USA cross section, n=200) for/towards transhumanism.

The survey entitled Human Progressive Survey was conducted with the PollfishTM application and the full results and demographics of those surveyed can be viewed via:

https://disruptiveevolution.000webhostapp.com/ (Human Progressive Test button) or

https://www.pollfish.com/dashboard/results/272160/1152277235

The results of survey responses (for all participants) are summarized in the graphs below (including a few demographic qualification questions):

Responses to the individual questions in the survey highlight some interesting points:

Approximately one-third of respondents support transhuman principles with a further one-third undecided.

Greater than half of respondents support radical life extension yet the majority believe human mortality to be part of the normal cycle of life and death

The majority of respondents expect the technological Singularity to occur in the 20-40-year time frame but are largely unconvinced that transhuman forms will develop in the interim

Evolution of humans to transhuman forms will be for the select few

Artificial Intelligence development is viewed cautiously with approximately two-thirds of respondents believing it should be done carefully, yet nearly half believe it will not surpass human intellect.

The overwhelming majority of participants viewed human poverty, hunger and the environment as the important issues facing humanity

These results suggest that transhuman principles are moderately accepted and understood within the surveyed group.

This is perhaps a reflection of a prevalent attitude supporting life extension but stopping short of stepping outside the norms with respect to mortality.

It is interesting to note that the majority of those surveyed actually expect the technological Singularity to occur. In the transitionary period, there is uncertainty whether transhuman forms will develop through physical and intellectual augmentation in tandem with CRISPR gene-editing techniques.

The surfeit of media discussion on Artificial Intelligence and the views of prominent futurists such as Musk and Hawkings seem to have imparted a very cautious view of Artificial Intelligence development. Whilst the respondents are cautious overall only 22% believed we should not pursue AI at all. Expectations on the level of intelligence AI will reach are however guarded when asked when AI will surpass human intellect 40% answered never. The remaining 60% believed this would happen within 10 to 30 years.

Though the majority of respondents support space colonization by humans or our transhuman counterparts it is interesting to note that the remaining 40% of respondents did not support any form of space colonization.

Half of respondents believe that should transhuman progression occur it will not be for the entire human population but rather for select individuals based on status age, wealth, intelligence or race.

This result suggests that the majority of respondents are more focused on our immediate environment and concerns rather than more future based activities such as Artificial Intelligence, CRISPR gene-editing or space colonization.

Human Progressive Index

To evaluate the progressiveness of the survey group a binary scoring system (+score for more progressive answers, -score for less progressive answers and nil scores for non-committal answers) was developed for individual responses to arrive at a total score or index where an index of minus one represents the least progressive and plus one the most progressive.

The results for various demographic groupings are presented below in simple frequency histograms (note all populations normalized to n=200).

The entire survey population shows a marked regressive bias distribution indicating the overall population is non-progressive in terms of transforming the species through progressive technology, transhuman development and space colonization. To isolate the more progressive subsets within the population surveyed different age brackets and male: female subsets were analyzed.

Considering two selected age brackets (25-34yrs and 45-54yrs) against the overall population highlights the importance of age to the progressive index distribution. Clearly the younger 25-34yrs age bracket is more progressive than the overall population while the older 45-54yrs age bracket is more regressive.

Comparing the male and female subsets of the population reveal some interesting differences.

Clearly the female subset of the population is markedly regressive when compared to the more progressive distribution for the male subset. This raises some interesting questions as to why the female subset appears less progressive fear of change, lower risk tolerance, other priorities, more social concerns may be some of the factors at play.

Taking the more progressive 25-34 yrs age bracket it is interesting to compare the male:female subsets within this age group.

The results are quite startling showing almost diametrically opposed populations a markedly regressive female 25-34yr subset versus a markedly progressive male counterpart. Exploring the reasons behind these differences is outside the scope of this article however it is hoped that these results will encourage discussion and further research into these dynamics.

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The Disrupted Generation - h+ Magazine

BELIEVER gained worldwide recognition for their boundary-breaking, artistic form of progressive metal music. The early albums threwopen the doors to collaborations between metal and orchestral musicians and sealedthe bands legacy. BELIEVERsfocus on creativity and innovation has earned praise from fans and musicians worldwide.

March 20, 2017 | Progressive metallers BELIEVER are back with new music. New songs from Believer will be released throughout 2017, culminating in the release of a physical product to be announced later this year. Believer fans will enjoy (or not) digital releases every few months with new artwork from Eye Level Studios Michael Rosner to accompany each release. The first installment, titled 1 of 5, contains two songs and wasreleased via Trauma Team Productions on March 18, 2017. The songs were mixed by Kevin Gutierrez at Assembly Line Studios and mastered by Bill Wolf of Wolf Productions.

