UN: Okay to kill gays. This does not bode well.

Not since the Equal Rights Amendment did not pass have I felt so disappointed. Sad news indeed.

U.N. panel cuts gay reference from violence measure

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS | Tue Nov 16, 2010 7:45pm EST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Arab and African nations succeeded Tuesday in getting a U.N. General Assembly panel to delete from a resolution condemning unjustified executions a specific reference to killings due to sexual orientation.

Western delegations expressed disappointment in the human rights committee's vote to remove the reference to slayings due to sexual orientation from the resolution on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.

"The subject of this amendment -- the need for prompt and thorough investigations of all killing, including those committed for ... sexual orientation -- exists in this resolution simply because it is a continuing cause for concern," a British statement to the committee said.

The General Assembly passes a resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings every two years. The 2008 declaration included an explicit reference to killings committed because of the victims' sexual preferences.

But this year, Morocco and Mali introduced an amendment on behalf of African and Islamic nations that called for deleting the words "sexual orientation" and replacing them with "discriminatory reasons on any basis."

That amendment narrowly passed 79-70. The resolution then was approved by the committee, which includes all 192 U.N. member states, with 165 in favor, 10 abstentions and no votes against.

The U.S. delegation voted against the deletion but abstained from the vote on the final resolution. Diplomats said the U.S. delegation also voiced disappointment at the decision to remove the reference to sexual orientation.

The resolution, which is expected to be formally adopted by the General Assembly in December, specifies many other types of violence, including killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons and killings of refugees, indigenous people and other groups.

"It's a step backwards and it's extremely disappointing that some countries felt the need to remove the reference to sexual orientation, when sexual orientation is the very reason why so many people around the world have been subjected to violence," said Philippe Bolopion of Human Rights Watch.

THIS will be a game-changer, for sure. Might want to get an unlisted number!

Diagnosis of STDs Could Be As Quick As Peeing On A Chip And Putting It In Your Phone

By Julie Beck Posted 11.09.2010 at 12:28 pm 10 Comments

Computer Chip, Will Your Talents Ever Stop Emerging? Wikimedia Commons

Peeing on your phone seems like an all-around pretty bad idea, but British researchers have managed to find an upside. They claim that by urinating on a computer chip and plugging it into a phone or computer, people will soon be able to easily self-diagnose sexually transmitted diseases.

While it’s still too early for the technology to really have taken shape, these nanotechnology chips would be similar to pregnancy tests. After putting urine or saliva on the chip, the user will receive results within minutes that tell them which STD, if any, they’ve contracted. Researchers hope that these confidential self-diagnosis devices would help encourage more people to get tested, without the embarrassment that accompanies seeing a doctor or going to a clinic.

Funders including the Medical Research Council have invested 4 million pounds into the technology’s development, which, if successful, could be a boon for promoting sexual health. Developers expect that the devices will one day be sold in vending machines in pharmacies, supermarkets and night clubs. Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy a condom?

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Sharing a post from ever-perceptive Dr Marty Klein's "Sexual Intelligence" newsletter

Science Shows What Sexual Repression Actually Looks Like

By Dr. Marty Klein

With the recent election still echoing in everyone’s ears, and pundits pundificating about how conservative the country really is, this is a good time to remember the major study done about online pornography subscriptions just 18 months ago.

As reported in the Journal of Economic Perspectives,
* The rates at which people buy pornography are not wildly different from state to state;
* States where people vote for conservative candidates buy more porn than states in which people vote for progressive candidates.

And yes, this is after adjusting for factors including broadband access, income, and population.

According to credit card receipts from a national provider of adult entertainment, eight of the top ten pornography-consuming states went Republican in the 2008 election. And the trend goes beyond voting. For example, states where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage” bought more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. The same difference emerged for the statement “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.”

And of course the state with the highest per capita purchase of online pornography is…Utah. Of course.

To repeat: porn subscriptions don’t just come from California, New York, and other Liberal-Jewish-Urban-Latte-Sipping nests of perversion. They come from every state. And they really come from states in which people claim their values make them uninterested in or resistant to porn.

One technical term for such people is liars, but let’s be more compassionate, the better to understand our fellow creatures.

There are large groups of people who claim certain negative attitudes about sexuality, yet do those very same things. Porn. Prostitutes. Premarital sex. Same-gender stuff. Affairs. Adult masturbation. Wild fantasies.

What are they saying? That they reject their own sexuality. What are they feeling? Frightened, anxious, alone. Guilty, ashamed, tormented; as if, to quote a Jonny Lang song, “even God has lost track of my soul.”

Progressive politics MUST address these feelings in so-called conservative people. Until we do, we’re just reinforcing a phony us/them divide cooked up by politically powerful people. Talking about a sexually in-control “us” and a sexually out-of-control “them” is how the Religious Right made its fortune, and stays in business. The regulation of other people’s sexuality is a theme that never gets boring—for people who are afraid of their own sexuality.

Why parents must talk to their teens about oral sex

Oral Sex Leads to Intercourse Among Teens, Study Suggests

By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer

posted: 01 November 2010 04:04 pm ET

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A "birds and the bees" talk with your kids isn't complete without a discussion of oral sex, according to a new study that found a connection between oral sex and old-fashioned intercourse.

The three-year survey found that teens who had oral sex by the end of ninth grade were at the highest risk of having sexual intercourse during high school. These teens had a 25-percent chance of having intercourse by the end of ninth grade and a 50-percent chance by the end of 11th grade.

Meanwhile, teenagers who did not have oral sex until the end of 11th grade had only a 16-percent chance of having intercourse by the end of that school year.

The survey also found that most sexually active teenagers will start having oral sex and intercourse within the same six-month period.

Health care providers, parents and educators should directly address oral sex and its risks with teens, according to study researcher Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a professor of pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco.

"I see most of the health policies out there and guidelines for preventive services talking about sex generally, but they do not specify oral sex. That is an important distinction because teens don't consider oral sex to be sex, and many are not aware of the risks involved," Halpern-Felsher said.

"Our study demonstrates that through its relationship with intercourse, oral sex contributes to the total risk associated with sexual activity among teens, including sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy," said Anna Song, also a study researcher and an assistant professor of psychological sciences at the University of California, Merced.

The researchers followed more than 600 students at two northern California high schools from the ninth grade through the end of 11th grade. The study is published online by the journal, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and it will also appear in the March 2011 print issue.

About 4 in 10 never–married U.S. teenagers ages 15–19 have had sexual intercourse at least once, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released in June. [42% of U.S. Teens Have Had Sex]

Risky sexual behavior among teens was also reported in a study of more than 7,000 New York City adolescents published online Oct. 25 in the Journal of Pediatrics. Nearly 9 percent of females and nearly 4 percent of males had both male and female sex partners, the research found. And these teens with both-sex partners indicated a marked prevalence of dating violence and forced sex, along with sexual behaviors that could put them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, the researchers reported.