by Melissa Keyes DiGioia Today marks the last day of the national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. President Obama’s proclamation recognizes important aspects of a person’s sexual self: sexual orientation and gender identity. In order to gain some perspectives on these important areas of sexuality education, I spoke with an expert, Lis… Read more »
In Part Two of my interview with my nephew Joe, we explore resources available to GLBTQ teens. My saucy sister Loretta (aka Retta), joined in on the interview to give her perspective on Joe coming out. Read on…. Me: Hey Joe!And Retta! Me: Happy day after graduation, Joe! Joseph: lol thanks Me:So we left off… Read more »
In honor of Father’s Day, we thought it would be nice to highlight the health care available to men at our Planned Parenthood clinics. The following interview was conducted with a PPGNNJ Clinic Supervisor and staff nurse. Questions were collected by Robin Slaw, Sexual Health Educator with the Center for Family Life Education, based on… Read more »
For those that missed my nephew Joe’s blog post last week, he talked about his experience using Facebook as a means to come out. The following is the letter that Joe sent out to his friends and family and an interview that Joe and I had yesterday. It seemed fitting since Joe came out on… Read more »
Last year, Time ran an article in June, during Pride Month, about coming out on Facebook. (See the article here.) In brief, the article discusses how facebook and other social networks have placed the burden of discovery on our “friends” and “followers” easing the burden on the individual to go through the exhaustive process of… Read more »
I attended my first Gay Pride in New York City on June 28, 2009, the year that the LGBTQ community commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. It was a typical hot summer day on Hudson Street in the Village. I was scared, excited, worried and surprised all at once because though I had… Read more »
*Note – this submission was submitted by the sexually smarter and CFLE facebook page admin. Why? After talking to Robin about her post “Young Sexpots” – I was reminded of a similar instance my mom faced and wanted to share – plus after doing the editing, posting, linking and typing things like “coordination yimmlefish” to… Read more »
by Robin Slaw I’ve been pondering the nature of sexuality lately, and in particular what that means to me as the mother of three adolescents. Recently, one of my daughters brought her laptop over to show me a video of some eight- and nine-year-old girls dancing to “Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)” by… Read more »
Reporting Live from Sweden: Bill Taverner (Where in the World is Bill Taverner?)On Sunday I visited a local Swedish library in search of some free wi fi. It was difficult to find an open table where I could work, since the library was packed. I was surprised, because it was a Sunday. Now that I… Read more »
By Bill Taverner I am in Stockholm, Sweden for the next week, joining Dr. Julie Wilgen, who is here on sabbatical from the University of Delaware, to study sex ed. Both Dr. Wilgen and I were asked by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education to give a 2-hour lecture on Sex Ed in America. (2… Read more »
By Colleen Lord “If I could just get rid of this pooch.” This is me, circa 1990. It’s after a sleepover with my two best friends who I’ve known forever. My fourteen-year-old self is analyzing my body in the mirror. I was 100 pounds sopping wet at the time, yet that pooch was a huge… Read more »
by Robin Slaw, Sexual Health Educator/Trainer (In this article on condom compliance – Robin touches on the necessity of educating youth on the importance of condoms to and some reasons adults may not use them as well as other issues. Condoms are critical to preventing STIs so this article is perfectly timed to coordinate with… Read more »
by Colleen Lord, CSE Staff Thank Heavens for Robie Harris (and Bill Taverner!) The Center for Sex Education (CSE)’s fearless leader Bill Taverner recently made a comment at our staff meeting about how we educators think about sex ed all the time, even on our “off” time. “Bill, I don’t know about… Read more »
As promised, here are the answers to the quiz posted earlier this week! How many did you get right? 1. Many infants and young children discover that touching their genitals feels good.TRUE. Masturbation, or self-pleasuring (as the behavior is generally referred to in childhood), is common throughout childhood, beginning to occur from the age of… Read more »
By Bill Taverner Last night on The Colbert Report, comedian Stephen Colbert provided some much needed comic relief to the endless news coverage of the story of U.S. Representative Eric Massa (NY) and his inappropriate…um…“tickling” behavior. Colbert reported on the tongue-lashing U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy (RI) gave the media for its preoccupation with the story,… Read more »
by Colleen Lord, Education Manager for Union County, CFLE “I know you’re not ready yet. At least, I hope you’re not. But when you are ready to have sex, I really hope you’ll come to me first.” My dad and I are sitting at his dining room table for this “less-than-comfortable” conversation. One might think… Read more »
Finding Teachable Moments in the Newsby Bill Taverner, CFLE Director A. “I’m sorry, sir, we can’t hire you. Your skin is just too dark.” B. “I’m sorry, ma’am, we can’t hire you. You’re in a wheelchair and all our professors are able-bodied. C. “Your resume is very impressive, but you’re just too darn old. We’re… Read more »
By Bill Taverner, Director CFLE This past weekend I attended the Sex::Tech conference in San Francisco, CA. This was one of the more fascinating conferences I’ve attended in my professional life – one in which all things sexual merged with the latest and greatest developments in technology. I learned more than I ever knew about… Read more »
The news of the day appears to be critical evaluations of an apology given by golf star Tiger Woods for his sexual infidelity. Newspapers and blogs ask, ”Is Tiger out of the rough?” as they reflect on his ”bad outing,” musing that his wife ”still holds the score card.” Who knew we could have such… Read more »
