The woman from Illinois wrote to the Santa Rosa’s Press Gazette’s ‘Dear Abby’ column to explain her dilemma.

She said she had previously been in an abusive relationship, but broke it off 14 years ago and stayed single to raise her “small son to adulthood”.

She finally found someone she had “strong feelings” for, and who felt the same about her, around seven months ago.

The woman wrote: “My feelings for my boyfriend are strong, and it’s mutual. He is giving, kind, caring, hardworking and protective. We are very much in love.

Two weeks ago, Matt Levine’s immediate concerns centered on where to find the best happy hour and coolest DJ. Now, he just wants his coronavirus-panicked dad to let him back in the house.

While residents in his hometown of Nanuet, NY, were hunkering down to avoid corona, 21-year-old Matt and his friends from Springfield College in Massachusetts hit up spring break in South Padre Island, Texas — and stayed there against the advice of his father, Peter Levine.

“I spoke with him every day and told him that maybe they should come home,” Peter, 52, and a salesman, told The Post. “I was aggravated. The news here was getting worse and worse. Matt sent me pictures of him and his friends congregating outdoors and listening to live music. It’s the scene you would not want to be in.”

Finally, Peter told Matt and his buddies that they could not stay at the family home after the trip, as they’d planned. “His grandparents live here and there is no need to expose them to god knows what he had been exposed to!” Peter explained.

Even celebrities can’t get their coronavirus test results in the United States — just the bill.

After having a colleague test positive for COVID-19 and developing minor symptoms himself, “The Walking Dead” actor Daniel Newman sought to be tested in Georgia. He called around and discovered his own doctor and many urgent-care clinics didn’t even have the tests available. When he finally found a large hospital in Atlanta that did have them, it was only after Newman was recognized for his role on the AMC horror TV series that he was given one.

“Preferential treatment is disgusting,” Newman, 38, tells CNN of being among the few to receive a test for the novel coronavirus. But apparently, even fame isn’t enough to get the results of the test — only an invoice to the tune of $9,116.

NEW YORK, March 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The coronavirus is causing the closure of homeless centers across the United States, putting LGBT+ people without housing at increased risk of suicide, health complications or hate crimes, according to homelessness experts.

Homeless centers said they have been forced to shut their doors in order to follow safety precautions over social distancing as enforced by international governments and health organizations.

There are about 10,000 shelters for homeless people in the United States with an estimated 250 LGBT+ centers, largely in metropolitan areas, according to The National Coalition for the Homeless, a network of homelessness advocates.

There are currently no estimates on the exact number of shelters closed in recent weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak.

As the coronavirus pandemic has spread in the United States, public-health experts have lately been urging people—especially young people, many of whom may not show symptoms, and spread the virus unknowingly—to limit their physical contacts with others, but Andrew described a raucous scene that seems out of step with this moment of worldwide panic and caution. “They knew what was going on and they didn’t care—they were going to keep hugging and high-fiving,” he said. “Personally, I probably was in contact with, like, a thousand people over Friday and Saturday night, and I can only wash my hands so many times.” (Andrew asked to have his last name and the name of his workplace omitted from this article, so that he wouldn’t suffer any negative repercussions.)

The pastor of a megachurch in South Florida warned his parishioners Sunday that fears of exposure to COVID-19 was a “demonic spirit,” and he encouraged his parishioners to show up to worship and not heed warnings from officials to avoid crowded spaces.

“Do you believe God would bring his people to his house to be contagious with the virus? Of course not,” said pastor Guillermo Maldonado, who goes by the term of “apostle,” at a service on Sunday morning at the King Jesus International Ministry in Kendall.

“This service is usually packed. So now they’re home in a cave afraid of the virus, that you want to transmit the virus,” Maldonado said to a venue that appeared half empty, as some churchgoers left seats between them. “If we die, we die for Christ. If we live, we live for Christ, so what do you lose?”

When she heard that BNP Paribas Open organizers had canceled the two-week tennis tournament, Lori Edwards Jonasson started crunching the numbers, answering emails, and scanning the calendar.

Her four-bedroom vacation rental home in La Quinta is less than two miles from the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, and it was booked solid with multiple reservations.

She knew most visitors would cancel. And she knew that would mean parting with thousands of dollars. Her typical rate is about $500 a night at the property, which sleeps about 10 people.

