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APPENDIX 32: HUMAN SEXUALITY

A QUEER GIRL'S TOP 10 GAY MYTHS:

Copyright Jennifer Holladay, 25 Aug 2003,
and mirrored here without permission

1. The myth of gay recruitment. I can find a spouse from the existing pool of gay people the Creator created. I am not out to convert you or your kids. Don't want to. Don't need to. God gave me plenty of people to choose from. I chose one already.

2. Being gay is about more than sex. My gayness is based in love, not sex. I have an emotional, intimate connection with my spouse. Sure, we have sex, but it doesn't define us as a couple, or as people. She rocks, in and out of bed.

3. Pedophiles come in all forms. There are "bad gay people" just as there are "bad straight people." We've got some pedophiles among our group; so do you -- you actually have more, because there are more of you. Can we agree to focus on fighting pedophilia? Gay, straight. Doesn't matter. Pedophiles are bad for kids.

4. The gay community is diverse. We are not all men in leather thongs with feather boas dancing on top of Gay Pride Parade floats. (Gotta love 'em.) We're not all male, all white, all rich or all anything else. (Also, we're not all liberal. Ever heard of the Log Cabin Republicans?)

5. Some of us believe in God. If James Lipton of the Actor's Studio ever has occasion to interview me, I have a ready-made answer to one of his standard questions. When I arrive at Heaven's Pearly Gates, the first thing I hope to hear God say is: "Yes, Jennifer, you have a reservation -- but I'm afraid I don't see Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the list." The God I believe in is loving, liberatory and downright radical. (OK, I know wishing hell on anyone isn't exactly a demonstration of loving. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned....)

6. I already can get married in a church. Some Christian denominations allow for this. Others don't. I'm not asking your church to bless me and my spouse. When it comes to "gay marriage," all we're after is the civil stuff. You know, things like having the rights of a spouse when my partner's dying in the hospital. Being able to be a Mom to our kids, in a legally protected way. Those sorts of things.

7. Slurs go both ways (pun intended.) The gay community has names for you, too. I won't call you a "breeder," if you don't call me a "sodomite." (I admit "breeder" has less of a sting to it, sort of like "cracker" for white folks.)

8. Rainbows belong to us. Please quit putting rainbow stickers on your cars. Please quit hanging rainbow flower leis on your rearview mirrors. Contrary to popular belief, not all of us are equipped with 100-percent accurate gaydar, and if you have rainbows all over your person or property, we may well assume you are a "member of the family."

9. Gay TV belongs to straight people. With the ratings that "Will & Grace" boasts each season, I suspect a lot of straight people are glued to their TV sets week after week. Gay folks aren't the ones keeping Gay TV alive. We're a small portion of the market share. Were you -- or anyone you know -- watching "Ellen" reruns last night? Or "Queer as Folk"? Or, heaven forbid, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"? Or, gads, "Boy Meets Boy"?

10. We notice your inconsistencies. If you really, really don't like gay people and think gay sex is disgusting, quit buying porn with women having sex with women. (That's gay sex. In some cases, it's bisexual sex, if a real -- not plastic -- penis is involved.) Americans spend a billion dollars a year on porn; it's been a long time since someone produced a "straight" porn film that didn't have two women going at it. If you quit buying this stuff, maybe the porn industry would fold -- something that, I think, might benefit women across all orientations. Go ahead. Do it. Call me a conservative.

C-MAJOR SCALE OF SEX: [THE]

The Elders debacle left the U.S. government bereft of an indefatigable advocate of children's health, minors' reproductive rights, and comprehensive sexuality education, not to mention rational drug policy. But this outrageous act of censorship had the unintended speech-freeing effect of getting the M-word on prime-time television. And that sort of discussion, say sex therapists, may be key to saving a lot of people, both children and adutls, a lot of grief and even delivering them a bit of happiness. Thereapist and sexologist Leonore Tiefer, who spends much of her time in the consulting room repairing the damages of sexual ignorance in a culture that demands but does not teach sexual virtuosity, is a tireless promoter of masturbation. "If you're going to play Rachmaninoff," she quips, "you've got to practice your scales." Masturbation is the C-major scale of sex.
--Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors, pg 185
[Also filed as ELDERS DEBACLE: [THE] in the main volume]

CONVENIENT MISCARRIAGE: [The]

