Oh yes, I want an abortion. But I don't want just any old abortion, I want one of the new fangled OKLAHOMA-style abortions. I am soooooo excited about this prospect that I wish I could've put smiley faces in the title of this blog. I have always dreamed of being in a position where DOCTORS are made to make me feel even worse about an already difficult decision; where my own personal autonomy is thrown away like so much trash; where my PERSONAL decisions about MY body are disrespected, ignored, and questioned as though I was not capable or competent enough to actually make this decision for myself. I want an OKLAHOMA-style abortion so I can be made to feel bad about myself, humiliated; I want to be brought to tears. And if I'm really lucky, and I mean that extra super duper lucky that some people feel upon winning the lottery or finding out their home won't be foreclosed upon after all, when I get this abortion, I will do so as a result of being a victim of rape or sexual trauma. Imagine the wonder and beauty of having been raped, forced to endure trauma and fear, and then, after being impregnated by some creepy creep against my will, I'll get to go into a MEDICAL office looking for help, only to be told "Yeah, sorry to hear about a creepy creep violating your body by forcing his penis...

I was forwarded an article recently by a friend titled "3 arrested after teen's nude photo sweeps through schools" (see article here: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/82992582.html#idc-cover). I only got as far as the "n" in "nude" when my eyes started to roll uncontrollably. I almost didn't need to read the article; I've read many like it before. Synopsis: girl who is under the age of 18 takes naked or almost naked pic of herself with her camera phone, girl sends to boyfriend (for any number of reasons), boyfriend returns this most likely romantically intentioned gesture by sharing (something that we are told as children is the polite thing to do) with all of his buddies, who in turn share with theirs, and soon, 5 states, 3 counties, and the island of Madagascar now all know what this girl looks like naked. As if the broken trust and rudeness factor weren't enough, then the authorities get involved, threatening to charge everyone involved with something, including the possibility of possessing and/or...

When Barack Obama was elected to the office of President, he provided the hope of a president that might finally be more concerned with equality over playing the game of politics in order to appease. At the same time Proposition 8 passed in California, legally invalidating the feelings, desires, and certain necessary legal protections of same-sex couples who want the right to marry and be recognized with equal citizenship, Barack Obama was celebrating his victory as the new leader of the United States. And I think possibly, in the minds of many of those disappointed by the passage of Prop. 8, we thought that maybe with this new, young, idealistic president who ran on a platform of hope, there may be some recourse after all.

It's now been a little more than a year since President Obama took office, and same-sex advocates are getting restless (actually, "angry" works here too). He was supposed to bring change, but change has been slow in coming. Of course, personally, I didn't expect that change overnight. The man has a lot on his plate, including a leftover war (s), his baby health care reform (which I am for), and the rest of anything else that impacts the U.S. Regardless, there does seem to be an awful lot of red tape when it comes to anything having to do with LGBTQ rights. President Obama proclaimed that he was a supporter of LGBTQ rights, including adoption rights, civil unions (but not marriage), protections from discrimination in the workplace and...

I am not a religious person. Any of you who have sat with me in a class discussing religion and sexuality might have guessed this by the pained look on my face that looks like a cross between the Joker, the Cheshire Cat, and a hernia victim. This is not to say I am anti religion, anti christian, or anti god; some of the people in my life who I love and care about the most claim a religion or christanity as a part of their identity and I would defend these people their rights to believe how they want to the death if need be, but these people who I love that claim religion or christianity also do not push their beliefs on me, nor do they agree with promoting hatred towards groups of people based on sexuality or sexual practices.

So what I am is anti ORGANIZED religion. More specifically, anti ORGANIZED, CONSERVATIVE, FUNDAMENTALIST religion. You know what I'm talking about; they claim to follow the words in the bible ("thou shalt not kill. . ."; "he who is without sin. . ."; "love one another. . ."; "do unto others. . ."; I attended vacation bible school too!), but then preach about the evils of homosexuality, the evils of masturbation, the evils of pre marital sex, the evils of short skirts and cleavage, the evils of unwed mothers, the evils of. . . you get the point (and I bet if you look not so closely, you see a theme too). They don't just preach, they shove it down your throat, they try to impose their beliefs onto others, and they...

So while I was sick at the SSSS conference this last weekend, I still managed to make a friend, Dr. Jeffrey Abrasen. Thursday night, before I realized I had strep throat, I went to the opening getting to know you party (much apologies to anyone who managed to catch this from me pre antibiotics) and managed inspite of my introverted personality to be engaged in a conversation with a gentleman from Canada. We chatted for a good portion of the evening, being joined in conversation here and there by others. I find it fascinating that although I was not exactly feeling social, that even when I am being social half the time I don't know how to be, I managed to find the person there whose line of work actually fascinates me the most. In all fairness, I believe he started the conversation, and I have to say, he had me at essentially "I work with the worst of the worst sex offenders."

