I, for lack of a better word, enjoy reading the online reactions to the end of funding for abstinence-only education.  There is a lot about socialism and big government, and about how Obama will eventually take all of our children as soon as they are born, instead of waiting until they are old enough to be in school.  There are the expected tales of depravity, that children are learning to "spit or swallow", that Democrats are perverse, disgusting, deviant.  All this I expect.  

But there is another reaction, popular and a bit different.  It has a quiet type of exasperation, a subtle "common-sensibility" to it.  This reaction focuses ostensibly on the general failings of compulsory education.  Comprehensive sex education opponents are worried about spending more time and energy teaching about sexuality, when kids in the US are lagging behind other countries in their performance of the conceived fundamentals of knowledge: reading, writing, and math.

Furthermore, schools which do not meet contrived standards in these most "rigorous" of areas are accused of losing...

It's officially the end of an era.  Starting this school year, the $375 million of federal grant money set aside for school-based sex education will no longer fall into the hands of abstinence-only enthusiasts.  American sex ed has found a new holy grail.  Our revised system doles out money based on evidence of a specific function-- programs must provide proof of lowered pregnancy rates among participants.

What types of programs succeed under this standard?  How do they do it?  Some call it the "above the waist" tactic, which gives as much focus to the mind as to the body.  Students in these programs may be required to get summer jobs, to open and contribute to savings accounts, to balance a checkbook.  They may go on field trips, learn art and music, receive tutoring, and even have access to health and dental care.  They discuss relationships, and brainstorm their future life and career goals.

At first glance, I'm encouraged.  These are opportunities I hope all kids get to explore.  But the implicit messages in the curricula give my excitement pause.  The most obvious:  pregnancy will ruin your life.  Maybe if students understand how much they have to lose, they will be less likely to...um..."get pregnant".

As you may have guessed, these...

In prepping for a graduate class I'm teaching on sexuality education and social policy, I recenlty reread Kristen Luker's book, When Sex goes to School, in which she analyzes and describes the 100+ interviews she conducted over twenty years with individuals on both sides of the sex education debate that have been warring for the past half century.  I think she does a good job summing up the history of these battles as well as provides some interesting insight into the players, particularly how they became passionate about this issue, on both sides. The only major problem I have with her books, and one she points out as a major limitation to this work, is the lack of non-white voices and an analysis of race and ethinicity - I think this is highly likely due to the fact that issues regarding race and ethinicity are often excluded as are voices from communities of color and other so-called "minority" groups when it comes to sex ed.  Having worked in sexuality education for almost twenty years, I can honestly say that there wasn't much that was surprising or anything that I hadn't heard before, at least until I reached the last chapter. "Chapter Nine: Sex education in America and whether it works or doesn't -- and why that's not the right question"

While reading it, I came to a realization that answers a question that I've been...

Today, I'm writing in honor of the the Morality in Media's (MIM) WRAP Week: White Ribbons Against Pornography, which is also supported by one of my favorite anti-gay organizations, Concerned Women for America (CWA).  According to the MIM website the event, which is being held all week from October 25 through November 1, "WRAP week is intended to educate the public about the extent of the pornography problem and what can constitutionally be done about it." The CWA goes on to point out the truth about all of us "Pornography advocates" who apparently claim that porn is a "victimless crime" are delusional and spreading lies - I'd like to point out that I am a proud advocate and voracious consumer of pornography, particularly of the online and amatuer produced variety and I have NEVER stated that it is a victimless crime.  Mainly, because pornography is no longer a crime in United States - either producing it or viewing it.  Of course, I know there are legal issues regarding the production and distribution of porn and that these laws may vary from state to state.  I'll let my lawyer friends weigh in on this one.

I want to counter their claims (and misuses of research) with the idea that pornography is actually the opposite of "dangerous" and can actually be beneficial to helping...

Perhaps first things you learn as a sexuality researcher is to set aside your preconceptions. So as I prepared for my first Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality regional meeting in Pacific Grove, California, I tried to banish my preconceptions of what a conference on the science of sex would be like. I was pretty convinced it would be everything you don’t really want sex to be – dry, humorless, boring, and a little bit weird.