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, some 13 percent of unwanted pregnancies end in miscarriage, but on TV that number is much, much higher. The convenient miscarriage goes something like this: Sympathetic lead character gets knocked up. SLC agonizes over what to do, sometimes going so far as to visit an abortion clinic. SLC decides that although she believes in a woman's right to choose (her boyfriend or best friend most likely feels significantly different, however), she's going to keep her baby. Moral dilemma resolved, SLC spontaneously miscarries; SLC is sad but realizes that in the end she wasn't really ready to be a mother anyway. (Alternatively, the pregnancy turns out to be a false alarm, an even more tidy wrap-up to the dilemma.) The convenient miscarriage/false alarm remains the most popular strategy for dodging abortion, as it allows TV producers to congratulate themselves for tackling the tough topics without having to take an actual stand.
--Rachel Fudge, You Can't Do That on Television!, 13 Apr 2005

DIRTY OLD MAN:

[1]: To get it out of the way early on, the term "Dirty Old Man" is age-independent. Personally, I have been a DOM since I was knee-high to a duck. The only requirement is that one of a DOM's greater pleasures in life is admiring beautiful girls. (Perhaps it would be more politically correct to term them Women; but then again, it would probably be futile to worry about political correctness in a club called Dirty Old Men's Association International.) Dirty Old Men have been hounded through the ages by lesser minds and beings. Our thoughts and intentions have been misunderstood and misrepresented; our honor has been soiled by those who did not find in themselves any clean and constructive intentions, and so could not see them in others.

A true DOM knows that the enjoyment of beauty is a thing onto itself, and does not necessarily have to be followed or supported by any other action. He is made happy by the world, he knows that he really owns it without having to prove it, and he is not ashamed by his happiness and enjoyment. DOMAI is all about the beauty of pretty girls. For aesthetics is the most important thing there is; that is our philosophy. DOMAI is not really about women, but about the beauty of women. "Pretty Young Girls" are of any age, not just young girls. These certainly have a special aesthetic, but even an 80-year-old can be a PYG if she has class.

[...]

A few people have had a bad emotional reaction to the term "dirty old man", as regards this club. Well, that is why I spell it Dirty Old Man. Let's take a look at the term "dirty old man": So, in the middle of the street, you look with obvious pleasure at some Pretty Young Girl. Someone immediately calls you a "dirty old man". Why?

Regarding "man": Actually, some of the people I know who get the greatest pleasure out of looking a beautiful women are girls themselves. And not lesbians either. They simply and honestly enjoy the aesthetics. Regarding "dirty": Supposing it is not always just aesthetics. Suppose sometimes you are actually thinking "boy, I'd like to get with her". Let me ask: what is "dirty" about that? If that instinct were to disappear, what do you think would happen to the human race within a generation or two? Gone as the Dodo, is what.

Regarding "old": what is that all about? Do you lose your rights to think and to look as you grow older? Or what? Seriously, I don't get it. So let us get rid of that idea. You have the right to think and to look at whatever you want, and others do also.

Which is why I with malicious pleasure term myself Dirty Old Man, because I don't care about all that nonsense.

There is no such thing as a "dirty old man". It is simply a derogatory term used by people to make others feel bad about looking and thinking, and so make them withdraw. Don't withdraw. It is simply not possible to be unethical in your thinking and your looking. It is only possible to be unethical in doing.

It is permitted to look at anything and anybody in a public place. If freedom of expression is a basic right, how much more so the right to think and to look?

It is quite possible that a too great fixation on one thing is a bad thing for you. (Notice that admiring female beauty does not even have to be a sexual thing. For many it is primarily an aesthetic proposition.) But that is your personal problem to adjudicate. Nobody else's business.

There is nothing dirty or unethical about enjoying the sight of a beautiful woman. Personally I find it either unperceptive or dishonest not to do so. It is even unfair. Most beautiful women use a lot of time and energy to appear their best, and it seems rather illogical to suggest that they do all this work so nobody shall look. It seems to me that to ignore it or to pretend one does not notice, is simply mean or silly.
--Eolake Stobblehouse, 14 Feb 2003

[2]: Let us imagine that you are a dirty old man but are dedicated to keeping it a secret because you are a bank vice-president and are interested in exuding an odor of sanctity so that no one will notice, until it is too late, that you are preparing to abscond [run away]. Now a lovely girl walks past you with a dress whose neckline is generously loose and under which there is clearly and obviously no bra. What do you do?

What you do is roll your eyes briefly in their sockets with the eyelashes lowered so that no one will see what you are doing. The result? You don't see anything at all, except perhaps for one flash of quiver that is far more upsetting than sating.

