SextEd (by ACCMontreal)
Well done Quebec!
Q.
SextEd is a free, anonymous, and non-judgemental way to get answers to any of your questions about sex - and we mean ANY questions. There’s nothing we haven’t heard before. Just text us at 514-700-0445 for an answer within 24 hours. It’s that easy!
Sexuality in a changing Arab world; Shereen El Feki interview Part 1 (by xtraonline)
Shereen El Feki talks to Xtra about sexuality and homosexuality in a changing Arab world in her book, Sex and the Citadel. More here: http://bit.ly/12m7Yn7
The first of a two part interview.
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Note that no home testing kits are currently approved for use in Canada and only one has been approved in the US by the FDA (OraQuick test from OraSure with the caveat that it is not 100% accurate).
Remember, if you are going to play, play safe.
Q.
Advisory
2012-137
September 10, 2012
For immediate release
CuraHerbDistributor (curaherbdistributor.com) is attempting to sell online unlicensed home-use HIV test kits for use with urine, saliva and blood samples. It is important to note that there are currently no HIV test kits authorized for home use in Canada.
CuraHerbDistributor’s kits carry the “Home Aware” brand and have not been evaluated by Health Canada for safety and effectiveness. Accordingly, these kits may provide Canadians with false test results, such as a failure to indicate HIV in an infected individual, or indicate HIV when none is present.
In addition, CuraHerbDistributor is also attempting to sell online a number of other test kits under the “Home Aware” brand. Health Canada has not licenced “Home Aware” tests kits for any of the following conditions indicated on the website, namely syphilis, trichomonas vaginalis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, hepatitis (B/C) or herpes simplex.
Health Canada is reminding Canadian retailers that it is illegal to advertise or sell unlicensed HIV and STD test kits in Canada. In addition, Health Canada has alerted its international partners about Curaherbdistributor.com test kits available via the Internet.
Health Canada’s It’s Your Health series has articles on Medical Test Kits for Home Use and Buying Medical Devices over the Internet, as well as one on how to protect yourself from HIV/AIDS. To confirm whether a device is licensed in Canada, please refer to the Medical Devices Active Licence Listing (MDALL).
Health Canada is working with the Canadian Border Services Agency to prevent importation of all CuraHerbDistributor.com test kits and will continue to monitor the situation, take appropriate action and inform Canadians, when necessary
Published on Jul 26, 2012 by THTCommunity
Terrence Higgins Trust has launched a short film clip to remind the general public in the UK of the continuing importance of using condoms during sex.
Condom Moment, was created on a pro bono basis by film company Loki and director Tom Geens to mark the charity’s 30th anniversary.
There are currently 100,000 people living with HIV in the UK, one in four of whom remain undiagnosed. In 2011, there were almost 427,000 new cases of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in England alone. Young people aged 15-24 remain one of the groups most at risk of STIs in the UK.
Genevieve Edwards, Director of Health Improvement at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “Much of our work targets those communities most at risk of HIV in the UK, such as Africans and gay men. However, the safer sex message is just as relevant for anyone who is sexually active. Whether it’s unplanned pregnancy, an unpleasant infection, or a serious health condition like HIV, the trusty condom remains the UK’s greatest weapon against sexual ill health. As this film shows, it’s also the best way to maintain peace of mind.
“We’re delighted Loki has given us this opportunity to promote this important message to the general population, and are hugely grateful to them and the director Tom for creating such a slick, visually arresting film.”
What a brave, and well spoken, young woman! Melissa’s question begins at about the 2:50 mark in the linked clip below.
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A Singapore student challenged homosexuality education on a live news discussion TV show in Singapore yesterday.
During a panel show on Channel NewsAsia Singapore with teachers and a representative from the Ministry of Education, student Melissa Tsang questioned the kind of counselling a school would give an LGBT child.
In response to Mohana Eswaran, a teacher at Regent Secondary School in Singapore, who said she would refer students asking about homosexuality to school counsellors, Tsang said:
‘What kind of counselling are you going to give this child? Are you going to support this child or are you going to portray homosexuality or transgenderism in the light of deviancy?’
Tsang also pointed out that as homosexual acts are criminalized in Singapore, so teachers cannot inform students of the legal situation without making the student think that homosexuality is criminal.
Liew Wei Li from the Ministry of Education responded:
‘We understand this is quite sensitive, so we actually give you full information about the legal provisions about the homosexual acts. So we don’t criminalize homosexuality at all. No counsellor will want to make a child feel bad. You want them to have the full information.’
Consensual sex between two adult men is illegal in Singapore under Section 377A of the Penal Code.
An October 2007 review of the code repealed the parts of Section 377 which made anal and oral sex between heterosexual couples and lesbians illegal, but Section 377A remained.
During a long parliamentary speech on the matter at the time of the repeal, the prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government would not proactively enforce Section 377, but they would not repeal it.