All of my preconceptions melted away on Friday night as I sat in a lecture hall at the Monterey Bay Aquarium watching Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno with Steven Webster, PhD a founder of the aquarium. He was giving us a lecture on sex and marine life, and he (along with Isabella) introduced us to some of the ocean’s creatures with the most interesting gender and sexual variations. Highlights included male sea horses that get "pregnant", clown fish who are sequential hermaphrodites, and anglerfish whose males are essentially parasites living off of the bloodstream of females.

April 15 was tax day, and believe it or not, there are many ways that sex and sexuality relate to taxes.  Here are two that made the headlines:

Maryland gives tax breaks to gay couples who own a house together. While the law is well intentioned, it only helps gay couples who are wealthy enough to buy a home; leaving the single gay person or gay couples with the least economic resources with the greatest tax burden.

Staging a Boston Tea Party style protest against tax increases = clever. Calling the protest 'teabagging' without the slightest clue to the sexual implications of that word = desperate need of sexual literacy.

Notice the awesome double entendre in this MSNBC video piece.

Paying taxes wasn’t the only painful thing that happened this week. The entire sexuality world is mourning the lost of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick to breast cancer. But Richard Kim’s obituary for her in The Nation reminds us that we can celebrate her indelible contribution to queer theory and that her intellectual contributions will live on her books, most notably Epistemology of the Closet and Between Men.

Also, April is Sexual Assault Awareness...

When I think back on my favorite teachers, I realize they all share one trait in common – they listen. Summer Institute featured lecturer Cathy Cohen has made listening a radical methodology for studying sexual attitudes and behaviors, so know doubt she will be a great teacher who you won’t want to miss this summer at the Summer Institute on Race, Gender, and Sexuality! Dr. Cohen is perhaps most famous for her books The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics and Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader, but her research illustrates that she will be an excellent teacher because she listens, and most importantly she listens to youth and young adults of color.

Dissatisfied with popular perceptions of Black youth and concerned by they way those perceptions were employed in outreach programs, Dr. Cohen tried something radical. She started the Black Youth Project and set out to listen to young adults, allowing them to express their own opinions. She wanted to understand young adults’ attitudes, their experiences, and learn how they understand the world around them.  By asking youtn of multiple racial identities about their beliefs she shattered myths about Black youth and empowered young adult voices to drown out the stereotypes.

The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act sponsored by Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, and Representative Barbara Lee, D-CA, was reintroduced recently to the applause of pro-sexuality education organizations across the nation.  Originally introduced in 2007, the bill proposes to provide funding for "medically and scientifically accurate information" as part of "comprehensive sex education" that is "age-appropriate" and promotes "abstinence as the only 100% effective way to prevent sexuality transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy."  Of course, I am not against these things and support any kind of funding that allows states and organizations to choose alternatives to abstinence-only programs.  However, I hope the sponsors, co-sponsors, and committee members seize this incredible opportunity and encourage the use of language and frameworks that go beyond merely preventing disease and unwanted pregnancy to promoting healthy sexuality across the lifespan. 

In reading some of the blog reactions and news posts regarding this Act, I was struck by a couple of similarities between the anti-sex ed groups (or "pro-abstinence-only" depending on who you ask) and the pro-comprehensive sex education folks. The most common issue I noticed was the use of the word abstinence. On one side, we are told again and again that the only...

In yesterday's New York Times, Frank Rich gave us a great piece about the current state of the culture wars and how we Americans don't have the time or patience for these arguments over "moral" issues (that the right has used quite effectively to keep us divided over the past thirty years or so). When you think about it, it was rather impressive that they were able to mobilize and had such stamina to keep folks fired up on both sides of issues like reproductive choice, gay rights, and abstinence-only education for so many years.

Over the past few months, we've watched as the result of years of greed, fiscal irresponsibility, and unnecessary risk-taking on Wall Street have nearly completely collapsed the global economy. In the back of our minds, we knew this would happen someday; it was impossible that such a level of grotesque consumption and consumerism could sustain for the long-term.