“This week has been a logistical nightmare and a moral dilemma,” she said from her full-time home in Upland. “How do you tell a 70-year-old woman who calls you and says that she’s afraid for her and her husband to fly, ‘I’m going to keep all your money?’ On the other hand, you’re going, ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage?’”

Dear How to Do It,

A few months ago, I went on a date with a guy I met online. He was really sweet overall, but I didn’t find myself very romantically attracted to him, and I was also put off by some comments he made about some other members of the LGBTQ community (we’re both cis gay men). He continued to bring up the possibility of a relationship between us, however, and I equivocated on it because I wasn’t wholly against a relationship but wasn’t head over heels for him.

We got food and watched the sunset, and eventually we wound up making out, and I proposed we have sex. He said yes, but quickly withdrew and began talking about some of his past sexual trauma. I immediately stopped everything and asked if he was all right, and he said yes and that he wanted to continue. I asked if he was sure, and he said yes, and then we engaged in mutual masturbation and mutual oral sex in his car. It was good, though not the best sex of my life, and we both came in the end.

On the way back to my apartment, he asked again about having a relationship and if I only agreed to the date in order to hook up. I said I didn’t want to immediately go into anything, but that I’d be open to more dates and getting to know him better, and that my motivation to go on this date was more than just hooking up. He said OK, and we parted ways. I wake up the next morning to find he’s blocked me across every form of communication that we had each other on.

I’m really worried that something went wrong, and that I sexually assaulted him or generally engaged in sexual misconduct, but didn’t realize in the moment or somehow subconsciously denied to myself that he wasn’t consenting to what we did. It truly did seem to me like he was willing to do what we did, and that I communicated I did not want to have any sexual contact with him that he didn’t agree to. I’ve been wanting to reach out to him through Instagram (I have an account he didn’t know about) to try and understand what happened, but I don’t want to annoy, retraumatize, or hurt him. What should I do?

—Blocked

The severe spike reflects the fast-moving shift in public opinion regarding the appropriateness of gender reassignment procedures among young people, the paper said, adding that a year ago there were few obstacles preventing such treatment.

But in the fall 2018, the social democrat government was pressured by an LGBTQ group and proposed a new law reducing the minimum age for sex reassignment medical care from 18 to 15, removing all requirements for parental consent, and letting children as young as 12 change their genders, the Guardian said.

Backlash

Which seemed to trigger a backlash, the paper reported — the first salvo coming from a noted psychiatrist who penned an article last March warning that hormone treatment and surgery on children was "a big experiment" and could lead to a huge medical scandal.

When it comes to choosing a place to live during retirement, LGBTQ people want the same things that everyone else wants — safety, reasonable prices, agreeable climate, cultural and recreational amenities and good health care. However, LGBTQ people have a few additional factors to consider.

Those include how tolerant an area is, the presence of a gay community, and health care providers that are welcoming towards LGBTQ people. In addition to considerations such as low cost of living and low taxes, LGBTQ people tend to value cities with strong LGBTQ communities, higher levels of acceptance and the presence of non-discrimination laws.

Cities famous for their prominent LGBTQ communities, such as New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. are also very expensive, though.

Dear How to Do It,

My wife and I have been in an open marriage for five years. On the whole, our relationship has been uncommonly open and supportive; we both strive to encourage one another to explore, and even playfully push the limits, romantically and sexually.

For as long as I have known her, my wife has been interested in “incest” role play. While it isn’t my cup of tea exactly, I have been willing and happy to support her in her exploration of this kind of fantasy and role-play. Often, she will have me dress up as her father, wear his cologne, etc., while she will wear her “high school” clothes.

Recently, though, things have started to move in an uncomfortable direction for me. My wife is very close with her older brother, who is also bi, and with whom we often speak very openly about sex and sexuality. A few nights ago, and after a few drinks, my wife got to talking fairly explicitly about some of the “family” role-playing that she and I are into, and her brother—who I thought would be kinda horrified—was not only entirely supportive, but vaguely expressed interest in exploring this kink with us. When we got home, I expected my wife to make it clear that her brother ever joining us in the bedroom was entirely off the table, but instead she seemed to think it was a really good idea. In principle I don’t have a problem with the idea. While, like I said, I am not that into the “incest” element of my wife’s (and, I guess, her brother’s) fantasy, I am happy to play along if it makes her (and him) happy. My wife and I have also enjoyed group sex, and so that isn’t the problem either. I guess at bottom, I am just worried about how this could affect my relationship with my brother-in-law. Is there a way for me to make this happen, without it getting weird?

