I met my husband 13 years ago, and we’ve been together ever since. We fell deeply, madly in love with each other and have been married for nine wonderful years now. He’s patient, kind, gentle-hearted. He’s also always been honest about being gay and has never hidden it from me. Only one of our mutual friends knows this about my husband. Our son also knows, since we thought it would be best to remain open with him about it, so he never “found out” by surprise or from our mutual friend. Our son took the news very well and doesn’t care that his father was gay.

I’ve never told my family, or really any of my friends, as I think they’d all be judgmental. My siblings don’t like my husband, but that’s a different letter in itself. So I’ve always kept it bottled up inside. He’s been married before, and divorced, to a straight woman, with whom he has a grown daughter. I’m a straight woman too. I’ve asked my husband about it, and he confirms that he’s gay, not bisexual. He left his first wife because of a lot of problems (and her infidelity), then he was in a few different relationships with other men, before he met his ex-boyfriend. They were still living together when we met. I’m confused by it all, and it has, at times, caused problems in our marriage, because of my lack of self-confidence. I have doubts that he might leave me someday for a gay relationship like he did his ex-wife. We’ve both been faithful to each other, and he loves me, and I love him. But is that good enough for him? Would you consider him bisexual or gay?

—Not-Quite-Lavender Marriage

The parents of an 8-year-old student who killed himself after being persistently bullied can move forward with a lawsuit against the Cincinnati school district that alleges wrongful death and other charges, a federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday.

The lawsuit's allegations also charge school officials with intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and failure to report child abuse. The lawsuit says Taye was bullied at his elementary school starting in first grade, with the bullying escalating in his third grade year.

Other students punched and kicked him in assaults and on Jan. 24, 2017, knocked him unconscious by throwing him against a bathroom wall, the parents say in the lawsuit.

He stayed home sick the next day, returned to school Jan. 26 and was bullied again in the bathroom by students who took his water bottle and tried to flush it down the toilet, his parents say. He killed himself that evening in his bedroom.

My parents are currently trying to “help” my 29-year-old brother by allowing him to move out to their new beach house and subsidizing his rent so he can get a fresh start in life.

My parents have always seemed to favor my brother, and I was finally able to heal and move on from the hurt a few years ago. I am two years younger and my husband and I have our own house, own two new cars, and have two stable incomes.

I have worked for everything that I have in life, and I am grateful for how I was raised because being forced to earn everything, including my parents affection, has allowed me to have the life I do now

My parents have always supported my brother emotionally and financially. They currently pay for his phone plan, his cell phone, his car loan — after he totalled his last car two weeks ago — and now his rent.

He depends on them for almost everything in life. They are encouraging him to move to get a fresh start on their dime instead of taking a leap and getting an apartment. They are doing this because they didn’t want him to have a mortgage.

Meanwhile, I am finishing my accounting degree before sitting for the CPA (my husband and I are paying 100%), and my parents are encouraging me to NOT get my master’s degree because it’s useless and would make my brother feel worse. They say that we are already married and have a house so why do we need more.

A few weeks ago, I was supposed to take my sons to an outdoor activity that ended up getting canceled due to weather. We found out about the cancellation when we were halfway there. Before I turned around, I texted my husband that we would be heading home and never got a text back. This wasn’t unusual, as he usually puts his phone on “do not disturb” while he’s working. When we got home, I opened the door to find my husband and his best friend, “Ryan,” completely naked, and having fairly rough sex on our dining room table. They had music blaring, so they didn’t hear us come in, and my sons and I were all in shock and just stood there for a good 30 to 60 seconds before I was able to shut the music off, and they realized what was going on and could cover up. Obviously, this is a bit of a chaotic situation.

