“The guy was being pretty rough and I was getting into it moaning being slutty you know bottom things until the top pointed out the dog was watching us,” he writes. “I got him out of the room and closed the door but since then my dog doesn’t seem to want to listen to me, respect my authority, or even spend much time with me. I try to pet or hug him and he growls or moves away, that wasn’t the case before.”

A third of British schoolkids have been taught that a woman can have a penis, it was claimed today.

A survey of more than 1,000 kids aged 16-18 also revealed one in five were told men can get pregnant — even though it is biologically impossible.

Two-thirds were taught that biological sex was 'assigned' by medical professionals at birth. This meant, by their logic, that it could be changed later in life.

Hummingbirds tend to compete aggressively for food resources, even among their own species, so the researchers recorded both sexual and aggressive interactions amongst the birds.

They were trying to determine if the androchromatic females were preferred as mates, which would suggest that their bright coloring had a sexual selection benefit.

Interestingly, the males still preferred the more plainly-colored females sexually. In 100 percent of the trials, the first sexual advance was made towards a heterochromatic female - ruling out mate selection as a reason for the bright coloring.

This suggests that disguising themselves as males reduces the rate at which females are socially harassed by males - which, in some cases, seems to be preferable to appealing to them sexually.

I need some help gaining perspective on my 15-year-old child’s whiplash approach to gender and sexuality. For the last three years, they have been on a journey with regard to their sexuality, declaring and changing identities one every few weeks or months, even when those identities have been both contradictory (how can one be both asexual and polyamorous?) and hypothetical (my kid isn’t dating and hasn’t dated). They are committed to being anything but cisgender and hetero, and that identity—whatever it turns out to be—appears from their actions and words to be the central part of their sense of self. They spent a lot of time on queer wikis, looking up new possible identities. They avidly “ship” fictional characters into same-sex couples, express anger/disappointment when shows/books have hetero couples, and talk constantly about LGBTQIA issues, representation, etc.

I have been, and want to be, supportive. My kid deserves to be loved and celebrated for who they are, and however their identity settles out is fine with me. But I am also struggling with these rapid changes. In the last two weeks, my kid has changed their name once and pronouns twice, colored their hair, worn exaggeratedly feminine eye makeup, pinned their hair up to look masculine, purchased a bikini and a dress and then asked me to buy them a binder (because they think it would be “fun” to look like a boy sometimes). At this point, it feels like they’re trying on identities like costumes, and that makes me very uncomfortable. None of it feels authentic—it seems more like a bid to stand out in a crowd or perhaps to find the limits of my acceptance.

I have worked so hard to make sure my kids know they are loved unconditionally, but if this kid is looking for a boundary, maybe I should set one? I literally squirmed when I wrote that sentence; setting a random limit on acceptance goes against everything I believe. But at the same time, I am so, so tired of hearing about their identity day after day after day and of trying to keep up with the changes. They’re a great, smart, interesting kid for a dozen different reasons; their gender/sexuality is just one aspect of their personality. Would it be wrong of me to say, in essence, “I love you, and will never not love you. When you figure out your identity let me know, and in the meantime can we maybe stop talking about it all the time?” Also, as the world opens up and my kid spends more time outside of our home, can I/should I ask them to be more thoughtful in how they present themselves? It seems to me that trans and nonbinary people cannot simply change their identities and expression for “fun,” so my kid’s behavior feels a little bit like cosplaying in a way that could be hurtful. Or do I just keep keeping my mouth shut, do my best to remember this week’s identity, and pray that this phase ends soon?

Dear How to Do It,

Given the extended period of physical distancing we’ve been experiencing, I have begun to explore online dating. Particularly, I have been looking for someone who both shares my sexual interests and is a good human being overall for the possibility of a long(er)-term relationship.

While I feel like I might have found this person recently, the fact that they are a high school teacher and have a strong interest in role-playing student-teacher and my own dating history make me wonder if this kink is a healthy outlet for someone in their position or a foreshadowing or indicator of something more sinister. While I do not want to rule out someone for “pre-crime” or “thought crime,” I also want to make sure that our sexual liaisons do not in any way contribute to their venturing (or furthering) into unethical and destructive—not to mention illegal—territory. Given your professional experience and your access to experts, I am eager to hear your input on my situation.

—Teacher’s Pet

A school has been accused of secretly allowing a 13-year-old girl to attend ‘radicalising’ mentoring sessions that convinced her that she was transgender.

Ashleigh and Ged Barnett allege that until the one-to-one sessions began last September, their daughter appeared comfortable in her body and showed little interest in transgender issues.

But they say she had changed completely by November, sporting a short haircut and talking about feeling that she was really a boy.

They were confused by the transformation until they met her headteacher to discuss another matter and learned that their daughter had been having weekly sessions with the head of the school’s LGBT group.

Mrs Barnett said: ‘The school didn’t think it was fit to tell us. We are her parents, but responsibility to care for our child has been taken away. The attitude is that it’s the child’s choice and it’s got nothing to do with us.

‘Children at 13 or 14, especially girls, are sometimes not happy in their own bodies – that’s what puberty does to you. They are very vulnerable. It only takes one person with an agenda to plant a little seed that they are “in the wrong body”.’

Marketing that organic food is cleaner is all around us. Just take a look at the campaign “Skip the Chemicals.” It encourages consumers to fear the scary-sounding names of chemicals and adopt a better-safe-than-sorry attitude toward their food. Ultimately, though, it steers consumers toward more costly organic foods, although there is no evidence that organic foods are more nutritious.