If you think about it, this is very similar to what has happened to the social conservatives as well.  We all knew that their holier-than-though messages regarding their version of "family values" stank to high heaven of...

I must have picked up a bug or eaten something that had gone bad during my recent trip to Austin, Texas, for our first regional training and conference on sexuality research because I've been sick as a dog for the past two days.  To top it off, the cable is out, and there is no worse time for the cable to be out than when you're taking a sick day and you're actually sick!  Sitting around with my diet of malt-o-meal and ginger ale, I was trying to think of things to watch on dvd or to download and started thinking about that fairly recent drama about teen pregnancy, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, on ABC Family and sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (check out www.stayteen.org).  So, I downloaded episode one, season one, and curled up on the couch to watch it.

First, why didn't anyone tell me Molly Ringwald was on this show?!?  As a teen of the 1980s, Ms. Ringwald was a bit of an icon in all of those John Hughes movies (more on these later).  It kind of made me sad to see her playing the middle-aged mother of two teenage girls (yes, I know it's because it made me feel old); still, isn't she pretty in pink?

The show centers around a group of students at fictional Grant High School and instead of representing a diverse high school population...

When I'm teaching a course for students interested in careers in sexuality or facilitating a workshop at conferences like the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, I usually ask them to tell me what brought them to sexuality studies.  While I have met one or two folks whose parents were sexuality educators and they knew from a young age that they would follow the family business, it is fairly rare that many of us showed up on "Career Day" in school dressed as a sexuality educator or researcher.  (Could you imagine the look on the teachers and career counselors faces?) I often hear about experiences, such as classes or volunteer opportunities, where someone realized that it was their calling to study and teach about sex and sexuality.

I had a similar experience when I was an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin studying biology.  Since I was a young boy, I dreamt of being a scientist working in a lab and performing all sorts of cool experiments (it was either that or become a chef - I dressed as each for career days in 5th and 6th grades, respectively) until I began studying to be a biologist and discovered how monotonous and tedious most of the work was - not to mention how horribly isolating it was to work in a lab.  During my junior year, I enrolled in a human sexuality course - one of those huge survey courses - and felt a spark that ignited...

I had planned to blog about ex-gay ministries and reparative therapy after attending a survivors of the ex-gay movement session at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Creating Change conference just over a week ago.  It had gotten me thinking about my own experiences with "therapy" when I was a teen dealing with my sexuality, and in particular a social worker who I think may have had some unscrupulous intentions during my sessions.  I decided to do some internet research on the ex-gay movement and was fascinated to learn that all of those underwear ads, porn, and masturbation are probably what lead me down the sinful path of the homosexual lifestyle. In light of this revelation, I've decided to put off the ex-gay stuff for a rainy day (don't worry, I'll tell you all about that rascally social worker another time).  Instead, I thought I'd ponder pornography for a bit...

For my dissertation work, I explored young men's experiences with sexual learning during childhood and adolescence.  As you can imagine, the men in my study reported getting information from a variety of sources including parents, school, church, and peers - the information from all these sources was often confusing and contradictory.  There was one source that most of them talked about that left little room for confusion or misinformation and was...

Dear Mr. President,

 We all congratulate you on this amazing achievement; it is our victory, as much as yours, as you have often reminded us. Moving into the White House and getting the US house in order after years of bad leadership, corruption, failed opportunities, and pure dumb ignorance is going to be a challenge you will thrive on. Today, as you spoke to the country and took your oath of office, you highlighted the importance of science in decision making. What science shows in relation to sex is unequivocal, and it is time to usher in a new era of healthy sexuality that is grounded in science, truly comprehensive in scope and that speaks to all Americans—inclusive of, not regardless of, our differences in age, faith, race, culture, gender and physical ability.

Please remember sex education as you get into the work of making America “stronger.” To quote your own words, our policies on abstinence only –or “ignorance only,” as I have referred to them for years—must be changed; “there is a better way.” We have the solutions for progress and we can work together to improve life for all.

As a father, too, you will understand the need for truly comprehensive sexual literacy can make a huge difference in the lives of your daughters and all of society—now and for the rest of their lives. You will want them to grow up with healthy sexuality; that is what our...