Sexualities

Same sex Marriage How have opinions about same-sex marriage developed and changed from the 1970s through the early part of the twenty-first century? While many attempts to earn societal recognition of same-sex unions through the 1970s were not successful, some local communities and private companies began recognizing such "domestic partnerships" through the 1980s. While some members of the gay and lesbian community continued to press for recognition of their unions as legal marriages, others in the community felt that marriage itself was a patriarchal and sexist institution with which they did not want to identify. Regardless of the divide, many people fighting for the cause believe that all members of the gay and lesbian culture should support same-sex marriage initiatives to present a united front on the issue. In 2000 the Vermont legislature, in response to the 1999 state Supreme Court decision Baker v. State, established a set of guidelines to honor same-sex partners with privileges usually reserved for married couples. Several specific family laws, rights of inheritance, and state tax privileges became applicable to Vermont residents in same-sex partnerships. Further federal privileges were not, however, extended to Vermont same-sex couples. Subsequently, legislatures in California, Hawaii, and New Jersey passed similar provisions to honor same-sex unions. While the U.S. Constitution provides for "full faith and credit" to extend the laws of one state into others, the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act specifically prevented this extension to be granted in the case of same-sex partnerships. In 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom required city clerks to validate same-sex marriages with licenses. His decision prompted other communities to do the same. The state of Massachusetts, in its Goodridge v. Department of Public Health ruling, cleared the way for state recognition of same-sex marriages in the same year. Various groups have proposed challenges to such local and state rulings that would fortify the Defense of Marriage Act or put into place a marriage amendment. These movements intend to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and invalidate the legal standing of same-sex partnerships. Such efforts have resulted in a diversity of opinion with some in the middle arguing that such decisions of family law should remain at the local and state level. Others have also challenged what they feel are motivations by religious groups with a vested interest in the marriage debate to blur the line between religion and politics. Within the gay and lesbian culture, people continue to debate whether the community should press for federally sanctioned marriage. In Canada, where same-sex marriage was made legal in 2003, Kyle Rae, the city councilor in Toronto on the occasion of his same-sex wedding, stated, "For most of my activist life, marriage was seen as a ritual or relationship that had been denied to us. It was constructed as heterosexual and denied to my community. As the straight community held onto it, it became `Why would you want to [marry]?…' Now, my feeling is we have an opportunity to redefine marriage."

Resources:http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Articles/FO3020630117/

Homosexuality

The subject of homosexuality has often been surrounded by controversy. Much of the dispute centers on whether homosexuality and bisexuality should be treated as morally, socially, and legally equivalent to heterosexuality. Theories on the Cause of Homosexuality No single theory exists to explain the development of sexual orientation. The childhood trauma theory maintains that homosexuality is the result of an emotional shock during childhood. Another theory claims that homosexuality is a learned behavior. Still other explanations favor biological factors such as hormones and genes as the cause of homosexuality. Many scientists argue that a combination of biological factors and events at critical points in childhood cause a person to become homosexual or bisexual. Until 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) classified homosexuality as a mental illness, but scientific evidence led the APA to drop this classification. Some people with homosexual feelings are uncomfortable with their sexual orientation and seek professional counseling to try to change it. The evidence on the success of such programs is mixed. In 2001 a study of 200 people who claimed to have changed their sexual orientation suggested that more than half of them had developed satisfying heterosexual relationships. However, another study of 202 people who had tried to change their sexual orientation found that almost none had succeeded, and most of them were psychologically damaged by the experience. Homosexuality and the Law For many years, homosexual behavior was illegal throughout the United States, and discrimination against homosexuals was both legal and socially acceptable. But the modern gay rights movement in the United States supposedly started in June 1969 with a rebellion in New York City. Since that time, both legislation and judicial decisions have moved toward removing laws and ordinances against homosexual conduct and accepting gays and lesbians as parents, professionals, and public employees. Recognition of Homosexual Relationships Several European countries have passed legislation that recognizes homosexual unions. Such laws generally refer to registered partnerships rather than to marriage, and homosexual unions generally do not enjoy all the rights granted to partners in heterosexual marriages. However, in 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize same-sex marriages. A new law that eliminated references to a person's gender in the legal definition of marriage gave married same-sex couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples. The law also allows same-sex couples to adopt Dutch children, but not children from other countries. Same-sex marriages are not legally recognized in the United States. As a result, partners in homosexual relationships often lack privileges, such as the right to inherit property and to medical, tax, and retirement benefits, that partners in traditional marriages enjoy.

