#hiv

The Sexual Freedom Project: The Glass Closet

(También en Español) What issues in your own family that are "off limits" in terms of discussion due to past or present circumstances? Does your family make you live in a glass closet, where everyone knows about your sexual orientation and/or gender identity but just are unwilling to talk about it?  Do you wish your family was more comfortable talking about these tender issues? Make a video, write a poem, song, or an essay — or even create an original work of art — and express your thoughts. If we feature your contribution on the site, we will send you a ...

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in The Sexual Freedom Project / Videos  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

New Anti-HIV Condom Available

by Gabe Av Flickr/creative commons

Starpharma: VivaGel® Condom Receives TGA Device Certification - Launch Preparations to Follow Don't Get Too Excited About The 'HIV-Killing' Condom Yet An Australian company, Starpharma, has just received its government's approval to produce and sell a promising new condom incorporating VivaGel®, a lubricant purported to block viral infections, including HIV, HPV, and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), up to 99.9% of the time. The Australian consumer brand is LifeStyles Dual Protect, and the company has plans to market worldwide.  Some experts, ...

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in News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education  by Alison Gardner 1 comments

What? Science? Who Needs Science?

Flickr/creative commons

On Monday, we wrote our analysis of the disastrous 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Burwell v Hobby Lobby, which gives greater religious freedom rights to closely held for-profit corporations and less religious freedom rights to natural persons (their words). We also urged you to express your dissent byRead More›

in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

National Sex Study reveals what we are up to

Strand Book Store by Nick Sherman (flickr/creativecommons

National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior A new study, the largest in 20 years, represents a clarion call for anyone having sex (or not having sex for that matter). Researchers from the Center for Sexual Health Promotion (CSHP) at Indiana University's School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation examine the sexual experience and condom-use in almost 6000 people, ages 14-94. “These data about sexual behaviors and condom use in contemporary America are critically needed by medical and public health professionals who are on the front lines addressing issues such as HIV, sexually transmissible infections, and unintended pregnancy.” (CSHP Director, ...

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in Key Issues / News of Note / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Want Teens to Have Positive Sexual Health? Sex-Positivity Can Help With That

“Informed teens are much more likely to wait for first intercourse, use condoms and other barrier and birth control methods at first intercourse, and are more likely to take responsibility regarding their own sexual health.” Emily E. Prior But not just any information given to teens will produce such a result. For decades, sex education programming in schools across America have used an agenda of fear tactics to teach teens that sex is bad, sexual pleasure is sin, and homosexuality is a mental illness. It’s time that Americans realize this approach of scaring teens from having sex doesn’t work: 46.8% of high ...

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in Public Information / Sex Education  by Alifa Watkins 1 comments

The Way We “Talk the Talk” Controls the Way We “Walk the Walk” PART 2

(También en español) In Part 1, I highlighted the first three of six sex narratives developed by Marty Klein, Ph.D., in his book, America’s War on Sex, and outlined in last year's  State of Sexual Freedom Report, produced by the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance (Woodhull). Dr. Klein posits, “Sexual freedom expands or contracts within political, social, economic, cultural, and psychological contexts–some of them contradictory, some of them mutually reinforcing.”

A quick recap: a “narrative” is a coherent storyline that contains a set of assumptions that enables people to make meaning out of raw fact. So the way we ...

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in Events / News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education  by Alifa Watkins 2 comments

The Way We “Talk the Talk” Controls the Way We “Walk the Walk” Part 1

(También en español)

“Sexual freedom expands or contracts within political, social, economic, cultural, and psychological contexts–some of them contradictory, some of them mutually reinforcing.” Marty Klein, Ph.D.

This is where the narratives of sexuality come into play: a “narrative” is a coherent storyline that contains a set of assumptions that enables people to make meaning out of raw fact.

For example, take the fact that there are 1 million abortions in American every year. Now, some people will argue that this fact as evidence of moral weakness and sexual promiscuity, while others ...

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in Events / News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education  by Alifa Watkins 2 comments

Engineered stem cells seek out, kill HIV in living organisms

(También en Español) News of Note: Engineered stem cells seek out, kill HIV in living organisms (Medical Xpress) -- Expanding on previous research providing proof-of-principal that human stem cells can be genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells, a team of UCLA researchers have now demonstrated that these cells can actually attack HIV-infected cells in a living organism. Sexually transmitted diseases are an unfortunate, but very real obstacle for the sexual freedom movement, one that often reinforces fears and insecurities that lead to further sexual repression. While many people think of HIV as an "incurable" disease, that may not always be the ...

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in Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 1 comments

Bill Gates gives $750 million to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

(También en español) News of Note: Gates Foundation gives $750 million to Global Fund The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $750 million Thursday to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help assure that the organization can keep supplying AIDS drugs while it seeks to adjust to the economic downturn. The Global Fund, which has disbursed $15.1 billion to low-income countries over the past decade, said in November that it would not award any new grants until 2014. Nearly all of the fund’s money comes from governments in the industrialized world, many of which were unwilling to increase ...

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in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

HIV vaccine developed in Canada approved for human studies

News of Note: HIV vaccine developed in Canada approved for human studies A Canadian-developed vaccine to prevent HIV has been given the green light for testing in human clinical trials. The vaccine, developed by researchers at the University of Western Ontario, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start being tested in humans in January. It is the first preventive HIV vaccine approved for clinical trials to use a whole HIV-1 virus, which has been both killed and genetically engineered, to activate immunity. In this way, the new vaccine is much like the killed whole virus vaccines that ...

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in News of Note / Videos  by Jack Diehl 0 comments