The “Dirty Dozen” list is another marketing ploy. Not only did I have this list stuck to my fridge at home, I also encouraged my clients to download and share it. Using pesticide residue data from the USDA, it ranks food by the levels of detected pesticides to generate a list of the top 12 fruits and vegetables consumers should avoid in their conventional versions.

Take strawberries, which topped the list in 2018. The USDA published test results on tens of thousands of nonorganic fruit and vegetable samples across the country. Most of the samples of strawberries showed residues of at least one kind of pesticide and, in one sample of strawberries, 22 different pesticide residues were detected — but that doesn’t mean the pack of strawberries you buy at the grocery store will have 22 pesticides.

You would think that by now, the vote on whether or not to wear sunscreen would be just about unanimous. Research shows that SPF is a vital step in protecting against harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays that can cause skin cancer and premature aging. So you can imagine that if a dermatologist told you that you could ditch the sunscreen, you might be a bit confused.

“Recently I went to a dermatologist for the 1st time and while discussing my skincare routine, he told me to not wear sunscreen because they're all too greasy and that Asians have a very low chance of getting skin cancer,” she wrote in her post.

Philadelphia, September 12, 2018 – A new report published in European Psychiatry identified a significant association between childhood adversity and impaired social cognitive functioning among adults diagnosed with major psychiatric disorders. Through a comprehensive review of all research conducted to date, the investigators established that a traumatic early social environment frequently leads to social cognitive problems and greater illness severity for individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Early childhood neglect, abuse, and/or trauma puts patients at greater risk for developing cognitive impairments that will later affect social perception and interaction, a core aspect of disability in major psychiatric disorders," explained lead investigator, Gary Donohoe, MPsychSc, DClinPsych, PhD, Centre for Neuroimaging and Cognitive Genomics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

Activist and writer Ijeoma Oluo is the latest to suffer for Facebook’s inability — or perhaps unwillingness — to improve its reporting and moderation infrastructure. After receiving hundreds of racist and threatening messages in response to a joke she made on Twitter, Oluo began posting screenshots when it was clear that days of reporting did nothing. Facebook’s response was to suspend her account.

You can read Oluo’s account of things here, including some screenshots of the type of abuse she was receiving. Twitter, she said, was responsive. Facebook, not so much.

Facebook later reinstated her account, calling the suspension a “mistake.” I’ve asked the company for the rationale behind the suspension.

We talked with another activist recently, Leslie Mac, who like Oluo spoke out on racism using the platform, and like Oluo was suspended from it. It happened to Shaun King, too, after he posted a racist email he received.

Growing up in rural East Texas, I came from a large, lower-middle-class blended family: me, my brother, two sisters and two step-sisters. I clearly remember every year at Christmas our parents making sure to tell us Christmas would be “a little short this year,” but everyone would get an equal amount of presents based on cost.
Flash forward 15 years. I’m the oldest and the gay one—the only one who hasn’t given my parents grandchildren. These days my parents don’t have a ton of kids to provide for day-in and day-out, and they are much better off financially; so much so that every grandchild gets showered with the gifts they weren’t able to provide their own children. As adults, my siblings have conceded their gifts to their children. But I haven’t!

I still want my presents! Why has the equal distribution of gifts that was explained to us in our childhood not crossed over into adulthood? Why must I suffer for the acts of my siblings? If the cost was distributed evenly as individual children, why isn’t it distributed equally as adults?

What a shocker! A study supports the theory that if you are homophobic, you’re slightly gay yourself.

Not like 100% gay. Just like, maybe 15% gay. Slight gayness.

Which makes sense, because if you remember at last month’s Republican National Convention, Craigslist was poppin’ off with ads for gay hookups even though Republicans are notoriously shaky on gay issues.

But why? Why are people who are slightly gay homophobic?

It turns out that it all goes back to your parents. Yep, you can thank Mom and Dad for this one because if you were raised with “autonomy-thwarting parents,” meaning they kind of restricted your individuality by pushing their ideas onto you, you’ve likely never explored the idea of your own same-sex attraction.

But that doesn’t mean you haven’t experienced it. It just means you might be more motivated to hide that attraction from others because of your negative view on it.

It was a bright morning on June 30 when I stepped off the F train near Times Square. I had blisters all over my feet from walking barefoot and was overwhelmed with fear.

As I headed to my apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, I was in the throes of paranoia. I thought evil people were out to get me.

As I stared at the towering ads of Times Square, they started to send me subliminal messages.

“Express Yourself,” read the billboard for Express jeans.

I obeyed. I immediately took off my clothes. Being naked, I thought, was the most truthful way of expressing myself. It made me feel safe.

Then, I saw another “sign” — the red glow of the TKTS stairs looked like a red carpet. It beckoned me to the top.

He’s not gay. He’s not even bi. He swears. It’s just that he went a little haywire on the drinking and drugging, and one thing led to another, and–well–that other thing?–it was nothing. Just sleeping with two guys. No biggie.

That’s the gist of one woman’s tawdry turmoil, as told to The Mirror‘s plucky advice columnist, “Dear Coleen”:

My husband went to Magaluf on a stag week recently and when he got back he confessed that he’d got drunk and slept with another man, blaming the fact that he was “so out of it”.
He told me he woke up and screamed when he realized he was in a hotel bed with this guy lying next to him.

But he also admitted he’d got very drunk on another occasion and slept with the groom (his friend), who surprisingly enough isn’t angry and just said: “It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened. ‘I’m not bothered I slept with you, we did it and that’s it.'”