Free Republic

A recent study conducted by Northeastern University's Institute on Urban Health Research found a significant number of health disparities in Massachusetts between heterosexual adults and gay, lesbian and bisexual adults. Led by Kerith Conron, associate research scientist at Northeastern, in collaboration with researchers at Harvard Medical School and a private health-care consultant, the study revealed that gay men are about 33 percent less likely to be obese than heterosexual men, and lesbian women about 50 percent more likely to be obese than heterosexual women. It also identified bisexual adults, particularly women, as disproportionately burdened by poor health. In all, significant...

More than one in three HIV positive gay men say they have unprotected sex, reveals a community survey, published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. And almost one in five HIV negative men said that they do the same, the figures show. The findings are based on a survey of men at gay bars, clubs, and saunas in London, Manchester, and Brighton, UK, between 2003 and 2004. The surveys, which were carried out at 90 venues, involved information on lifestyle, background, and sexual behaviour. Almost 3600 questionnaires were handed out, 2640 of which were completed. Saliva samples...

A MELBOURNE man who fantasised about catching HIV before he contracted the virus has spoken out about a gay subculture in which infection is seen as desirable. The young professional, who does not want to be named, told The Age a combination of complacency about the virus and the wish to have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man he loved led him to become infected. "I wasn't actively seeking it, but maybe there were parts of me, dark corners, that wanted it, that were thinking, 'Let's just do it and get it over and done with and then it won't...

"There will always be a battle between the sexes because men and women want different things," quipped comedian George Burns. "Men want women and women want men." But when men want men and women want women, each couple can circumvent treacherous romantic terrain because partners more closely share sexual appetites and mind-reading abilities than do heterosexual pairs. Most lesbians don't fear rapacious women and gay men need not always soft-peddle their sexual predilections. On balance, gays and lesbians understand their partners' bodies and biases with a certainty that many a clueless "breeder" yearns for. "Homosexuality could be viewed in some...

Corey Larsen spent years hiding the feelings that drew him to other men, at first refusing to acknowledge them and then praying daily for them to be taken away. As a teenager in Clearfield, Utah, he tried to banish the thoughts. As he grew older, the attractions grew stronger, but so did his religious convictions as a Mormon. The contradiction tormented him. After moving to Manhattan several years ago, he remained a respected young leader in his church ward. Behind closed doors, though, he sank into despair. “I was either going to stay in the church, in what I believe...

Two national advocacy groups Tuesday accused the federal government of neglecting what they described as an epidemic of homelessness affecting tens of thousands of gay and lesbian youth, many of whom leave home because of conflicts with their parents. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for the Homeless said gay, lesbian and transgender youth make up at least 20 percent — possibly as much as 40 percent — of the total number of homeless and runaway youth, a fluid population which experts have estimated at 575,000 to 1.6 million each year. "The national response to...

A leading American AIDS group said it was suing Pfizer, the producer of Viagra, accusing the company of increasing the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases through "irresponsible" marketing. AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest AIDS healthcare, prevention and education provider in the United States, accused Pfizer of deliberately pitching the erectile-dysfunction drug at men who did not need it. "Pfizer's direct to consumer marketing of Viagra as a drug to enhance sexual performance is primarily aimed at men who don't necessarily suffer from a clinical diagnosis of erectile dysfunction," the group's president, Michael Weinstein, said in a statement. "We believe it is...

Meet the new players in the great American debate about values: Ryan, a 25-year-old newlywed, who is helping other men find husbands; Doug, 50, who is helping gay men in San Francisco create their ideal community; and Chris, 36, whose pursuit of happiness has switched from chasing New York hotties to seeking down-home enlightenment. They and others across the country are engaging gay men in conversations about their goals and values -- both personal and collective -- and challenging the sense of who gay men are and what makes their community. This introspection is happening as gay men are able...

Most lesbian, gay and bisexual teenagers who are "out" do not tell their doctor their sexual orientation, according to a survey by the RAND Corporation and the University of California, Los Angeles. ADVERTISEMENT Among 131 lesbian, gay and bisexual teens aged 14 to 18 years attending the "Models of Pride Youth Conference," 70 percent indicated that they were "out" to everyone or nearly everyone in their lives, yet only 35 percent reported that their doctor knew their sexual orientation. "We knew that the sample that we chose was going to be a very 'out' sample," Dr. Garth D. Meckler of...

From Steve Irwin to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, there's still one video you ain't gonna see on YouTube - There is, apparently, videotape of beloved Aussie TV star and naturalist Steve Irwin getting stabbed by the nasty bayonet-like tail of a giant stingray. The video shows Irwin removing the lethal blade from his chest, where it had pierced his heart, just before he loses consciousness and dies almost instantly. We will, most likely, never see this film. This is not because Irwin had, so far as we know, no chance to utter "Crikey!" one last time before leaping into the...

