Economic downturn results in innovative offer.

Brothels in Europe are now offering a flat rate for their patrons, based on all-you-can-eat restaurants' philosophy, to boost flagging attendance. Other offers? Discount for environmentally-conscious bike-riders, seniors and disabled, etc.

http://tiny.cc/rxUtD

Athletes injured in hate bombing

This is why we need gay games, and the brave athletes who play in them. Sadly, bigotry still thrives.

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc&sc2=news&sc3&id=94294

Research opportunity for LGBTs

Hello!

I am working on my Master of Arts Degree at the University of Washington, Tacoma. For my thesis, I am conducting a research study to explore the sexual development in LGBT adults. Please read complete details below.
I am emailing now to invite you to participate in an on-line survey for the study.

If you are willing to participate in the survey, please clink on this link. http://depts.washington.edu/glbtsrvy/

IMPORTANT: The log-in for the website is “lgbt” (lower case, no quotation marks) and the password is “survey” (lower case, no quotation marks).

Please forward this email to others who might also be interested in participating.

If you have any questions about the survey or the study, please let me know. You can call my supervisor Dr. Nita McKinley at (253) 692-4543, email me at glbtsrvy@u.washington.edu,

or mail me at the address below. Please remember that we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of any information sent by email.
I know your time is valuable and I would like to thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Colleen Forde, Masters of Arts Student
Supervisor: Nita McKinley, PhD
IAS, University of Washington, Tacoma
1900 Commerce Street
Tacoma, WA 98402

INFORMATION ON STUDY: The purpose of this research is to study developmental sequencing of sexual behavior such as kissing, dating, petting, and sexual act/activities in adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender. The research will examine specific sexual behaviors and the age in which you first engaged in those behaviors.

This research is important because understanding sexual development can be invaluable to families, educators, therapist and researchers. However, you will probably not directly benefit.

Timely video about Vancouver

Check out this new video by Stephen Emery about Matthew Presidente's song about Vancouver. Complex city, complex issues.

http://socialize.outtv.ca/video/video/show?id=3395784%3AVideo%3A3944

New group for gay men in Vancouver

Dr. Bill Coleman and Darren Usher will be co-facilitating this group for gay men in Vancouver, beginning August 6th. See below for details.

This dynamic 4 session workshop brings gay men together to explore the role and meaning of sex and intimacy in our lives. Participants will discuss a broad range of topics with other gay guys about sex, gay life and relationships. We anticipate that after the four sessions guys will have greater comfort with sex, enhanced sexual options, and hopefully learned some new ways to enjoy their sex life their way. These groups will be lead by two experienced facilitators - Bill has over 20 years of working with gay guys, relationships, and sexuality and Darren has been working with gay men’s groups for ten years. Join us for 4 consecutive Thursdays beginning August 6^th from 6.30pm tom 9.30pm at HIM’s offices.

To register call 604 488 1001 or email: register@contacthim.ca

Israeli gay porn travel movie...no kidding.

This article talks about the marriage of two diverse media imprints--travel promotion and gay porn. It's interesting, humourous, and will make you think about stereotypes and unconscious racism. Worth a read. Here's an excerpt:

In Men of Israel, the guys are all Israeli, all Jewish, and they’re not hiding it. Sure, their names are probably fakes—no parents would name their son Morr Foxx unless they knew he’d grow up to be a gay porn star. But at least their names sound plausibly Israeli, plausibly Jewish: Matan Shalev, Avi Dar, Naor Tal.

So will Lucas’s self-proclaimed landmark film change things? For Israel, perhaps. The director’s goal is to help viewers realize that Israel is a place of unique beauty and history, he says, but also a place that’s not so different from Prague or Sydney or Palm Springs— all places where hot men have sex with each other on film, and all nice places to take a perfectly innocent gay-cation. To that extent, the project seems likely to succeed.

http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/10955/great-exxxpectations/

New Health Project announced for HIV/AIDS.

Living with HIV/AIDS?

We need you!

Join the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities’ new health project!

After 30 years of advocacy, the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities (BCCPD) knows the power of people with disabilities sharing their experiences and knowledge with others.

The common theme among people living well with disability is their ability to create a personal path to HEAL—health education, advocacy and leadership*

We are pleased to offer our first HEAL program: creating five HEAL guides for people living with HIV/AIDS.

If you are a person living with HIV/AIDS and have some experience with one or more of the topics below, we want to hear from you. We’ll be creating a series of booklets on the HEAL approach to living with HIV/AIDS and:

• Depression
• Bipolar disorder
• Substance abuse/harm reduction
• Stigma
• Episodic disability

Interested in hearing more? Contact Shelley at BCCPD

Phone 604-875-0188 or toll-free to leave a message 1-877-232-7400

Fax 604-875-9227; Email wdi@bccpd.bc.ca

Confidentiality is assured and you may participate using a pseudonym.

Information is also available at http://www.bccpd.bc.ca under News at BCCPD

*Read more about HEAL in the Summer 2009 issue of Transition magazine at http://www.bccpd.bc.ca.

Parents want to believe in teens' "promiscuity"...despite evidence to the contrary.

Data shows that teens are having sex later than their older sisters and brothers, and are doing so more conscientiously. Nevertheless, this information is a hard sell to parents who seem determined to believe kids are more out of control sexually than ever. This article offers facts on the issue and discusses the problem of convincing parents that sex is not really the problem...communication with their kids is.

"The news is troubling, but it’s also misleading. While some young people are clearly engaging in risky sexual behavior, a vast majority are not. The reality is that in many ways, today’s teenagers are more conservative about sex than previous generations."
The Myth of Rampant Teenage Sexuality

Ah, those Brits. A thumbs up to their sex ed policies!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article6689953.ece

Welcome to my Blog!

Thank you all for your patience while I got up to speed with learning how to blog. I found it to be quite the learning curve and, as you can tell, it took me longer than I expected to transfer my newsletter skills to blogging skills.
But here we are with a new blog site that is up and running and now waiting only for you, as former newsletter subscribers, to follow in this new and improved format. No longer will you have to wait till the end of each month for relevant and timely news items. They will be posted as I find them. You will also get your usual 'dose' of humour, book/movie/toy reviews, research and the like.

We've made it easy for you to subscribe to Smart SexTalk updates via email. Simply enter your email address in the field to the right.
Thanks for waiting, and welcome aboard. I am eager to have you all join in this interactive process with me.

Want great sex? Get old!

I've been talking about Dr Peggy Kleinplatz's research on great sex and aging for some time now. Finally, the media has picked it up. Don't forget to read the interesting comments, too.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/the-secret-to-good-sex-aging/article1204549/

ps: another BIG factor Kleinplatz's surveys found: good sex could be measured by how much laughter, how much fun, was being had.

Keeping the gender of a child secret...permanently

Swedish parents won't tell anyone their child's gender to avoid gender-stereotyping socialization.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/keeping-the-sex-of-a-toddler-secret/

Women happiest at age 28, but not for long

Keep in mind, this research was funded and conducted by Clairol, hardly an objective observer. Still, interesting data.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5645800/Women-happiest-at-28.html

Masters & Johnson's sex life: "sad"

Book review of a new biography about the deans of modern sex therapy, William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Surprising stories abound.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/books/review/Nehring-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all

Actual scientific analysis of Michael Jackson

This long article offers a plausible account of Michael Jackson's bizarre looks and behaviour:

http://www.scientificblogging.com/j_michael_bailey/was_michael_jackson_pedophile

and links to other interesting tidbits about the singer.