Category Archives: Sexuality

Aug 31 4 comments
Religion, Sexuality

Confusion or coercion?

Anti-gay researcher and Regent University prof Mark Yarhouse is at it again. He’s released several studies and what not exploring “ex-gays” and human sexuality. His most recent release is a survey of 104 “sexual minority” youth at Christian colleges.

In a “study” of the (extremely undersampled) surveys, Yarhouse (and a host of other researchers: Stephen Stratton, Janet Dean, and Heather Brooke) find:

  • Awareness of same-sex feelings (about age 13 by 70% of the sample)
  • Confusion about same-sex feelings (age 14-15 by 71% of the sample)
  • Intimately/romantically kissed by someone of the same sex (age 17 by 34% of the sample)
  • Been fondled by someone of the same sex (age 14-15 by 42% of the sample)
  • Fondled someone of the same sex (age 14-15 by 42% of the sample)
  • Same-sex behavior to orgasm (age 16-17 by 29% of the sample)
  • Initial attribution that I am gay (age 17 by 35% of the sample)
  • Took on the label of gay (age 18 by 14% of the sample)
  • First same-sex relationship (age 18-19 by 19% of the sample)
  • First opposite-sex relationship (age 15 by 58% of the sample)

A few figures immediately jumped out at me: By age 13, 70 percent of the students said they were aware of their same-sex feelings. Seventy-one percent said they experienced “confusion” about those feelings at ages 14-15.

Get the whole story »

Aug 17 1 comments
Politics, Sexuality

Follow-up: N.C. senator victim of homophobia?

On Aug. 14, I posted briefly about the continuing controversy down in North Carolina’s coast. Democratic State Sen. RC Soles has been accused of molestation.

In the piece on Aug. 14, I incorrectly stated two young men had accused the senator of misconduct. Only one has. Twenty-seven-year-old Stacy Scott has claimed Soles attempted to fondle him when he was 15 years old, that he objected and that Soles paid him not to tell anyone. Seventeen-year-old Allen Strickland, whose house was paid for by Soles, denies a sexual relationship between him and Soles.

News channel WWAY has found that Soles has financial connections to several young men.

I’m not sold on the allegations. In fact, I’m starting to think RC Soles might be the possible victim of gay and pedophile baiting.

I’ll let you make up your own mind:

WWAY: Interview with Soles
Star-News: Allen Strickland interview
Star-News: Soles denies molesting teen

Aug 14 0 comments
Politics, Sexuality

N.C. state senator accused of molestation

rcsolesWhere in the hell have I been?

For a couple of weeks, TV news down on the North Carolina coast has been reporting of sexual misconduct allegations thrown toward 74-year-old Democratic N.C. State Sen. R.C. Soles.

It seems there are two men, a 17-year-old and a 27-year-old, who claim the senator had a sexual relationship with them. See updated Aug. 17 post.

The 17-year-old’s house just burnt down. The house, it seems, was bought and paid for by Sen. Soles, who says the teen was merely a “good friend,” and the house a part of an “agreement” the two had. The 27-year-old says Soles fondled him when he was 15.

News channel WWAY reports:

Seventeen-year-old Allen Strickland has been in the news for weeks, ever since his new house in Tabor City caught fire in an apparent arson. On July 1, a few weeks before that fire, Allen and a few of his friends, all clients of State Sen. R.C. Soles, sat down with WWAY’s Ann McAdams to discuss problems they were having with the Senator. They told Ann about being called to testify before the FBI, about possible misconduct on the part of the Senator. Ann asked Allen what they testified about. “About molestation, about prostitution,” Strickland said.

“I went to Raleigh and went before the grand jury and they questioned me for about six-and-a-half hours,” said Jackie Jordan, one of Soles’s clients.

This wasn’t the first time we’d heard stories like this. A year ago, another one of Sen. Soles’s clients named Stacey Scott talked to us about his testimony before the FBI. His recollection of the line of questioning was very similar.

“The FBI is investigating him, as far as I know, for embezzlement, arson, child molestation,” Scott said. “He (Soles) did try to molest me when I was 15 years old, and I have not told the feds that. He tried to grab by my genitalia and I backed off and I said, ‘You know my dad would kill you.’ He said, ‘Please don’t tell nobody,’ and he gave me a thousand dollars.”

Shortly after Scott testified for the grand jury, he says he was picked up by two private investigators for Soles, who spent hours asking him questions.

“‘Has R.C. Soles ever molested you?’ ‘Has he ever paid you to do certain things like burn down Dewey Hill’s grocery store and everything,’ which is what I was questioned about in federal court,” Scott said.

Sen. Soles is the state’s longest serving senator and permanent chair of the Democratic caucus.

I’m in Pittsburgh for the Netroots Nation conference, of course, so I really haven’t had the time to look at this in-depth more later.

