Teens
Sexual Health
Check Out Lo’s Org: The Butterfly Academy!

A few years ago, a series of big events occurred, one right after the other, that profoundly shifted my career goals: That perfect storm made it painfully clear that we as a country and a culture are not where we need to be in the sex-education department. Sure, adults need sex ed too, but maybe […]

Confessions
How to Give a Sex Ed Lesson at a Slumber Party

A dad friend of mine, who’d read my recent piece on making sexual assault in the news a teachable moment for kids, forwarded me the following tweet from Andi Zeisler while I was in the middle of my 11-year-old’s birthday slumber party: The 4th-grade boys coming to my kid’s slumber party tonight are really in […]

News
The Harsh Reality of Religion-Driven Sex Ed in America

Pantsuit Nation, the private Facebook group of around 4 million members, was originally created as online camaraderie for Hillary Clinton supporters in the 2016 election but has since morphed into a sort of support group for progressives facing trying times under the Trump administration. The following is a recent post to the group from a midwestern parent who gave us […]

News
Teaching Kids They Can’t Say “No”?

Utah excels at socializing male supremacy and female acquiescence. While students at Kanesville Elementary in West Haven, UT, were not required to take part in the Valentine’s Day sixth-grade dance, those participating would be asked to fill out a dance card with the names of students with whom they wanted to dance — anyone whose […]

Books
5 Terms Every Parent Should Add to Their Sex-Ed Vocabulary

Cory Silverberg is elevating in-home sex-ed to an art form, one kick-ass book at a time. His first kids’ book on reproduction, called WHAT MAKES A BABY (for preschoolers through 2nd-graders), combines inclusive language, helpful descriptions, and bright, bold and beautiful illustrations by Fiona Smyth (that get us all nostalgic for “Free to Be You and Me“) […]

Dear Em & Lo
Dear Em & Lo: Should I Teach My Goddaughter Sex Ed?

Dear Em & Lo, My goddaughter has reached the age where sexual exploration is something she might be considering delving into (if she hasn’t already). I’m not sure how to approach the issue of birth control with her. If she is wanting to have, or already is having sex then I want to support her […]

News
What the Dutch Can Teach Us About Sex

photo via flickr And no, we’re not talking about the relative appeal of sex in clogs. We have long sung the praises of Holland’s approach to sex — and, in particular, its approach to sex & pregnancy education. Because Holland has results that we can all agree are worth aspiring to (even bat-shit-crazy Michele Bachmann): […]

Personal Essays
Confession: Saying “Yes”and Finally Meaning It

KERRY NEVILLE — author of the award-winning short story collection, Necessary Lies, and the forthcoming collection, Remember To Forget Me — writes of the long road toward true consent.   Natalie and I played boyfriend and girlfriend: She was “Michael” and I was “Rebecca.”  We would walk around the block holding hands and when we reached […]

News
How to Write a Breakup Letter…According to Donald Trump

President Donald Trump just broke up with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. After some smack talk from both sides, Trump canceled their much ballyhooed nuclear arms summit scheduled for June 12th, 2018 in a letter made public by the White House. The breakup letter is a master class in passive aggressive bitterness that could only […]

Personal Essays
Confession: I Was Allergic to Sex

I started having intercourse at 15. Besides the perpetual awkwardness of budding teenage sexuality and the occasional urinary tract infection (UTI), my first few casual sex experiences in high school were fun, comfortable and safe — what I would call “healthy.”  Sophomore year, I entered a long distance relationship, and soon noticed that after my […]

News
The Most Chilling Pro-Suicide Texts Angela Carter Sent Her Boyfriend

by Arianna Jeret for YourTango In a landmark ruling, Bristol County (Massachusetts) Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz has found 20-year-old Michelle Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death by suicide of her then-boyfriend, Conrad Roy III. Roy took his life at the young age of 18 years old via carbon monoxide poisoning while sitting in his […]

How To
The 5 Worst Places to Learn About Sex…and the 5 Best!

by Sarah Marcantonio THE WORST 1. The Movies Most sex scenes in mainstream movies ain’t exactly cinéma vérité: the male lead sweeps the girl off her feet and whisks her away to bed, clothes fall away, abs are sculpted, sweat glistens, birth control is abandoned, discussions about sexual health histories are never had, and simultaneous […]

Confessions
Confession: How the Kardashians Make Me a Better Father

by Tom Burns for YourTango This is not sponsored by Pepsi. I think Kim Kardashian has made me a better father. Now that’s an old writer’s gimmick where you say something deliberately provocative at the beginning of an article to draw people in and then you immediately walk it back with “Now let me explain…”, […]

Dear Em & Lo
Dear Em & Lo, How Risky Is Oral Sex for STD Transmission?

I’m a teenager who was kinda pressured to give a guy oral (he’s my age) and though it was only for 3 minutes tops, I don’t know anything about his medical history except that he has had sex before. I myself had never done that before, nor have I had sex (I am a virgin) and didn’t even […]

News
Did Milo Yiannopoulos REALLY Defend Pedophilia?

Conservative provocateur and all-around asshat Milo Yiannopoulos got disinvited to 2017’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), had his lucrative book deal with Simon & Schuster cancelled, and resigned from Breitbart as an editor — all within 48 hours — over comments about child sexual abuse he made on two podcasts (one in 2015, the other in early 2016) that […]

Confessions
Yay, Our First Trump-Inspired Hater!

Well, that didn’t take long. A sad Trump-supporter who projects his own self-hatred onto women went on a tear through the comments of the post “My Boyfriend Has a Small Penis…At Least It’s Small to Me.” Add this to the growing number of public expressions of hate now legitimized by Trump’s win. We’ll keep loathsome comments up as long […]