And what is the girl's reaction? She sees that flicker of eye even if no one else does (since she's watching for it) and despises you as a rotten little coward. You see that look of contempt in her eye (for it goes through you like an ice pick) and your self-esteem is shattered. Indeed, there is a very good chance that the girl will instantly realize that a man who would look at her with so miserably sidelong a glance is a man who would abscond with every cent of the banks property and she will inform on you at once.

But suppose you are not only a dirty old man, but are proud of it, too, and suppose the same girl walks by in the same condition. Now it is possible to be joyous and open. You can emit a melodious whistle or a snort of pleasure. You can stare openly. You can walk over to get a closer view. You can address the girl in friendly fashion.

And how does the girl react? She is pleased that she has created such an obvious stir in a gentleman of such substantial and prosperous appearance. She realizes that you agree with her own opinion of herself and this can't help but impress her with the excellence of your taste. Seeing in you a person whom she can respect, she will think, "What a nice, gentlemanly old man," and will smile at you. From that to a friendly word or two is but a step, and from that to a pat on the cheek or some slight pressure on the upper arm is but another.

You own self-esteem will shoot up and if you are the vice-president of a bank, you will be so buoyed up by all the this that you will go right to your office and put back all the money. This is only one example of many I can cite in which being an open and honest dirty old man is an enormous aid to public morality.
--Isaac Asimov, The Sensuous Dirty Old Man

DIRTY OLD MEN'S ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL: [THE]

The Dirty Old Men's Association International is for unabashed lovers of beauty. DOMAI is an independent society for men (or indeed women) who have the guts to stand forth and say to the world: "I am a Dirty Old Man, and I'm proud of it".

[...]

The purpose of Dirty Old Men's Association International is to spread moral support and shared enjoyment amongst like-minded men, and to let you know that you are not alone. Millions of closet DOMs over the world have rising pulses when springtime comes around, with the skirts again rising towards the sky; join us in the movement to make this an accepted natural practice. The blood runs vigorously in our veins at the sight of the sun shining through a white blouse; let us elevate DOMs to the point where they may show their natural appreciation. Our eyes follow lovingly the springy curves of young calves; while our ears are listening, our eyes are taking in the beauty of the amazingly mutable shapes of healthy red lips smiling and talking. We know what we see and what we like, and we know it is all a part of life and God's gift to us all.

We live in a world where base instincts rule the day, war and fighting are the normal behavior of Homo Sapiens. In a world like this the free spirit has a hard time; its motives are always questioned and suspected; his and her behavior is sought to be controlled and modified; it is held down, excluded and fought. Meat creatures cannot believe in higher motivations than food and reproduction.

Well, the fact of the matter is that the design of the human female form, apart from everything else, is one of our greatest works of art. The Dirty Old Men's Association International was founded as a protest against the short-sightedness of attackers of those who admire beauty, and as a club supporting the admirers. Joining it is a statement that you love looking at pretty girls, and that you are not ashamed of it. While we are not against sex, that is not what we are promoting. What we promote is beauty, and those who love it.
--Eolake Stobblehouse, 14 Feb 2003

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS:

For the uninitiated, "friends with benefits" is a fairly recent term to describe friends/acquaintances who hook up. "Hooking up" is a convenient way to describe the activities since it wipes away the 1st base/2nd base clarity and covers all variety of sexual encounters. The friends involved might be bosom buddies or only minor acquaintances; they might be an ex-couple still enjoying the benefits of their now-ended relationship, or a pair who'd never met before deciding to set up to hook up. How things begin often determines how things proceed: whether it's a one-time event, a frequently recurring appointment, or anything in between. Sometimes, friends with benefits have an equal part in what happens and when, and sometimes the ball sits very firmly in one partner's court.

While the idea of friends occasionally sleeping together is not new, what is a phenomenon is how widespread it has become. Many teens have recently reported having had such arrangements, and possibly even more adults. Lack of time for an emotionally-committed relationship and lack of interest were often cited as reasons for choosing the more no-strings-attached feel that friends with benefits carries. Also, unlike casual sex or the bar scene, for instance, friends with benefits can give both parties a little more security and comfort than an anonymous, one-night stand might.
--Go Ask Alice! web site, 23 Jul 2004

GAME OF TWENTY TOES: [THE]

Here's to the Game of Twenty Toes,
It's played all over town.
The girls play with ten toes up,
The boys with ten toes down.