Aug 11 0 comments
Sexuality

Christie Hefner’s famous last name

Did anyone else see Christie Hefner on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday? She provided her input on Hillary Clinton’s outburst at a press conference in the Congo and talked about the pressure of having a famous last name.

I’m sure Christie knows how that feels. I can’t imagine living life with her father’s name.

Maybe I was just completely ignorant — seeing as though I have no reason to pay attention to Playboy — but I never knew a woman used to be CEO of the company. She’s smart, she’s intelligent, she looks highly professional. Those aren’t necessarily the first adjectives that come to mind when you hear the names “Hefner” and “Playboy” in the same sentence.

That just blew away so many misconceptions. Wow.

I wonder how many feminists don’t take kindly to Ms. Hefner?

Jun 22 1 comments
Anti-LGBT, Health, LGBT, Sexuality

Domestic violence: ‘keep it quiet’

The mayor of Mulberry, Fla., was attacked by his partner in the early morning hours of Friday, June 19.

According to news station WTSP Channel 10, 29-year-old Eugene Ornelas came home at 5 a.m. in the morning with someone he met at a local bar. Ornelas is Mayor Julian Mullis’ partner. The couple has two children.

From the story:

The attack allegedly happened on a peaceful street in Mulberry early Friday morning inside the home of Mayor Julian Mullis. It’s a home he shares with his two kids and 29-year-old Eugene Ornelas.

Mullis told police that he and Ornelas are in a relationship and live together as a family unit.

Things got heated, though, when Ornelas brought a stranger home from a club at five in the morning. Steve Peacock is the Interim Chief of Police in Mulberry and says, “It was Mr. Ornelas, who I guess lost his cool somehow, and began throwing articles inside the residence and attempted to strike Mr. Mullis at one point but missed.”

Mullis told police that Ornelas swung at him and has Jeckel and Hyde type episodes.

Ornelas was arrested and charged with domestic violence. It’s not the first time he’s been in trouble with the law. He’s faced a DUI, possession of a controlled substance and battery charge in the past.

Some nitwit, probably slightly anti-gay, told the news station that Mullis should have “kept it quiet.”

Reaction from people who live in Mulberry is mixed. Nancy Ladner says, “I don’t have a problem with homosexuality. I don’t. Everybody has their thing they have to do. But, he is a public image in our town and he needs to keep it quiet.”

Yeah… domestic violence should be kept quiet. My god, where do these people come from?

At least some level of sanity was collected by reporters:

Heidi Strickland says, “They need to concentrate on the problems of Mulberry, not the problem of Mr. Mullis and his family, okay? They’re going to have to deal with that. Just like you have to deal with your family and I have to deal with my family. But, as long as he’s performing his job to the means that he’s supposed to be doing which, so far I haven’t seen any disagreements, then that should be the issue.”

It is quite saddening that their mayor becomes the victim of a domestic violence situation and all folks care to look at or talk about is their mayor’s sexual orientation. Sad, sad, indeed.

Double-whammy: WTSP Channel 10 wasted no time playing on the public’s anti-gay, anti-transgender emotions. Their headline for the story: “Mulberry mayor attacked by live-in cross-dresser.” Shouldn’t the headline have been, “Mulberry mayor victim of domestic violence,” or something?

Jun 11 5 comments
Anti-LGBT, Politics, Sexuality, United States

National Right to Life holds convention in Charlotte

The National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s largest anti-choice organization, will hold its annual convention in Charlotte June 18-20 (Charlotte Observer story here).

The group’s annual convention, being held at the Blake Hotel in Uptown Charlotte, will feature dozens of speakers, including anti-choice and anti-gay activists and leaders.

Get the whole story »

Mar 19 1 comments
Health, Sexuality

On N.C. sex ed, AFA-run ‘news’ site sheep break with the flock

All is not calm on the American Family Association front. Their “news” website, OneNewsNow.com, published a “story” (read: horrible piece of journalism) on the issue of comprehensive or abstinence-only sex education in North Carolina.

While the writer, Charlie Butts, gives plenty of speaking time for the N.C. Policy Research Council’s Jere Royall (nice guy, by the way) to spout out some talking points, Butts fails to mention why the story is even a story: The N.C. General Assembly is currently hearing a bill called the Healthy Youth Act. It has already passed through some preliminary committee hearings. If it becomes law it will replace North Carolina’s abstinence-only education with abstinence-based comprehensive sex education.

But, the real story of the OneNewsNow.com piece lies in the comments. It seems all the blind sheep at AFA’s propaganda machine aren’t all blind:

Preaching abstinence is not education, it is preaching. And it does not work. All the information that is available needs to be supplied to children. The role of the parent and educator is to supply information and teach them to make good decisions, not to withhold information.

—

More sticking their heads in the sand as states with abstinence only educations have the highest teen pregnancy rates.