The prime minister said: ‘If we abolish it, we may be sending the wrong signal that our stance has changed, and the rules have shifted… Therefore, we have decided to keep the status quo on section 377A. It is better to accept the legal untidiness and the ambiguity. It works, do not disturb it.’
Watch the clip from Channel NewsAsia Singapore here:
(via Vidéo The Sex Education Show de acausedesgarcons (Replay TV - acausedesgarcons) - wat.tv)
The Sex Education Show originally aired on Britain’s channel 4 in 2008. This episode is on puberty in males. Other episodes can be found at the link above which is in French but the clips are English.
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Gay rights activists have opened the first ever clinic for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people in Uganda’s capital Kampala.
The clinic will specifically focus on HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Gay lobby group Ice Breakers Uganda (IBU) opened the centre which will be run by professional health workers.
IBU official Dennis Wamala told African gay rights advocacy site Behind The Mask the clinic would offer ‘better avenues in health seeking behaviours among the LGBTI community.’
He said: ‘LGBTI people often fear to go to hospitals due to stigma. But here at the clinic they can easily open up.’
Gay activist Bishop Christopher Senyonjo led the clinic opening with a service. He said even in times of agony, hopelessness and despair, homosexuals and heterosexuals were equal before God.
The clinic is confidential and free for all LGBTI people. However, a bill saying medical practitioners should report their gay clients to the police is making its way through parliament.
Since the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009, many doctors fear treating gay people in case they are arrested.
The government led an initiative to restrict homosexuals from access to medical care and treatment, which has led to increased infections in the Ugandan gay community.
In Uganda, gay men and women have no rights or protection whatsoever. If they are found out, they can face life imprisonment or even the death penalty if they are a ‘repeat offender’.
There is an estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV in Uganda, which includes 150,000 children. An estimated 64,000 people died from AIDs in the African country in 2009.
Photo by Pierre Pouliquin.
Animal lovers, listen up: I know critters are cute and everything, but you should know that nature is fucking weird. And nothing fucks weirder than kangaroos.
Science blogger to the stars Ed Yong watched a documentary about ‘roo junk so you don’t have to, and here’s what you need to know:
Annotated image by Ed Yong.
Also possibly important to marsupial sex lives: Kangaroos can unhinge their lower jaws.
Ed says that the most common response to the news of triplicate kangaroo vaginas has been “don’t tell the Republicans.”
The Tennessee Senate just days ago passed their alternative to the much lampooned “Don’t Say Gay” bill that would classify holding hands as a “gateway sexual activity” in their new “family life education curriculum.” The bill also specific provisions that allow parents to sue teachers if they deviate from the specified curriculum.
For the past few years Tennessee has been the subject of nationwide ire for its attempts to pass an infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, that would have prohibited the mentioning of anything about homosexuality buy teachers or students.
“In a new family life instructions bill, holding hands and kissing could be considered gateways to sex. Planned Parenthood said that allowing state government to define local sex education curriculum could backfire,” Tennessee’s WMC TV reports:
According to a 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Study, 61 percent of Memphis City high school students and 27 percent of middle school students have had sex. That’s higher than the national average.
Planned Parenthood said these numbers are why a new sex education bill promoting abstinence is not realistic.
“If the state of Tennessee gets to create the curriculum, it has to create something that umbrella reflects everyone,” said Planned Parenthood Director of Education Elokin CaPese.
…
“It makes it very clear that you can’t promote contraception,” said CaPese.
Following successful experiences in the UK, Schools Out is sending its campaigners abroad to exchange ideas and experiences with other educators and students about challenging homophobia in the classroom.
The organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans equality in education uses training tools to combat homophobia and institutional heterosexism.
National rep for Schools Out Elly Barnes will be speaking at the LGBT Individuals and Social Rights International Conference in Istanbul on 31 March. Barnes was recently voted number one on the Pink List 2011 for influential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the British Independent newspaper.
In an interview with the Telegraph she said that pupils ask if she’s trying to turn them gay. Her responseis : ‘Do you turn black during Black History Month or Turkish during Turkish month?’
Co-chair of Schools OUT Tony Fenwick said: ‘There is a sea-change in schools throughout Europe as it dawns on people that the place to combat homophobia and transphobia is in the classroom.’
Fenwick will be attending a film festival in Norway next month to encourage equality education in lesson plans around Europe. Teachers in countries like China and Turkey have already downloaded the lesson plans.
Students, staff, parents, and legislators can receive diversity training that enables them to deal with situations like coming out, homophobic bullying and the derogatory use of slang terms for lesbians and gays. Schools Out also offers gay, bi and trans students an online tool kit that includes relevant aspects from a number of British laws to show students their rights.
Schools Out’s mission statement is adamant about eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the domain of education: ‘Equality does not come through legislation and registration alone. It also requires a change of culture - the culture of our society and, more particularly, the culture of our schools and colleges.’