As Believer fans know, the bands sound is constantly evolving as they explore new creative directions with each release. Kurt Bachman (Guitars/Vocals) explains, At this point our goal was to write good songs, but to also make ourselves feel a bit musically uncomfortable. We have long admired the musicianship of Rush, Yes, Kansas, etc, but it was their ability to write great, memorable songs that has always inspired us. After 30 years, I would say that with these songs, we are combining the Believer sound with our very early musical roots and having a fun time doing it!

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Home - Believer

In this musical landscape of on-demand streaming and disposable playlists for every mood and occasion, its really a blessing when an artist gives us the opportunity to slow down and really listen to their music. That is part of the beauty of Rubios new EP series. Rubio is the solo electronic project of drummer, singer, and Chilean national treasure Fran Straube, who is best known for fronting and drumming in electronic rock band Miss Garrison. Following last years self-titled debut EP, Straube has just released atwo-song EP, with promises of four more to come in 2017 through Jungla. Its a way ofexploring her sound on this project while keeping fans involved in the experience for a whole year. Plus, the strategy gives us time to fully explore each song.

The first of this series, titled R, consists of Luz and Indonesia, two songs that warrant repeated plays and engaged listening. With this new material, Straube reminds those who follow her many musical endeavors that her gift for rhythm applies to digital beats just as much as it does to analog percussion. The first Rubio EP pushed the envelope for stylish downtempo and dabbled in dembow, managing to be simultaneously cool and sultry. This new EPcito is even more experimental in some ways, and a touch more minimal. (If you must playlist these songs, slide them in between the latest Arca and Nicolas Jaar.)

If R can be taken as a kind of digital seven-inch, then Luz, featuring a vocal assist from Carlos Cabezas of seminal Chilean electronic group Electrodomsticos, is the A side. Together, the two avant savants deliver a smooth electrobolero, their smoky, intertwined vocals haunting the track like a ghost in a shell. Much like Al Sol de Noche, Straubes most recent album with Miss Garrison, the sci-fi vibes are thick here. Luz would be perfect for soundtracking a Bladerunner-style android adventure film set in present-day Santiago de Chile. Lado B Indonesia holds its own by being both more challenging and more pop. With just the right amount of auto-tune on an anthemic vocal hook, Straube becomes a transhuman chanteuse, riding a jazzy production with subtle Southeast Asian references.

Its hard not to look ahead and wonder what othersurprises the EP series will reveal. You can probably figure out what the next four EPs will be titled. The only other thing we can tell you is that, once this journey is over, all the songs will be put together as a limited physical release.

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Rubio Announces 5-EP Series With Two Bone-Chilling New Tracks - Remezcla (blog)

Last Friday, the Stony Island Arts Bank showcased the work of international female art collective Hyphen-Labs.Their newest project,NeuroSpeculativeAfroFeminism(NSAF), attempts to revive the aesthetic movement of Afrofuturisma magical-realistscience fiction exploration of black culture and historyby incorporating contemporary design, neuroscience, and technology to preserve black culture in the digital age.

The NSAF project is highly ambitious; it places real-world objects alongside a virtual reality (V.R.) AfroFeminism experience. Unfortunately, Fridays promised V.R.demonstration flopped; the headset would not function properly, disappointing about 30expectant attendees.

NSAFs products seek to address the daily needs of black citizens in the digital age. One such product was a pair of huge, pink door-knocker earrings that record video on command. These conspicuous earrings, the group explained, could help many black women feel more secure in their everyday life. Another innovation was a digitally-printed headscarf, inspired by traditional African headscarves. What is more, the headscarf technology combats facerecognition algorithms by overloading the software, rendering the wearer untraceable. In an age of constant surveillance, the headscarf works to make black women feel more secure.

Hyphen-Labssfeature creation was a mixed-media, chiefly V.R.neurocosmetology experience. The viewer enters a spacehalf neurosurgery bay, half hair salonwhere, the event description stated, black women pioneer brain modulation and cognitive enhancement by embedding electrodes into extensions and braiding techniques. The need for a hair salon, according to the group, stems from technology designers failure to produce headset designs that accommodate larger hair.

When Hyphen-Labs was describing the fictionalcharacterswho inhabit the neurocosmetology salon, they introduced a black woman named TechnoAfricanum-Culturist, a billion-year-old trans-human.

What is a black woman whos a trans-human? an artist rhetorically asked the audience. [It is] where your technology is inextricably linked to your self. TechnoAfricanum-Culturist, for example, reportedly holds the balance of all of the universes in her larger-than-life silver afro.

