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Right now the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed nation. Although this teen pregnancy rate has decreased dramatically since the 1970s, recent years have seen that rate become stagnant.

Indeed, as of 2004, 13 states experienced either an increase in teen birth rates or stagnant teen birth rates, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data also showed that one in seven girls who are 14 and younger will experience an unintended pregnancy, and one in three women will have an unintended pregnancy by age 20.

Dr Laura Berman in the Chicago Sun-Times.

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Of those surveyed, 67.7% agreed with the statement about the recent Employment Non-Discrimination Act:

National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should support this proposal because it helps gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers and is a step toward transgender employment rights.

(as opposed to, for example, opposing it because it doesn’t specifically protect transgender rights.)

On Towleroad these results produced much debate because the issue of trans rights is often, by some, viewed in partnership with that of gay rights. I say gay rights because I think gay rights should be and can be used as an umbrella term for gay male, lesbian and bisexuals. It’s a term for ‘alternative’ sexual orientations. Trans is an issue that is similar, but not the same:

I support individual freedoms short of cause pain, suffering, and damage to others. I support whole heartedly bisexuals and transgendered people – but I’m sick and tired of gay and lesbian issues being diluted, blurred, and marginalized because they’re intertwined with issues of gender identity and… whatever. AKPC_IDS += "997,";

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Some breast-filled ads on mainstream sites have really been cracking me up recently. I know the ads that you see on any ‘gay-interest’ sites aren’t going to be subtle either, all airbrushed abs and prominent bulges in all the right places, but the boobs are going to the extreme. I’m thinking specifically about sites that host Bittorrent files, the place you’d go if you’re looking to download the latest version of Linux, or a movie, or a tv show or some music (all those last three illegally of course). The websites can’t get mainstream advertisers because they’d likely be accused of supporting piracy so the websites resort to donations (from people who are specifically avoiding paying for their entertainment – probably not many donations there) or rather less reputable advertisers; the gambling websites, the ‘busty babes’ websites, and the ‘FREE SONY PSP FREE FREE’ type companies. What caught my eye was this knockout photo, so obviously a joke, or digital manipulation as to be laughable. Perhaps that was their intention.

Popularity: 6% [?]

‘Americans for Truth About Homosexuality’

I just think it’s hilarious that there IS a group with this name. Found when reading about the recent Democrat stumbling over whether they believe being gay is immoral or not. Here’s a summary: Clinton, Obama: Homosexuality ‘Not Immoral’. There’s also a link in my Magnolia bookmarks.

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I adore this ad. Not only are the models both astonishingly hot, but the copy is both believable and funny. Pink TV is a completely mainstream subscription channel in France and I can really see guys (and girls) in their 20s, struggling to come out, secretly watching the channel at home when their ‘petit ami’ isn’t around! Hot!

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You’ve got a brother, son, cousin, best friend or neighbour about whom you have your suspicions. You don’t know what it is but you have a feeling that there’s something that he’s hiding and something that you’re really not completely clear on. There’s not something that you can really pin your thoughts down on, but perhaps he’s got a particular way of acting, a group of (stereotypical) interests, his friends act in a ‘certain’ way that makes you wonder. You think he might be gay. It’s best to know, right? Is he gay?

I’m not thinking of the case where you’re dating a guy and think that in fact he might be gay. This isn’t that. I’m talking about when you have a really close relation and you want to know what’s going on in his mind. The idea is that if you ask him then everything will not only make sense but become a lot easier because you can both be honest with one another. When people hide aspects of themselves from one another there’s often something behind it. You hide for long enough, pretending to be something that you’re not, smothering your personality that in time you become someone else. In the process you don’t lose the thing(s) that you were trying to obscure, but you become somehow a lesser person. You’re not the ‘real you’. It can be fantastic to tell someone things that have been hidden or not even really understood for a long time. There’s a release.

The problem is, if you’re asking yourself this question, ‘Is it alright to ask?’ then you should acknowledge that the question is not being asked for the benefit of the person under suspicion, but for your own benefit. You’d quite like to know, wouldn’t you? You’ve been wondering.
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New York City, about a week ago, started distribution of its own NYC-branded condoms, in an effort to improve public health. They distribute over 1.5 million city funded condoms per month and on the Valentines Day this year handed out over 150,000 of the new city branded condoms.