Social Views of Homosexuality Surveys suggest that Americans still hold varied and conflicting attitudes about homosexuality. In a 2001 Gallup Poll, 52 percent of those surveyed accepted homosexuality as a valid alternate lifestyle, compared with a 38 percent rate of acceptance in 1992. More than 80 percent said gays and lesbians should have equal rights in the workplace. However, 40 percent were opposed to allowing homosexuals to serve as ministers or elementary school teachers.

Resources: http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Articles/FO3020640086/?

"Normalizing" premarital sex. A new study conducted by Lawrence Finer, research director at the Guttmacher Institute, claims that 95 percent of Americans have had premarital sex, and that this rate extends even to women born in the 1940s. The report, entitled Trends in Premarital Sex in the United States, 1954-2003, has received media attention that rivals the publication in 1948 of Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. There is, in fact, a common link to both reports. Kinsey's work was funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. And the Guttmacher Institute is a special affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which has been funded lavishly by members of the Rockefeller family and the Rockefeller Foundation since its founding (under its original name, the Birth Control League of America) in 1916. From Planned Parenthood's point of view, a study helping to create the public perception, especially among impressionable young people, that almost everyone has engaged in premarital sex, and that there's really nothing wrong with doing it, is actually good for business. The new Guttmacher report frankly admits that its purpose is to discredit sexual abstinence programs (e.g., "Due in part to government support, private advocacy efforts to promote abstinence until marriage are also gaining prominence and political clout.") and substitute its own agenda in their place ("The results of the analysis indicate that premarital sex is highly normative behavior."). Although there is little doubt that the rate of premarital sex has increased since the onset of the "sexual revolution" in the late 1960s, many individuals find the report's findings incredible. Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America expressed skepticism: "Any time I see numbers that high, I'm a little suspicious. The numbers are too pat." Especially questionable is the report's statement: "Among those turning 15 between 1954 and 1963, 82% had had premarital sex by age 30, and 88% had done so by age 44." Anyone familiar with American culture of the 1950s and even the first half of the 1960s recalls the social ostracism that awaited young ladies who did not wait for marriage. In the 1957 hit song, "Wake Up Little Susie," the Everly Brothers sang about a couple who had missed their curfew after falling asleep in a movie theater. They lament: "We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot."

Moreover, in the days before the FDA approved "the pill" in 1961, premarital sexual activity, if it was as widespread as the Finer report suggests, would have unquestionably resulted in a very high rate of out-of-wedlock births and/or pregnant brides at the altar. Yet, there were relatively few out-of-wedlock births or pregnant brides during those days--as any of us, this writer included, old enough to remember the pre-1960s would recall. In fact, singleparent families were also relatively uncommon. If high-school and college girls in the days of Father Knows Best were as promiscuous as those of recent years, why did the annual birthrate per 1,000 unmarried girls aged 15-19 triple between 1960 and 1994, even as abortion went from being illegal almost everywhere to being available everywhere? Why did the survey extend to age 44, since the median age of a first marriage for women in the United States in both 1950 and 1960 was 20.3? It is likely that these results included many women born as early as 1939 that married as virgins at around age 20 in the 1950s, but later became either divorced or widowed. This pattern is suggested by the statement: "Even among those who abstained until at least age 20, 81% had had premarital sex by age 44." The folks at Guttmacher would have us believe that the virginal brides of the era popularized by Doris Day were a myth. But the study's erroneous view of America prior to the sexual revolution of the 1960s should cause us to question what the study says about America today. I don't doubt that there's more promiscuity than there used to be. But is it really as commonplace as the study claims? The Guttmacher report concludes: "Almost all Americans have sex before marrying. These findings argue for education and interventions that provide the skills and information people need to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases once they become sexually active, regardless of marital status." Which reminds us of the wise old maxim: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." resources: http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Articles/158387731/