The project, however, had some striking weaknesses. Headsets continued to malfunction during the event, and the productsthough they claimed everyday utilitywere impractically niche. Hyphen-Labs, moreover, includes only one black member.

Some of Fridays attendees appeared uncomfortable.One woman in the audience later asked, in reference to the digitally printed headscarf, as women, whether white, black, Asian, we all are vulnerable, so why did you specifically choose one particular group when pretty much everyone could wear [the headscarf]?

Acknowledging that I am not a member of the target demographic, I cant judge the appropriateness of this kind of artistic creation, but the project nonetheless struck me as drawing on cultural stereotypes in dangerous ways. There is no question that black culture must be preserved and promoted, but there must be a way to express its spirit without reasserting only its most visible tropes into the conversation. It felt odd that the artists would choose to address larger social issues through capitalist consumerism and by reducing women to their cosmetic choices. I getthe unshakable feeling that a black futuristic womans larger-than-life silver afro is analogous in this situation to, say, a Jewish futuristic mans larger-than-life silver yarmulke.

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Afrofuturism Tries to Find its Footing in Virtual Reality - The Chicago Maroon

We still dont know when its Closed Beta will begin, but Bethesda and id Software recently deployed another Character Trailer for Quake Champions. This time around, fans will get a chance to meet Anarki the Transhuman Punk, a drug-addled lover of heavy metal and hoverboards:

Anarki (Transhuman Punk) Anarkis rebellion began with the usual self-vandalism, but he craved something greater, and found it in transhumanism. Addiction, injury, disease Why tolerate flesh if he could replace it? Using family riches, he underwent increasingly extreme cybernetic surgeries. After a microelectrode pierced his pineal gland, Anarki perceived a surreal, alien reality breakthrough! He eagerly sought more procedures, ignoring the insomnia. Each strengthened his perception of the hidden realm. But only once he met a girl who saw it, too, was he sure he could reach it.

Active Ability Health Injection: Taking too much damage? Good thing for you Anarki is well-versed in various performance enhancing treatments. Use the Health Injection Active Ability to give Anarki a quick heal mid-match. Juice it up, baby!

Passive Ability Hoverboard Air Control: Anarkis hoverboard is a brutal bonus. Anarki is already one of the fastest Champions in the game, but the hoverboard means he can actually gain speed as he strafe-jumps around the Arenas, reaching a ludicrous velocity. In addition, his hoverboard awards a special Passive Ability that allows players more control in mid-air to turn sharply and chase down enemies or escape those who dare follow him up a jump pad.

Three Champions have been revealed so far, and Anarki will join Nyx the Fathom Agent and Scalebearer the Galactic Warlord on the battlefield in Quake Champions when it launches later this year.

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Anarki is a Transhuman Punk in the latest Quake Champions trailer - Warp Zoned

Transhuman Designs brutally hard 2D shooter is launching on PS4 and Xbox One in Q2 2017, pre-orders for European PSN start now.

Warsaw, Poland, March 23 rd, 2017: BUTCHER is fast-paced 2D shooter and a blood-soaked love letter to the cult classics of the genre, developed by Transhuman Design the studio behind Soldat and King Arthurs Gold. The game will be published on PS4 and Xbox One by Crunching Koalas in Q2 2017. Heavily discounted pre-orders for the Special Edition Bundle have already started on the European PSN.

As a cyborg programmed to eradicate the last remains of humanity, your sole purpose is to well... annihilate anything that moves. Grab your weapon of choice (from chainsaw, through shotgun, to grenade launcher) and kill your way through underground hideouts, post-apocalyptic cities, jungles and more. And if you're feeling creative, there are plenty other ways of ending your enemies' misery - hooks, lava pits, saws... no death will ever be the same.

If kicking corpses into a lava pit and adorning walls with blood is your idea of a good time, BUTCHER is THE game for you.

