Contemporary Sexuality - November 2008 - (Page 8) Quick Hits continued from page 7 “Gay and lesbian people have families and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.” — Coretta Scott King High internet usage and the popular social networking site Fotolog have made it easy for teens to trade suggestive photos with each other, organize parties and experiment with their sexuality. “Chile’s youth are clearly having sex earlier and testing the borderlines with their sexual conduct,” says Ramiro Molina, director of the Center for Adolescent Reproductive Medicine and Development at the University of Chile. Twenty-year-old Mario Munoz organizes many of the teen parties. “Before, someone would fall in love and start dating seriously,” he says. “At a party today, you meet like three people and make out with all three.” Sexuality education is minimal in Chile. The government began a nationwide sexuality education program in the late 1960s, but Gen. Augusto Pinochet ended it after he took control of the country in a 1973 coup. A new sexuality education curriculum was created in 1993, but today, about one-half of students report receiving information infrequently. (New York Times, Sept. 13) Evangelical Protestants are a dominant force in these Southern states, comprising 31 to 51 percent of the population. About two-thirds of all Southerners believe that homosexuality is morally wrong, according to the Pew Research Center. Before her death two years ago, Coretta Scott King, the widow of Rev. Martin Luther King, spoke out in favor of gay rights. “Gay and lesbian people have families and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union,” she said. “A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.” (USA Today, Sept. 16 and Wall Street Journal, Sept. 20-21) Fithian, prominent sex researcher, dies Marilyn Fithian, a California-based sex researcher and author of Treatment of Sexual Dysfunction, died on Sept. 11 at the age of 87. Fithian worked with colleague William E. Hartman on several projects, including the 1972 publication of Treatment of Sexual Dysfunction and their 1970 survey of 2,600 people at 150 nudist camps called Nudist Society. The pair also opened the Center for Marital and Sexual Studies in Long Beach, Calif. where they studied hundreds of people’s sexual performance. Vern Bullough, in his 1994 book Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia, believes that the 751 people who Fithian and Hartman observed at their clinic is “the largest number of subjects ever studied in human sexual response research.” Eli Coleman, PhD, a professor at the University of Minnesota, says Fithian and Hartman “helped legitimize and destigmatize sex research.” After divorcing their spouses, Fithian and Hartman lived together for 27 years. Hartman died in 1997. (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 19) Mormons donate generously to anti-gay marriage effort Religion continues to play a big role in the fight against gay marriage. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly known as Mormons, have been major contributors to Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage measure on the California ballot. Since June 1, about one-third of the $15.4 million raised in support of Proposition 8 has been from Mormons. LDS leaders issued a letter urging believers to “do all you can” to end gay marriage in California. Several Mormon beliefs are at the heart of the religion’s opposition to gay marriage. “Couples married in a Mormon temple remain wedded for eternity and can give birth to spirit children in the afterlife,” summarizes the Wall Street Journal. “Mormons must be married to achieve ‘exaltation,’ the ultimate state in the afterlife. Mormons also believe they retain their gender in the afterlife.” Meanwhile, David Person, a columnist for the Huntsville Times, in Huntsville, Alabama, recently analyzed why 10 of the 24 states that have banned gay marriage by constitutional amendment are in the South. 8 Contemporary Sexuality www.aasect.org | November 2008 Vol. 42, No. 11 http://www.aasect.org
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