Teenage sex on the rise in Kenya 11 February 2007 - PANA. Only two months after United Nations findings signposted Kenya as a growing hub of sex tourism in Africa, new research findings unveiled here Friday show that underage sex is rife in the country, with 56 percent of girls losing virginity before the age of 16 years. The new report on girlchild sex exploitation titled; "SexTrak", was jointly conducted by Infotrak Research and Consulting and a teenage girl magazine Eve, published in Nairobi. The survey conducted in November last year and commissioned by an international reproductive health firm Oak Medical Services, found that nearly half of teenagers who become pregnant opted for abortion to rid themselves of the burden of social stigma associated with loose moral behaviour. The startling statistics are likely to bear pressure on the Kenyan government to institute

legal instruments to protect children against sex following concerns that paedophiles are on the loose in the lucrative tourism industry. This follows a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report unveiled in Nairobi last November, which showed that over 15,000 children along the Kenyan coast are hired daily for commercial sex during tourism peak season between the months of October and March. The high teenage prostitution, the Unicef report said, accounted for the high school dropout rate and HIV/AIDS infections among children aged between 10 and 19 years in the prime tourism regions of the country. SexTrak data showed that the number of lesbians in the once conservative African communities is on the rise, with 12 percent of the respondents saying they had "thought of fellow women sexually" while eight percent admitted to having had lesbian intercourse. The SexTrak data tallies with recent University of Nairobi's Institute of African Studies findings, which estimate the ratio of lesbians in the country to be one in every five women. Sixteen percent of the respondents aged between 18 and 25 said they prefer toys for sexual pleasure, which they "found to be more satisfying than sex with normal sexual partners". However, it is this age group that has the highest number of virgins� 30 percent of the 2,400 young women polled in the 18-25 age band, according to the findings. Speaking during the launch of the report in the Kenyan capital, Infotrak managing director Angela Ambitho said termination of unwanted pregnancies was 46 percent of the sample population. "Given that the spread of sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancies and other forms of societal deviances are entirely contingent upon human behaviour, it is imperative for all stakeholders to understand the behaviour and attitudes of young women towards sex," Ambitho said. On the positive side, however, the pollsters said consumption of contraceptives� condoms and pills� to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections was high, pegged at 86 percent. The report noted that the girls tended to lose their guard on subsequent sexual encounters, resulting in 33 percent of them contracting STIs, including HIV or conceiving. The report said 88 percent of the girls opposed to lesbianism did because of their (Christian and Muslim) faith and termed it immoral, culturally un-African, less satisfying or simply lacked inclination to same-sex encounters. Ambitho said the research revealed that despite civic education and the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country, the girls exhibited reserved tendencies to their sex life. Resources: http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/2761

STDs - Invisible, undetectable. Which of your friends has an STD?