Ryan is like an uncle to my kids, has dinner at our house several times a week, has occasionally lived with us, and he and my husband actually work together. My husband and I are planning on staying together and are still trying to figure a lot of things out. Here’s the problem: My younger son (6) is pretty oblivious and thought Uncle Ryan was wrestling with his dad. My middle son (9) is very confused about the mechanics of what we saw (we’ve had the sex talk with him, but in hindsight, we made the mistake of only talking about heterosexual sex). My older son (12) is having a very difficult time. My middle son has a lot of questions that I’m not really sure how to answer, and I’m not sure how much detail I should be going into, and who should be leading this conversation (me? my husband? a doctor?). I’ve been getting phone calls home from my older son’s school. Ever since the incident, he has apparently been making derogatory remarks about gay people, using slurs, and is also refusing to speak to his father (they were previously pretty close). The school is threatening to expel him. We’re on the waitlist for individual and family therapy, but I was wondering if you guys had any advice about what to do with my two older sons?

—What Now?

As the new sex and relationships curriculum comes into place across England, Kantar conducted a study into attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community.

The study asked 2,363 people, aged 16 or over, living in the United Kingdom about their opinions toward LGBTQ+ people being in certain roles.

Although the study found high levels of comfort toward LGBTQ+ people being teachers, 91% in favour for gay men, lesbians and bisexual people and 77% for trans people, it still found that nearly four in ten people (38%) thought it “inappropriate” for a 6-year-old to be taught that being gay is fine.

For the first time since 2000, the official guidance on relationships and sex education (RSE) in England is changing. From this month, RSE is mandatory in every secondary school, regardless of whether they are state or private (though the Government has said it will make allowances for schools as yet unable to implement the change because of the coronavirus crisis).

Relationships education – which is now compulsory in every primary school – will mainly deal with families and friendships. It will cover the risks of online relationships, digital privacy, physical boundaries and recognising abusive behaviour.

But will the new guidance protect and empower young people for sex and relationships in a modern world?“The curriculum puts the physical health and emotional wellbeing of young people at its core,” Chiquita Henson, headteacher of Cirencester Deer Park School, a secondary school in Gloucestershire, tells i.

The Twin Peaks chain has been hit with a federal lawsuit by 34 former 'breastaurant' employees claiming sexual harassment, multiple forms of discrimination and the 'sexual exploitation of young women'.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the US District Court for Northern District of Illinois, seeks a jury trial while also claiming that the restaurant chain is 'run very much like a commercial sex ring, torn from a pimp's playbook.'

Twin Peaks is a sports bar and restaurant chain which promises eats, drinks and 'scenic views', served up by scantily-clad women. The restaurant beckons patrons with the slogan: 'Welcome to the lodge, MANTALITY.'

New research suggests that sexual promiscuity negatively impacts social responses toward both gay and straight men. The study, published in the journal Psychology of Men & Masculinities, found that women are more likely to seek to avoid gay men described as promiscuous compared to gay men who are not described as promiscuous.

“Perceptions of masculinity, and stereotypes toward gay men, are multifaceted,” said study author Corey Cook, an assistant professor of psychology at Pacific Lutheran University.

In the study, 354 heterosexual undergraduate students were randomly assigned to report their social attitudes towards either gay men, straight men, gay men who are sexually promiscuous, straight men who are sexually promiscuous, gay men with very feminine qualities, straight men with very feminine qualities, gay men with very masculine qualities, or straight men with very masculine qualities.

To assess their attitudes, the participants were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements such as “I would like for a member of this group to work in the same place as I do” and “Members of this group are the kind of people that I tend to avoid.”

Saturday Night Live mainstay Michael Che has lost his grandmother to the coronavirus pandemic, the comedian revealed Monday afternoon. In a sizable post on Instagram, Che revealed the news while warning others to begin taking the pandemic seriously, telling his hundreds of thousands of followers to adhere by any rules and regulations local governments may have in place at this time.

"Hi, I'm Michael Che, from TV. Last night my grandmother passed away from the coronavirus," Che writes in the post. "I'm doing ok, considering. I'm obviously very hurt and angry that she had to go through all that pain alone. But I'm also happy that she's not in pain anymore. And I also feel guilty for feeling happy. Basically the whole gamut of complex feelings everybody else has losing someone very close and special. I'm not unique. But its still scary."

