One of the by-products of having been raised poor and later working class is my ongoing challenge stating what is politic. I am often in the position of saying what is deemed unwise, not judicious, or imprudent. For many more years than I care to estimate, I have been cautioned, marginalized, and – at times…
Try as I might, I cannot end a week of writing posts about sex without voicing my thoughts about this week’s public apology by the Land’s End Corporation to its customers and supposed customers from the so-called religious right. Last week I wrote about apologies and what passes for apologies. I wrote that some people are…
And that’s why birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it — Cole Porter, 1928 Recently I was asked a question that, in various forms and various contexts, comes up from time to time. It goes something like, “Do you believe that gay men are having more risky sex as treatments for…
A favorite passage in The Velveteen Rabbit for my friend for life, Jan, and me is the part where the Skin Horse and the rabbit talk about becoming real. In that section, the horse recalls how he became real when another little boy loved him into becoming. The rabbit is skeptical, but later in the story,…
Yesterday I wrote that my own sexuality education began on a busy street in Milwaukee nearly 60 years ago. The national discussion of sexuality education, however, heated up over 100 years ago when the National Education Association (NEA) recommended that training be provided to teachers so that they could provide school-based programs on sexual health.…
This week I have been writing about love in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. I have written about three facets of love as these apply to interpersonal relationships and civic relationships, namely intimacy, passion, and commitment. The particular model of love that I ascribe to differs from the Greeks, Romans, St. Paul of Tarsus, or Santa.…
As I write about love this week, I went online for all things related to it. What better place to start a search like this than celebrity wedding vows. This one — certainly NOT my favorite — still kept snagging my attention: I vow to keep the spare toilet paper in the bathroom instead of…
I have always loved me some Tina Turner. But when Ms. Turner soulfully sings What’s love got to do with it, I confess that she loses me when she asks, “What’s love but a second-hand emotion?” I think that love might be the life of a community and fear might be its death. This week…
Creating Community for Everyone 