—Brother’s Keeper

Gay and bisexual men have elevated rates of skin cancer compared to heterosexual men, according to an inclusive study from Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The data was culled from 2014 to 2018, with respondents in 37 states. Researchers found that rates of self-reported skin cancer were 8.1 percent among gay men and 8.4 percent among bisexual men — higher than the rate of 6.7 percent among straight men. Skin cancer rates were 5.9 percent among lesbians, lower than the 6.6 percent rate among heterosexual women; bisexual women were found to have some of the lowest rates of skin cancer at 4.7 percent.

The causes of the elevated rates among gay and bi men — whether because of factors like HIV, health disparities, or lifestyle decisions — were not made clear in the study. A study published last year found that tanning salons often operate in neighborhoods where many gay and bisexual men live. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital hope to next study causation factors.

A data analysis of 129 million messages sent to Crisis Text Line over the course of six years shows which states are most affected by anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide.

Counselors for the 24/7 support network field more texts about suicide from people in the Western states of Colorado, Idaho, and Utah than anywhere else. People from the South more often send texts about depression. Anxiety rates are particularly high on the coasts, and in both Dakotas.

North Dakota had the highest rates of texters writing about depression, as well as anxiety and stress. Many southern states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, had higher rates of depression than other areas.

In 44 states, at least 20% of texters reported feelings of isolation, while Montana saw the highest rate (15%) of texters writing about feelings of self-harm. People on the coasts reported the highest rates of anxiety.

Dear How to Do It,

I’m a 31-year-old bi man married to a bi woman. I knew I wasn’t straight for most of my life but have only had sex with one guy, an ostensibly straight friend in high school, and it was a secret on/off thing that involved a lot of cheating and eventually blew up our friendship and several others. In part because of guilt and shame related to that, I didn’t come out until my mid/late 20s, after an incident in which I drunkenly kissed one of my then-girlfriend’s gay male friends at a party. But my girlfriend and I stayed together, I got sober, we got married, and now we have a strong monogamous relationship with a mutually satisfying sex life. The problem is, I can’t seem to shake the desire to have sex with a guy again, both because I’m attracted to guys and because I regret that my only experience thus far was as a closeted, denial-ridden teen.

My wife came out in her early 20s and has had more dating or sexual experience with other women, and she has been very supportive in letting me know that if I want to have sex with a guy, she’s in favor but would prefer to be involved in some way. I don’t know how to make a threesome with us and another guy who’s into both of us happen, and I’m worried that I will jeopardize our relationship if I tell her I want to try pursuing sex with another guy on my own. We’ve talked about the possibility of having an open relationship, but neither of us have any experience with it, and I’m scared of the idea that it might unbalance our dynamic in some way if I pursue other partners when she (as she’s told me) isn’t particularly interested in that right now. I’m also scared of the possibility of going down the rabbit hole and becoming a sex addict, since I’m already in recovery for drugs and alcohol, but that’s another issue.

As of now, I’m dealing with this desire by mostly jerking off to gay porn, which my wife knows about and is cool with. But I’m worried that it won’t be enough in the long run. I recognize that my own fear and shame related to my queerness is a major factor here, and I talk about that in therapy, but why am I still having such a tough time admitting what I want? Is it better to risk pursuing it than to keep trying to repress it, as I’ve been doing for so long? Would I be a more selfish partner for asking for permission to explore this, or am I being considerate in holding back?

—M4M

Clinics are diagnosing a new STI ever 70 seconds in England with cases soaring among gay and bi men.

Sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) say syphilis is now at its highest level since World War Two.

Gay and bisexual men are particularly impacted by STIs. They account for 75% of all new cases of syphilis in 2018.

At the same time, the government has slashed spending on sexual health services by a quarter since 2014.

THT and BASHH say their State of the Nation report, released today, should be a wake-up call for the government.

Soaring STIs and hidden infections
The report says there were 447,694 cases of STIs diagnosed in England in 2018 alone.