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s Republican Governor Gary Herbert on Friday vetoed a controversial measure which would have banned the state’s public schools from teaching contraception as a way of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Gary Herbert
The measure, House Bill 363, would have also prohibited any instruction in regard to sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other instruction on human sexuality outside of promoting abstinence.
Had Herbert signed the bill into law, it would have been the first of its kind in the nation.
The bill had previously cleared Utah’s Republican-controlled House and Senate, and political observers noted that Herbert was widely expected to sign it.
In a statement released on Friday, the Governor said that “as a parent and grandparent” he considered proper sex education in public schools an important addition to the moral education students receive from their parents at home.
“If HB 363 were to become law, parents would no longer have the option the overwhelming majority is currently choosing for their children. I am unwilling to conclude that the state knows better than Utah’s parents as to what is best for their children,” he said.
“In order for parents to take on more responsibility, they need more information, more involvement, and more choice — not less. I cannot sign a bill that deprives parents of their choice,” Herbert added.
Gayle Ruzicka, president of Utah Eagle Forum, a conservative group that describes itself as “leading the pro-family movement,” told the Salt Lake Tribune that it was a “sad day for the children of Utah.”
“It never entered our minds that the governor, who told us he was conservative, would veto such an appropriate piece of legislation,” Ruzicka said.
“By vetoing this bill, he just sent the message that Utah’s stamp of approval [is] on teaching children how to have sex, teaching contraception and saying this is the safest way to have sex,” she said.
By: Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Published: 03/08/2012 01:56 PM EST on LiveScience
Teens who receive formal sex education wait longer to have sex, a new study finds — and when they do get around to doing the deed, they’re more likely than teens who haven’t had sex ed to use contraception.
The study couldn’t fully tease out the differences between abstinence-only sex education and sex education that also includes discussion of birth control methods, but the researchers wrote that contrary to some critics’ beliefs, there is no evidence that sex education encourages teens to have sex sooner or to take more sexual risks.
The study, conducted by researchers from the reproductive health research organization The Guttmacher Institute, used data from the 2006 to 2008 National Survey of Family Growth. In this survey, 4,691 participants, ages 15 to 24, told researchers whether they had ever had formal instruction in “how to say no to sex” and in “methods of birth control.” The teens and young adults also answered questions about their first experience with vaginal sex.
Abstinence-only vs. comprehensive
The questions couldn’t differentiate between comprehensive sex education — which includes instruction on both how to delay sex and the proper use of birth control — and abstinence-only education, which focuses only on delaying sex until marriage. That’s because some abstinence-only programs do discuss birth control in order to emphasize the failure rate of various methods. The researchers couldn’t be sure of the quality or content of instruction, so the resulting classifications of sex ed as “abstinence-only” or “with birth control instruction” are tentative. [Birth Control Quiz: Test Your Knowledge]
The results showed, however, that two-thirds of young women and 55 percent of young men received some sort of instruction on birth control and abstinence before their first sexual experience. About 20 percent said they only learned how to delay sex, while 16 percent of females and 24 percent of males got no sexual education at all.
The last group was the worst off when it came to risky sexual behaviors. Of the students who had any type of sex education, 77 percent of women and 78 percent of men had sex before they turned 20. For young adults with no sexual instruction, those numbers jumped to 86 percent and 88 percent, respectively.
Using protection
In addition, students who had sex education were more likely to use contraception during their first sexual encounter compared with those who hadn’t received sex ed. They also had “healthier partnerships,” being less likely to lose their virginity to someone more than three years older or younger than themselves. [Teen Pregnancy: A Winnable Public Health Battle?]
The researchers found little difference on these contraception measures between the abstinence-only group and the group who received birth control instruction, although young women who had received birth control instruction were more likely to protect themselves by using condoms during their first intercourse. Other studies have found that comprehensive sex education is better at delaying vaginal sex and reducing teen pregnancy than abstinence-only education; however, a 2010 study published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that abstinence education can delay sex in young teens.
“It appears that talking with adolescents about sex — before they first have sex — seems to be what is important, regardless of the specific subject matter,” the researchers wrote in the new study published online March 7 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The effectiveness of sexual education may depend, in part, on where the students are. A recent study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that sex ed is less effective at reducing teen birthrates in more conservative areas, perhaps because instruction is not as high-quality. Attitudes toward abortion may play a role in teen birthrates, too, the study found, with teens in more conservative areas less willing or less able to get the procedure, making them more likely to carry to term.
The new Guttmacher study also turned up some alarming demographic differences in sex education, with minority students and students in lower-income families less likely to receive any sexual education at all. For example, one-third of minority men received no formal sex ed. Girls from lower-income families with less-educated parents were also less likely than their better-off counterparts to receive instruction on birth control.
“These demographic groups have poorer SRH [sexual and reproductive health] outcomes, including higher rates of STIs [sexually transmitted infections] and teen pregnancy, highlighting the unmet need for formal instruction in sex education,” the researchers wrote.
First Posted: 03/10/2012 10:04 am Updated: 03/10/2012 10:04 am