The Trump administration’s goal of halting HIV transmission by 2030 is being swamped by the coronavirus crisis, with many sexual health clinics closing their doors and local health departments' infectious disease staff being redeployed to emergency response roles.

That's raising concern about the large population of people living with undiagnosed and untreated HIV, whose compromised immune systems could put them at higher risk of succumbing to coronavirus.

“Those individuals are going to be susceptible to opportunistic infections and would be at considerable risk if they are exposed to Covid-19,” said Christopher Hall, an infectious disease physician in San Francisco and the chairman of the clinical advisory council for the National Coalition of STD Directors.

It's an especially vulnerable population, Hall said. Nearly half of people living with HIV in the U.S. are over 50 years old. Up to half smoke cigarettes, potentially worsening their outcomes from respiratory infections like the coronavirus. And many have preexisting health conditions like diabetes and hypertension that dramatically increase the odds of mortality.

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.

A few years ago, Dr. Nicole Prause found herself with 33 blue, 3-D-printed penises and the desire to obtain data about the “perfect penis” — more specifically, about women’s preferences in the penis size of their sex partners.

The results of her “perfect penis” study — in which 75 women were given the fake penises, each of which was a different length and girth, and asked to pick the most appealing — were later released by UCLA and the University of New Mexico. Those results were as follows: Most women’s “perfect penis” (something which Prause insists doesn’t actually exist) is rather close to men’s average penis size (12".) Basically, women aren’t asking for too much, y’all!

But another part of the “perfect penis” study proves that in one aspect, these straight-identifying women aren’t all that different from gay men (or, really, anyone who enjoys sex with a penis-ed partner), and that’s the idea that the ideal penis actually depends on the situation.

Q: I’m a 50-something gay man, married to the man of my dreams, together for 10 years, married for seven. We have a great sex life. He’s adventuresome, kind, patient with me.

Yet I have a strong desire to have sex with someone else, preferably a person we don’t know. I have a wandering eye, and my husband knows and enjoys it, even pointing out attractive guys.

I’ve not told him about my secret desire. I hate cheaters. I’ve been cheated on and it’s devastating. He trusts me.

Yet I’m fantasizing about meeting a stranger and having sex. It even happens during our actual sex, which he thinks is just our natural heat.

I’m afraid that if I tell him, he’ll be hurt, think that what we have isn’t enough, and take that as his fault.

My husband is having an affair with a man. We have four young children. He moved out quickly after I discovered the relationship. I am worried about him and I don’t know how to make this better for him and for us. His kids miss him. I honestly thought we had a happy and loving marriage. Do you have any advice for me? Or for him?

Thank you for sending your question, and I’ve written a lot about how the gay spouse proceeds through this process. I only occasionally hear from women or men who have been left behind. So in this response, I’m going to focus on you and them.

A thorough investigation, because you deserve to know the truth.

A cup of iced coffee with a rainbow striped straw

In late January, during the Polar Vortex that held America by the throat with an icy grasp, a picture of a man wearing a massive coat with his hood up while battling his way through a snowstorm went viral. It sounds unremarkable, except that, in 2°F weather, he was death-gripping an iced coffee.

The picture, fairly innocuous aside from the man’s choice of caffeinated beverage, was shared by the City of New York’s Twitter feed and paired with an incredulous caption. How could an individual in this freezing weather, the tweet suggested, be drinking an iced coffee? It’s obvious, people responded: He’s gay.

Obviously there’s no way commenters could’ve known this man’s sexuality. Honestly, I’m not sure anyone even knows who he is. But none of that matters, after all; what was clear to the corner of the Internet known as Gay Twitter, and to the site Gay Star News, was that this man was just exercising his rights—nay, his duty—as a gay man to drink iced coffee. Iced coffee, you see, is gay culture [ed. note: can confirm].