—

In Gaston County, North Carolina, 500 teens became pregnant 2007. Gaston County students are only exposed to abstinence education, and contraception options are not added to the curriculum. Even the Gaston County Health Director, Colleen Bridger, admits that without better sex education, teen pregnancy numbers in the county will not drop. Bridger goes on to say: “Counties in North Carolina that teach comprehensive sex education have lower teen pregnancy rates than Gaston County. Research shows abstinence-only education doesn’t work, and I think it is time for Gaston County to try what the research shows works.”

—

Oddly enough, 9 out of the top 10 states with the highest teen pregnancy rates were red states which leaned heavily on abstinance-only education. They also were southern “Bible-belt” states.

There’s really no way to know if these are conservative folks making comments or progressive folks. I’m just suprised they haven’t been censored away yet.

Mar 18 0 comments
Health, LGBT, Sexuality, United States

D.C.’s HIV blame game

Two D.C. bloggers are battling it out over the new HIV number released for Washington, D.C. Three percent of the total population there is now living with HIV.

Black Informant says the cause is risky sexual behavior among the gay and lesbian community. The Washington City Paper’s Sexist blogger says the cause is more complex than that, pushed upward by increasing rates of new infections among heterosexuals.

I wonder how Black Informant would feel if someone took these numbers and twisted them to say African-Americans were to blame:

And continuing a grim trend from the 2007 report, African Americans are bearing the brunt of this epidemic: 4.3 percent of African Americans in the District are living with HIV/AIDS; 6.5 percent of black men in the city have the disease, and African Americans account for 76 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in the District.

This HIV blame game is stupid and dangerous. It is the reason why the federal government ignored the crisis for so long in the 1980s. Anyone can find a number or statistic, put it in bold text, twist it and use it to attack a minority or community. But that’s not being brave, as Black Informant suggests. Being brave would mean actually doing something to end the crisis, not increase paranoia and prejudice.

While Black Informant is busy trying to find a scapegoat, people are getting infected and infecting others. His energy would be better spent finding a way to end the crisis.

Mar 16 2 comments
Anti-LGBT, Health, LGBT, Politics, Religion, Sexuality, United States

N.C. Christian Action league foaming at the mouth over proposed youth bills

The radically conservative Christian Action League continues to foam at the mouth, lying through their teeth in order to scare the jeepers out of their blind followers.

In a “news” piece on their website, the League claims that the North Carolina School Violence Prevention Act (a.k.a. “the anti-bullying bill”) will require schools to teach that homosexuality is normal:

The bill requires local school boards to amend their existing bullying policies to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.” The measure would not only create a protected status in North Carolina’s public schools for homosexuality, bisexuality, cross dressing and other alternative sexual behaviors, but would also require schools to teach that these behaviors are normal and acceptable.

Although I’d certainly have no problem with such a bill, the cold, hard truth is none like that exists. The School Violence Prevention Act in no way mentions anything about teaching students about homosexuality or LGBT issues. Read the bill for yourself.

On the Healthy Youth Act, a bill that would implement comprehensive sex ed in schools, the Christian Action League claims, erroneously, that the bill would require students to learn about homosexuality. Why on earth are us queer folks always the punching bag for these blowhards?

It’s sad, really, that groups like the “Christian” Action League have to resort to lies in order to prove their case. I’m pretty sure that lying was one of those commandments from God Moses delivered to the people. Maybe the Christian Action League got an abridged version.

Jan 07 2 comments
Health, LGBT, Sexuality

Merck seeks Gardasil approval for boys

Reports yesterday noted that drug company Merck will be approaching the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get approval for the use of Gardasil in boys.

The Associated Press reported:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has two months to decide whether the application for use in males meets its standards. Reviews can then take 10 months or more.

The application includes research data from a Merck study including about 4,000 males, ages 16 to 26; Gardasil prevented 90 percent of cases of penile cancer and genital warts caused by the four common virus strains targeted by the vaccine.

The agency approved use of Gardasil in females ages 9 to 26 years old in June 2006, but last June rejected expanding that to include women ages 27 to 45. The vaccine has since been approved for use by young women in dozens of foreign countries.

And why is this important, especially for gay, bi and MSM male youth? The CDC says (emphasis mine):

Other HPV-related cancers are much less common than cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, there will be:

  • 3,460 women diagnosed with vulvar cancer;
  • 2,210 women diagnosed with vaginal and other female genital cancers;
  • 1,250 men diagnosed with penile and other male genital cancers;and
  • 3,050 women and 2,020 men diagnosed with anal cancer.

Certain populations may be at higher risk for HPV-related cancers, such as gay and bisexual men, and individuals with weak immune systems (including those who have HIV/AIDS).

I hope the FDA doesn’t drag its feet and I hope new tests and trials will extend Gardasil’s effective use in boys to a similar age range as girls (9-26 years old). There’s no reason whatsoever to keep an effective, preventative drug off the market if we know it will help keep young men safe.

Photo credit: istockphoto