The NYTimes: A New Condom in Town, This One Named ‘NYC’ says:

With the government’s imprimatur and a wrapper inspired by the subways, New York City’s first municipally sanctioned condom arrived yesterday, and it was hard to miss, given that city workers and volunteers handed out more than 150,000 of them across the five boroughs.

While [the city's health commissioner] Dr. Frieden noted that condoms can prevent the spread of H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as unintended pregnancies, he added, “Abstinence is fail-safe, and reducing the number of sexual partners reduces risk of infections. But for sexually active people, using a condom is key to staying healthy.” Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, a conservative group based in Tupelo, Miss., said, “By and large, I agree with what he said. It’s a statement that conservatives and liberals should be able to embrace.”

[The NYTimes also reported on the issue here]

www.nyccondom.org

BUT, says Kenneth (in the 212)

The city launched the new official condoms on Valentine’s Day with volunteers handing out free samples throughout the city, including on a street corner near St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan. Catholic leaders immediately demanded that the plan be stopped and that everyone get AIDS.

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I’ve been getting annoyed, these last couple weeks, by a thought that keeps recurring to me. I used to love the television show Will & Grace when it was on. I didn’t actually watch it all that often because it was on at inconvenient times in the UK but I’d watch it online and stuff. It has fantastic writing and it looks like the characters (and actors) have a lot of fun which gives it an unusual energy. But what’s been annoying me is how they take the issue of being gay and play with it as though it’s something to giggle at but never really focus on. This was evidenced to me a couple of days ago by a bloopers video I saw online. They use the gay line at every turn they can but the show and the actors are never honest about it. There are innumerable kisses between Karen and Jack, between Will and Grace and between Grace and Karen. Because straight or lesbian is ‘A OK’ on US television. But boy on boy action, not a chance. It’s a gay show and yet there is only one kiss in the clip show of guys kissing. Can mainstream audiences only accept gay shows if it’s laughing at the gays and not really with them?

Of course there’s the issue of actors themselves being out. How gay is Jack? So Gay. But Sean Hayes, rigidly in the closet. No utterance of his heterosexuality is uttered. He just doesn’t talk about it. Randy Harrison, one of the most high profile gays actors on television with his starring role in the US version of the British show Queer As Folk, hardly talks about it.

Nobody, not one single person is going to get over the idea of being typecast as gay if those who play gay don’t talk about it. When T.R. Knight from Grey’s Anatomy goes on ‘Ellen’, as he did two days ago, and can hardly articulate his position, never actually saying ‘I’m gay’ and refering to the ‘faggot’ name-calling he was subject to by a fellow cast member as ‘that hateful word’ (after his initial mumbling of the term), gays get weaker. Lots of peole heralded Knight for coming out publicly. He didn’t come out, he was kicked and pushed out by media reporting of the bust up on-set between two other actors that led to his being called the term. He may be articulate and kind and a thoroughly nice man, but he betrays himself by not having the courage to be open in the first place. It may be hard to be gay in the media but it can’t be hard to be gay in Hollywood. Give me a break, the place is full of gays. It’s clearly not being gay that’s the problem, but being publicly gay in Hollywood medialand.

So the US entertainment industry is using gay as a plot device but when it comes to actors actually being gay, that’s a no no. Apparently gay doesn’t sell in the magazines like a nice airbrushed People magazine headshot will do of a straight actor. No, wait. People magazine. Isn’t that the one that hosted Lance Bass’s coming out, and TR Knight’s and numerous others? Now you look at UK television and there are shows like Torchwood that has a bi/gay/straight/who-knows-what main character played by an actor who ‘married’ his male partner not long ago. If British shows can stop pretending, can’t they do the same stateside? And gay-vague isn’t good enough. It’s like the sidekick of Clair Bennet (the cheerleader) in the show Heroes. Gay. He’s gay. But they won’t say it, apart from when some kids in the high school corridors call it out as an insult. Because that’s what it’s seen as, and that’s what it’ll stay until entertainment considers it no longer a taboo topic. Let modern day people like Cole Porter stop hiding under the carpet and come out. Can’t Hollywood stop playing at gay? It’s not a fun game anymore.

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