To end conversion therapy, we must understand what it actually means

By Travis Salway On Monday, Calgary City Council voted, nearly unanimously, to pass a municipal ban of advertising around conversion therapy, which the city defined as “practice, treatment, or service designed to change, repress, or discourage a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour.” …

Stuck in the middle

Growing into my identity By Tatum Lindquist As an empathic perfectionist, conflicts stung me. I used to perceive any conflict as a reflection of my flawed character. It took years of inner wrestling to understand that conflicts were opportunities to grow, not threatening, but nurturing in their tumult. All too often, humans keep to their …

What it’s like to be sharing a polyamorous home during lockdown

Love in the time of coronavirus is tough enough for two. Adding a third or fourth romantic partner to the quarantine equation only makes life more complicated. by Abby Moss Quarantine is putting a lot of strain on people in relationships. For long-term couples, being trapped under the same roof 24/7 is inevitably going to …

Goal-Oriented Sex Could Be Ruining Your Intimate Life

By Vanessa Powell While many women understand that overall pleasure, exploration, intimacy, and play should all be at center stage in a sexual experience, and not simply an orgasm (although, let’s be clear, it is still an important component), the latter often eclipses all else — which is why and how things can often go …

“Who designed these uniforms—Tom of Finland?”

The real story behind these viral photos of Spanish soldiers Deployed to cities at high risk of coronavirus, photos of the Spanish Legion provoked lust, loathing and comments about homoeroticism when they went viral on social media. Yet the history of the Legion makes these responses no contradiction at all by Catherine Baker They are …

Bridging the research gap on the sexual health of men in the LGBTQ+ community

Findings could inform health policy, but professor warns against jumping to conclusions By Sarah Kronenfeld Health-policy makers often make decisions that drastically impact people all across the country, but before they can do that, they need to understand what the population truly needs. That can be difficult, though, when policies affect specific groups with even …

Number Of Teens Coming Out Doubles, But Suicide Attempts Still Troublingly High

by John Anderer As recently as 10 years ago, the idea of coming out and being accepted as homosexual or bisexual felt unthinkable for countless LGBQ teens. Society has seen significant progression in recent years, though, and a new study finds that the number of U.S. teens openly identifying themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or …

Homosexuality may have evolved for social, not sexual reasons

By Andrew Barron How did homosexuality in humans evolve? Typically, this question is posed as a paradox. The argument is this: gay sex alone can’t produce children, and for traits to evolve, they have to be passed onto children, who get some form of competitive advantage from them. From this perspective, some argue homosexuality should …

There’s a new sexual orientation category called heteroflexible.

And it brings health issues that need to be addressed. By Darcel Rockett Labels, categorization, boxes. There are some, if not many, who don’t want any part of identifying themselves by others’ characterizations. But, according to Nicole Legate, an assistant professor of psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, some categorization is vital when it …

That’s a shame –

Live and let kink by Race Bannon Within the radical sex and relationships communities in which I navigate, there are few things that spark my anger more than shaming. Whether it’s coming from within the leather, kink, polyamory or gay men’s sex cultures, or from external sources, shaming is far too prevalent. I’m sure shaming …

7 myths about queer sex you should stop believing now

By Canela López While sex in general has been misrepresented in popular media and porn, LGBTQ sex, in particular, tends to be exaggerated.  Less than 6% of teens reported that they received sex education with any mention of LGBTQ-related topics, making it easy to believe some of the most popular myths.  Here are 7 things you …