STD, sexually transmitted diseases have been called the 21st century plague. Sexually transmitted disease includes well known diseases like gonnorrhea and syphilis, but also genital warts, genital herpes and chlamydia.The stigma of what used to be called Venereal Diseases has largely gone, partly because everyone knows someone who has had to visit the STD clinic. Nice girls catch STDs, too. STDs are transmitted by sexual contact. The more people you have sexual contact with, the greater your chance of having sex with someone who has an STD and the greater the chance that you will be infected too. You can catch an STD if the first person you have sexual intercourse with is infected, so it is not necessarily a sign of sexual licence. Most Sexually Transmitted Diseases respond to treatment if caught in the early stages. Some, like syphilis and gonorrhoea respond to antibiotics. Genital warts may need to be frozen off with liquid nitrogen. Not all hepatitis infections are treatable. Many of these diseases have no symptoms. Gonorrhea may cause painful urination in males, but no immediate symotoms in females. Chlamydia has no immediate symptoms in males or females, yet if left untreeated will cause infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease in females. Because of the lack of symptoms it is advisable for any adult who is sexually active to be tested for STDs. The consequences of a night of passion could be life-long and result in insanity or death at an early age if STDs are not detected and treated. Diagnosis is simple, a swab is taken and sent for analysis. If the laboratory finds a positive result you will be asked back for treatment. If the result is positive you may be asked for a list of sexual contacts, or be asked to contact anyone you have had sexual relations with, so those people can also be treated. AIDS/HIV is the Sexually Transmitted Disease that everyone is aware of, but many people forget older and more common diseases that also kill. Condoms help reduce the risk of STD transmission, they do not remove the risk entirely. Resources: http://www.gestbiz.com/articles/Article/STDs---Invisible--undetectable-Which-of-your-friends-has-an-STD-/513

Ohio AG's stance on negotiating sexual harassment claims unclear COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) -- The Columbus lawyer representing the two women who filed sexual harassment charges against disgraced former Ohio AG Marc Dann and their immediate supervisor, Anthony Gutierrez, last February says the state's new AG is not being responsive to his request to mediate the dispute. "I'm having a heckuva time understanding what is taking so long for them to give me an answer," says Rex Elliot, the lawyer representing Cindy Stankoski and Vanessa Stout. Elliott says about two weeks ago, he sent a letter to Ohio AG Nancy Hardin Rogers, inquiring about her stance on mediating the dispute. Rogers was named AG by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland last month following Dann's resignation May 14. She'll remain in office until a special election for the job can be held this November Elliott says the AG's office responded that while they "might agree," they preferred that Elliott provide them with an opening demand. However, Elliott says he is not willing to put a

formal demand in writing, but did, instead, summarize his clients' position in a letter to Rogers. "The state is liable," Elliott says emphatically, adding Ohio is culpable on three fronts. First, the two women continue to be employed on the "15th floor," referring to the location of their jobs in the general services division of the AG's office in the James Rhodes State Office tower in downtown Columbus. While that alone is not an issue, the women are "still being subjected to retaliatory conduct, threats and a fair amount of hostile conduct by colleagues," says Elliott. Secondly, the women are seeking financial compensation for the "horrific ordeal" they experienced since this past February, when they notified supervisors of their hostile work environment. They also want their attorney fees paid. "An enormous amount of time has been put into this case since early February," says Elliott. It's not surprising that Elliott views the state as liable, but his stance is supported by the findings of Ben Espy, who was Dann's Executive Attorney General and the lead investigator of an inner-office investigation into the women's allegations. Espy's report, released May 2, concluded that the sexual harassment allegations were true, the women worked in a hostile work environment and that when supervisors were notified of the women's contentions, they did nothing. Dann had placed Gutierrez on paid administrative leave April 7 and then Gutierrez was fired immediately following the release of that report. "The state is on the hook for the unlawful actions of Marc Dann and Anthony Gutierrez," says Elliott. In communicating with the AG's office via letter, "the only response I hoped for was 'do you want to mediate?'" says Elliott. He says if he doesn't receive a response soon, he will file suit on behalf of his clients. If he does, he estimates the attorney fees alone will be astronomical, noting they could reach the millions. Not only that, depositions and discovery will occur throughout the fall and the election season, and Elliott says he wonders how that publicity might impact various elections. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Rogers says she "will be responding to" Elliott. However, Ted Hart declined to provide further details, saying it would inappropriate to discuss the matter further. Hart did confirm, however, that Elliott had sent letters to the Attorney General. "They sent us a letter asking if you'd be open [to negotiations] and we said, 'Let's talk.' They sent us another letter asking us to respond by today, but it isn't going to be today," says Hart. For the record, the 'today' Hart referred to was Friday the 13th.

Resources: http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/213466-ohio-ags-stance-on-negotiatingsexual-harassment-claims-unclear