The topic of sex offenders I find generally leads many people I know to quickly change the subject. I've ascertained that the general population agrees that punishment for sex offenders is best served via a bullet, while media sources inundate the general population with so many horror stories (often the same horror story but with new details) that the general population feels that charged, convicted, and monitored sex offenders constitute a huge threat to the rest of the population. And people don't differentiate sex offenders. For example, a pedophile is actually...

This is not my blog, but something I wanted to share. I first read this in my sophomore year of high school around 1993. As I keep just about everything, I recently came across it again while going through my old peer educator packet. I personally feel it still holds up, and as a Sexuality student whose focus is on sex education, I also feel it is still important 20 years later.

WHAT THEY LEARN IN SCHOOL

    By Jerome Stern.  This monologue aired March 17, 1989 on All Things    Considered, National Public Radio's daily news broadcast.  Stern is    a professor of English at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

In the schools now, they want them to know all about     marijuana, crack, heroin, and amphetamines, Because then they won't be interested in marijuana,     crack, heroin, and amphetamines, But they don't want to tell them anything about sex     because if the schools tell them about sex, then they     will be interested in sex, But if the schools don't tell them anything about sex, Then they will have high morals, and no one will get     pregnant, and everything will be all right, And they do want them to know a lot about computers so     they will outcompete the Japanese, But they don't want...

Update on WA States R-71: Not that I can find the article again, but for now, it appears I will not get to have my witch hunt for all those family friendly folks in Washington State that follow the religious credo of "love thy (straight) neighbor". Actually, I didn't want a witch hunt, I just wanted to be able to participate in "loving" my neighbors too. And when you really love someone, it's best to be honest and tell them EXACTLY how you feel about them.

Hopefully, more to come on this.

A little about my day yesterday. It was busy, like a big long to do list that promised fun. I woke up (late; I hate mornings), went to my internship, went shoe shopping becuse I discovered I was lacking in the black heels department, ran home to get ready for the Champions of Sexual Literacy event, (this year honoring Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood), fretted over what to wear, got a run in my nylons, fretted over my nylons, dashed to the mall to get new nylons, went to class, hit up Wal-Greens so I could pick up Plan-B (babies and MA thesis' don't mix for me; I only have so much energy right now), then off I went to watch Cecile Richards get an award for being such a wonderful proponent of sexual rights. I mingled a little, drank a bit, enjoyed the potato bar, shook Ms. Richards hand and thanked her for making my aforementioned Wal-Greens trip possible (surrounded by some beloved cohort members who appreciated the...

On November 1st, my father will turn 73. My mother turned 64 this month. It has never escaped my attention that my parents got a bit of a later start on the whole producing offspring thing. This was not for lack of trying, but in the end, it was fertility drugs that gave my parents the children they wanted. Knowing this, combined with also knowing that they almost didn't get to keep me once I was here because I was born ill, helps me to understand my parents; their concerns, their worries, their protectiveness, their lack of holding back any and all opinions about my life, (and as much as I sometimes hate to admit it, they are often right) and their willingness to do whatever they could for their daughters. In short, I would give them an "A" for excellent parenting.

In a very gender conforming society, oddly, it was my father who was the more physically affectionate of my parents. My mother certainly didn't lack in physical affection (especially when it came to making boo boos better, which was her specialty as she was a RN), but it was my father that I remeber playing with both my sister and I. My favorite was "clock", where he'd pick me up by my ankles and swing me back and forth while I giggled and he made clock noises (yes, it was an exciting childhood). As I watch my father get older, it is these memories that I hold onto, knowing one day in the not so distant future, these memories will be all I have left.

One set of...

I read a lot of news. I'm kind of addicted to news like I'm addicted to coffee and cigarettes, which is not to say that I read the news because I enjoy it, but because it's a necessary part of my day. I start with news from the Northwest so I can keep up on the happenings back home. I then expand to cover a variety of mainstream national news stations, including Fox (I like to know my enemies), followed by more obscure news. 

This week, I payed close attention to "Everything but Marriage" and Wal-Mart. If you don't know, "Everything But Marriage" was a bill introduced in Washington that was supposed to expand rights for same-sex couples giving them basically equal rights compared to married heterosexuals, except no marriage certificate. I believe the logic went something like this: religious conservatives, believing non heterosexual relationships to be the epitomy of sin and moral collapse and certainly not worthy of acknowledgement in a kind, loving way, get quite stingy and selfish with the word "marriage", claiming it is a special religious "right" that only a man, a woman, and their government can participate in (personally, I think this makes all heterosexual marriages a little closer to polyamory than anyone is willing to admit, but that's another story). So Washington State said "fine, you religious conservatives can keep your word, but we'll extend the rights to same sex couples because after all, it's only...