GROPE:

It's when a boy touches any part of you that your bathing suit is supposed to cover...That's what Sister Madeline told us...Never let the boy grope... 'Wow_ I like that_...That means he could caress your back, and the top of your leg along your inner thigh...And how about those thong bathing suits, where both cheeks are open to the public...Maybe Sister Madeline needs to get to the beach more often and see what women are wearing...'
--Alice On The Outside, Phyliss Reynolds Naylor, pg 70

IMPOTENCE:

Nature's Way Of Saying "No Hard Feelings".

LOVE DRESS:

A woman stopped by unannounced at her recently married son's house. She rang the doorbell and walked in. She was shocked to see her daughter-in-law lying on the couch, totally naked. Soft music was playing; the aroma of perfume filled the room.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm waiting for my husband to come home from work," the daughter-in-law answered.

"But you're naked!" the mother-in-law exclaimed.

"This is my love dress," the daughter-in-law explained.

"Love dress? But you're naked!"

"My husband loves me to wear this dress," she explained. "It excites him to no end. Every time he sees me in this dress he instantly becomes romantic and ravages me for hours on end. He can't get enough of me."

The mother-in-law left. When she got home, she undressed, showered, put on her best perfume, dimmed the lights, put on a romantic CD and lay on the couch waiting for her husband to arrive.

Finally, her husband came home. He walked in and saw her laying there so provocatively.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"This is my love dress" she whispered, sensually.

"Needs ironing. What's for dinner?"

MASTURBATION:

[1] For a lonely person of either sex, it is [a] harmless but inadequate substitute.
--Lazurus Long, Time Enough For Love, pg 572

[2] In adults, masturbation is derogated as the default practice of the immature, undesirable, and desperate. In children, it represents everything grown-ups envy and dislike about the young: their dreaminess, hedonism, fidgetiness, solipsism, secrets, and endless excretion of slimy body fluids. As sex, it is disreputable. Not quite homosexual, but even less heterosexual, masturbation is extramarital, nonfamilial, nonprocreative, meaningless, and eminently casual. And it is antisocial.
--Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors, pg 184

MINT FLAVOURED BIRTH CONTROL PILLS:

The Cadbury's Candy Co. and Merck Drug Co. have combined to market the new Mint flavored birth control pill that women may take immediately before sex. The pill will be distributed by the large major drug store chains and Wal-Mart's Pharmacies.

They're going to be called: . . .

"Pre-dick-a-mints."

MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE: [THE]

Q. Why do female black widow spiders kill their males after mating?
A. To stop the snoring before it starts.

NEWLY REVISED GUIDE TO THE BASES:

Do you remember middle school/junior high/high school? If so, do you remember talking about 'the bases' with your friends ("Yeahman, at the dance, Vinny and Amy went behind the gym and they got to second base!")? Well that was cool and all, but what the hell was second base? Tongue kissing? Up the shirt? No one was really sure.

Here, we mourn the passing of traditional baseball analogies to describe sexual activity. Let's face it, there are more than four stages in today's day and age of sex play. So, in the interest of both bringing baseball sex metaphors in line with the complications of modern romance and standardizing the bases themselves, we present the Newly revised guide to the bases.

First, let's examine what the bases could have meant in the old days.

Well that system is ok, if you are a young teenager with a repressed sex drive. But what happens when you reach maturity and new factors enter the equation, such as oral sex (a.k.a. the sloppy)? And what about the exact definitions? Well we have attempted to answer such puzzling questions and present without further ado...

The Newly Revised Guide to the Bases:

Now that we've got the basics, let's introduce some terms to better explain all the things that can happen now a days.

Now that we have the definitions, lets quickly contrast the old confusion with our current clarity.

OLD WAY: we um got to third base I guess and then we um got like past third base, but not to home plate. I really like her.

NEW WAY: first, there was a triple, then we got an inside the park home run, and started thinking, it's hall of fame time.

NEW WAY: So there I was with the bases loaded and nobody out, when I balked during the seventh inning stretch and I had to call in a relief pitcher.