The gay community in the western world, mauled by the first wave of the AIDS pandemic, now faces a second storm, according to a forecast released at the International AIDS conference. Since 2001, new cases of HIV in the homosexual population in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australasia have been rising by about 1.9 percent per year, the research by the University of Pittsburgh said. Without action to correct this trend -- a return to safe sex or an unexpected medical breakthrough -- the infection rate is set to soar as the population ages. In 2001, HIV affected on...

Few will know this genetic truth, because the 5-year-old's parents and school administrators have agreed that it's in his best interest to blend in as a female. Mental health professionals have diagnosed Pat - not his real name - with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person believes that he or she is the opposite gender. After two years of examination, they have determined that he is not simply effeminate or going through a phase. "Gender dysphoria can take place during a fetus' development in the womb," said noted gender specialist and sexologist Marilyn Volker, Ph.D., of Miami. While...

When all the fanatical Christians disappear, will traffic finally improve? Wait, did I miss it? Did it happen three days ago, on 6-6-06, a.k.a. Tea Time with the Beast, a.k.a. the Great Day of Reckoning, a.k.a. the National Day of Slayer, all the world crashing down in a heap of hissing steam and belching smoke and balmy gusty breezes sometime around noon just after lunch but not before rush hour and hitting right around siesta? I might have been napping. Did the Apocalypse finally hit? Did the deep wish of roughly a half-billion zealous believers come to pass and were...

No wait, not six. To hell with that. Make it 10. Ten bucks a gallon, no matter what the going rate for a barrel of light sweet crude. That would so completely, violently, brilliantly do it. Revolutionize the country. Firebomb our pungent stasis. Change everything. Don't you agree? Here's what we could do: Give gas discounts to cab drivers (at least initially) and metro transit systems and low-income folks, those who have to drive their busted-up '78 Honda Civics to their jobs scrubbing restaurant toilets and flipping burgers and vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV...

Think sex and drugs destroy America? Try naive chastity. Oh, and "Purity Balls" There are these things. These unholy events called "Purity Balls" and you should probably fall to your knees right this minute and thank a merciful and lubricious and happily polyamorous God that you do not know what they are and that you have access right this minute to vast quantities of wine to deflect their nasty karmic arrows because, you know, oh my God. But hey, free country. Purity Balls. No, not some sort of newfangled spherical chastity device to be inserted using vacuum tubes and pulleys,...

It's a shockingly eco-friendly plan from the world's most toxic retailer. Did hell just freeze over? Sometimes you just have to let the possibility breathe. Sometimes you just have to allow that something grand and good and healthy might actually be born from the bowels of the dank and ravenous megacorporate world, like flowers from a dung heap, like vodka from old potatoes, even if it comes right alongside the nastiest, most abusive federal environmental policy you will see in your lifetime. Take Wal-Mart, the most famously offensive, town-destroying, junk-purveying, labor-abusing, sweatshop-supporting, American-job-killing, soul-numbing, seizure-inducing, hope-curdling retailer in the known...

Yes, I know you were drunk. Must've been. Either drunk or on serious meds and/or you just didn't give much of a damn about anything anyway because you're just one of those people, one of those types who comes lurching around the city like a chunk of numbed pain in your big-ass mid-'80s burgundy car with the white top and chrome bumpers -- an old Cadillac? Monte Carlo? -- early last Sunday morning to wreak casual havoc. Is that about right? Do you remember any of it? Here is what I'm guessing: probably not. Let me tell you what happened,...

Arkansas mom gives birth to a whole freakin' baseball team. How deeply should you cringe? Who are you to judge? Who are you to say that the more than slightly creepy 39-year-old woman from Arkansas who just gave birth to her 16th child yes that's right 16 kids and try not to cringe in phantom vaginal pain when you say it, who are you to say Michelle Duggar is not more than a little unhinged and sad and lost? And furthermore, who are you to suggest that her equally troubling husband -- whose name is, of course, Jim Bob...

Apparently, it wasn't just "invade Iraq and Afghanistan in my name." A special report: Scene: White House private residence, night, not long ago. President Bush present in his most favoritest guns 'n' bunnies PJs. Laura asleep, knocked out by a combination of too much Good Housekeeping and excessive hair-spray fumes. Suddenly, a burst of black smoke. A deep, resonant voice speaks: "Psst! George! God here, taking a break from supervising the well-being of eight billion troubled souls along with infinite galaxies of unimaginable vastness to speak with you directly one more time because, well, you're special, aren't you, George? Yes...

Leather, techno, sex & war: more only-in-SF juice to make you proud. Take that, uptight neocons. It was the moment when we walked by a jam-packed S.F. City Hall and realized it was open to host a VIP techno dance party, while immediately outside its gilded doors upward of 50,000 revelers wandered and shimmied and flaunted their costumes and drank nasty Red Bull cocktails in the huge Civic Center plaza for the third annual Love Parade, everyone baring flesh and shaking their groove thangs to any one of 200 world-class (well, some of them) DJs spinning their wares on over...