Announcement Trailer: https://youtu.be/8sMkdNJN_lY

Xbox Wire Blog Post: https://news.xbox.com/2017/03/22/butcher-coming-soon-xbox-one/

BUTCHERs main features:

Game info:

PS4 Pre-Orders (Europe): http://bit.ly/butcher_ps4_preOrder

Xbox Wire blog post: https://news.xbox.com/2017/03/22/butcher-coming-soon-xbox-one/

PlayStation Game Detail Page: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/butcher-ps4/

Announcement trailer (YouTube): https://youtu.be/8sMkdNJN_lY

GIF Pack: http://bit.ly/butcherGIFs

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Launch Price: $9.99, 9.99, 7.99 (Standard version), $12.99, 12.99, 9.99 (Special Edition Bundle including the base game and soundtrack)

Developed by: Transhuman Design

Published by: Crunching Koalas (PS4 / Xbox One)

For preview codes please contact Tom Tomaszewski: tom@crunchingkoalas.com

About Transhuman Design

Transhuman Design is an independent studio led by Michal Marcinkowski, creator of Soldat, the indie classic that dominated the 2D multiplayer world and directly inspired games like N, Showdown Effect and Take Arms. Soldat was followed by King Arthurs Gold, a very successful (and crazy) multiplayer buildnkill game featuring ridable sharks, shields used as parachutes and catapults employed as rapid means of transport into enemy base. The current projects range from Butcher, a blood-soaked love letter to Doom and Quake, to the atmospheric, story-driven Transmigration.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/TranshumanDesign

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thdtweet

About Crunching Koalas

Crunching Koalas is a small game development team based in Warsaw, Poland. After developing and publishing MouseCraft, an indie puzzler commonly described as a mix of Lemmings and Tetris, they decided to start helping other indies in getting their titles (like BUTCHER and Lichtspeer) published on consoles.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/CrunchingKoalas

Twitter: https://twitter.com/crunchingkoalas

For more info please contact Tom Tomaszewski: tom@crunchingkoalas.com

Games Press is the leading online resource for games journalists. Used daily by magazines, newspapers, TV, radio, online media and retailers worldwide, it offers a vast, constantly updated archive of press releases and assets, and is the simplest and most cost-effective way for PR professionals to reach the widest possible audience. Registration for the site and the Games Press email digest is available, to the trade only, at http://www.gamespress.com

Excerpt from:
BUTCHER, a rapid skill-based carnage from the makers of Soldat, is coming to PS4 and Xbox One - Develop

Nigeria's Minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazau has said the newly launched 2017 Immigration Regulation will go a long way in tackling terrorism and herders/farmers clashes in the country.

Dambazau made the disclosure while launching the new immigration regulation document in Abuja on Monday.

He said the Regulation will empower the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to not only register everyone coming into the country but also monitor the movements of visitors throughout their stay.

While noting that ECOWAS encourages free movement of humans within the West African region, Dambazau assured that since most herdsmen were foreigners who moves around the continent to feed their flocks, they will be made to register in order to get trans-human certificate.

"Reception centres will be created and manned by Immigration Service officers which will help to register them and present them with trans-human certificate," he said.

Dambazau said the Immigration Regulation was to provide the legal framework for the implementation of the 2015 Immigration Act.

The minister assured that provisions contained in the Regulation will enhance security while also improving the ease of doing business in the country.

On his part, Muhammadu Maccido, the Director overseeing the office of the Permanent Secretary of the Interior ministry said the "Regulation was introduced to fill the gaps outlined in the enabling legislation", adding that enforcement of the Regulation will encourage investment in the country.

Speaking earlier, the Comptroller General of the NIS, Mohammad Babandede said the service had been operating an obsolete Act which was grossly inadequate to contain the unfolding realities.

The first Immigration Act, passed by the parliament in 1963 only allowed a maximum of N100 fine for offenders but the new one has increased the fine to N1000000.

Babandede said the service will conduct a training program for its men and officers to get them updated on the provisions of the new Regulation.

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Immigration launches new regulations to check terrorism, herders/farmers clashes - Daily Trust

Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence and Where It's Taking Us Next By Luke Dormehl Tarcher Perigee 275pages ISBN: 978-0-14-313058-1 $16

The Future of Humanity Institute researcher Anders Sandberg has said that we talk about 'artificial intelligence' only until it works; thereafter we call it 'automation'. How smart, for example, is a computer that can win at chess, Jeopardy, or even Go when it can't extrapolate from its knowledge of those games to tackle something else? Our inner biological supremacists can smugly dismiss those computers as automation.

At the beginning of Luke Dormehl's Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence and Where It's Taking Us Next, 'computers' are people whose actuarial jobs require them to perform complex calculations. By the end, the scientists he interviews are discussing a future in which computers may be a lot like people. In between, Dormehl reviews how the field has developed.

In 1956, the Dartmouth College conference convened by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Claude Shannon, and Nathaniel Rochester thought that significant advances could be made if a selected group of scientists collaborated for a summer. With hindsight, it seems clear they were taking on a much bigger project than they imagined, when they said, in the proposal, that the basis was "the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it".

Maybe it can be that precisely described -- but as it turns out, we still don't fully understand the brain function we're trying to design computer systems to match.

Dormehl continues through early expert systems, early neural networks, the 'AI winter', the recent renaissance of neural networks, and on to transhumanism, brain uploading, and the Singularity. Dormehl reviews current debates: employment, ethics, and transparency. It's only in the latter discussion, at the end of the book, that the two most familiar examples of fictional AI -- the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey and Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics -- make their appearance.

If you've been following the development of artificial intelligence all along, Dormehl's book won't have much that's new for you. If you haven't, however, it provides a pretty good introduction to the beginnings of the field, how it has developed, some possible futures it may bring, and a few timely warnings.

Obviously, many advances have been made in the last 25 years. We can now issue instructions to voice assistants in the reasonable expectation that they will respond appropriately a fair percentage of the time. Computers can win against the very best human players of some genuinely difficult games. And deep neural networks can study millions of photographs and figure out which ones are cats even without pre-programming.

And yet...the outline of Dormehl's book isn't so different from Ed Regis's vastly more entertaining 1990 book Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition. The biggest difference is that in 1990 you could read Regis's book as wild satire. No chance of that with Dormehl. As he says, a lot of this stuff is real now.

Read more book reviews

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Thinking Machines, book review: AI, past, present and future - ZDNet

PIERRE, S.D. (ChurchMilitant.com) - South Dakota becomes the fourth state to protect the right of adoption agencies to refuse placing children with same-sex couples.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard on March 10,signed Senate Bill 149 which reads, "No child-placement agency may be required to provide any service that conflicts with or provide any service under circumstances that conflict with any sincerely-held religious belief or moral conviction of the child-placement agency."

The law grants a religious exemption to taxpayer-funded adoption and foster-care agencies, allowing them to avoid placing children with LGBT couples based on religious objections.

Adoption and foster care agencies that withhold services to gay couples out of concern for the child's spiritual welfare are now protected from adverse state actions including:

Loss of state funding

Loss of tax-exemptions

Imposition of fines

Revoked licenses

South Dakota becomes the fourth state to afford such legal protection to adoption agencies. Michigan, North Dakota and Virginia have already granted similar religious exemptions to child-care facilities. Other states in the process of enacting such laws are Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma.

Supporters of the law say the preemptive measure was necessary, to ensure such facilities acting on religious convictions, would not be forced to close their doors in the event that South Dakota followed several other states in banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Adoption agencies in Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Washington D.C. have voluntarily shut down services after their states passed laws banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Alan Solano, said he wants to prevent the same thing from happening in South Dakota.

At the "Humanum" conference in 2014, Pope Francis stated, "Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child's development and emotional maturity."

Laura Durso, vice president of LGBT research and communications at the Center for American Progress, remarked thatthe law is "shamefully targeting LGBT parents and vulnerable kids."

James Esseks, director of the ACLU's LGBT Project, called the legislation "deeply troubling because it's "only one of many bills moving through state legislatures across the country that authorizes taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBT Americans."

Jim Kinyon, executive director of South Dakota's Catholic Social Services, says the legislation prevents the state from discriminating against faith-based organizations, which act in accord with their "sincerely held" beliefs.

Religious agencies believe children do best with a mother and a father. A study conducted last year by the Catholic University of America (CUA) shows children raised by same-sex couples are twice as likely to suffer depression as adults compared to children who have a mother and father.

The study, "Invisible Victims: Delayed Onset Depression Among Adults with Same-Sex Parents," published in the journal Depression Research and Treatment, is the first study to monitor such children into adulthood.

The findings show that 18 percent of children raised by same-sex couples were depressed as adolescents, but by age 28 the number of those depressed surged to 51 percent. This was more than twice as high as those raised by heterosexual couples.

The study also reveals that 44 percent of children raised by gays have suicidal thoughts during adolescence. This was three times higher than in children raised by a mother and a father.

The research also showed that 93 percent of children raised by same-sex parents felt distant from their parents during adolescence, and 73 percent felt distant from them as adults.

The study was conducted by sociologist Paul Sullins of CUA, who has conducted previous studies that found children raised by same-sex couples suffer twice as many emotional problems as children raised by opposite-sex parents, and four times as many emotional problems as children raised by their joint-biological parents.

Another study by Sullins showed that ADHD is twice as common among children raised by same-sex couples than in children raised by male and female parents.

Prior to signing the bill, Gov. Dennis Daugaard saidhe was worried that private child-placement agencies, acting in the best interest of a child, might be sued if they denied placing someone in a "protected class," such as members of the LGBT community. His hope is that the recent measure will protect child-care agencies from such lawsuits.

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South Dakota Law Protects Adoption Agencies From LGBT Parenting - Church Militant