NEXT GENERATION'S PARADOX: [THE]

The right wing's demand to "teach" abstinence created the next generation's paradox. [Equating] "no sex" and safe sex suggests that no sex is safe.
--Cindy Patton, Fatal Advice: How Safe-Sex Education Went Wrong, and reprinted in Harmful to Minors, pg 199
[Also filed as NEXT GENERATION'S PARADOX: [THE] in Appendix 07]

NONMARITAL SEX: [HAZARDS OF ~]

Pregnancy, AIDS, guilt, herpes, disappointed parents, chlamydia, inability to concentrate on school, syphilis, embarrassment, abortion, shotgun wedding, gonorrhea, selfishness, pelvic inflamatory disease, heartbreak, infertility, loneliness, cervical cancer, poverty, loss of self-esteem, loss of reputation, being used, suicide, substance abuse, melancholy, loss of faith, possessiveness, diminished ability to communicate, isolation, fewer friendships formed, rebellion against other familial standards, alienation, loss of self-mastery, distrust of [other] sex, viewing others as sex objects, difficulty with long term commitments, various other sexual transmitted diseases, aggression toward women, ectopic pregnancy, sexual violence, loss of sense of responsibility toward others, loss of honesty, jealousy, depression, death.
--Sex Respect, and repinted in Harmful to Minors, pg 105/106

OUTERCOURSE:

Sex therapists use the term outercourse for the infinite collection of acts that can be done with the body to create sensual and sexual pleasure but that do not include penetration. But outercourse doesn't even have to include two bodies touching. Writing a letter or having phone sex can be outercourse, and so is masturbation. Most important, as Marty Klein and Riki Robbins point in Let Me Count the Ways: Discovering Great sex without Intercourse, outercourse is a different way of thinking about sex. Although much of it might look like what we call foreplay, it's not a preparation for the Main Event. Indeed, it does not even assume that intercourse is going to happen.
--Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors, pg 195

PARADOX OF ANTI-PEDOPHIILE HYSTERIA: [THE]

In 1984, at the beginning of the sex-lawmaking frenzy, the authors of the final report on U.S. Senator Willam V. Roth's Child Pornography and Pedophilia hearings noted what they called a paradox. "Good laws often lead to more arrests," they wrote, "thus making it appear that more new laws are needed to curb what the public perceives as an increase in crime." Nevertheless, the commissioners rcommended more laws, which led to more bureaucracy, more agents, more investigations, and more arrests. And that, said Eric Lotke of the National Center for Institutions and Altetrnatives, created another paradox: the public felt falsly safer and also more fearful.
--Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors, pg 43
[Also filed as PARADOX OF ANTI-PEDOPHIILE HYSTERIA: [THE] in Appendix 07]

RELATIONSHIPS:

Relationships are hard. It's like a full time job, and we should treat it like one. If your boyfriend or girlfriend wants to leave you, they should give you two weeks' notice. There should be severance pay, and before they leave you, they should have to find you a temp.
--Bob Ettinger

SEX: [CLEAN ~]

For the purpose of edification, clean sex is the sex that occurs in committed, preferably legally sanctioned, age-of-majority, heterosexual, reproductive relationships; and it includes responsible precoital conversation, safer-sex devices, and postcoital cuddling. Clean sex is "scientific." For little kids it is still often explicated in narratives that begin with a pistil and stamen or a "lady fish and a gentleman fish," as the child in Auntie Mame described them, and proceeds gingerly to the making of babies. (These "birds and bees" stories can misfire on account of young children's literal-mindedness. In the 1980s, psychologist Anne Bernstein asked a four year old, "How would a lady get a baby to grow inside her?" The child, who had studied the sex-ed picture books, began, "Um, first you get a duck.")
--Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors, pg 9

SEX FAIRY:

I am not about to break the chain on this one! This is hilarious! Be sure to read the warning at the bottom. That's why I didn't want to take any chances with this one! I'm not messing with the Sex Fairy.

1. Sex is a beauty treatment. Scientific tests find that when women make love they produce amounts of the hormone estrogen, which makes hair shine and skin smooth.

2. Gentle, relaxed lovemaking reduces your chances of suffering dermatitis, skin rashes and blemishes. The sweat produced cleanses the pores and makes your skin glow.

3. Lovemaking can burn up those calories you piled on during that romantic dinner.

4. Sex is one of the safest sports you can take up. It stretches and tones up just about every muscle in the body. It's more enjoyable than swimming 20 laps, and you don't need special sneakers!

5. Sex is an instant cure for mild depression. It releases endorphins into the bloodstream, producing a sense of euphoria and leaving you with a feeling of well-being.

6. The more sex you have, the more you will be offered. The sexually active body gives off greater quantities of chemicals called pheromones. These subtle sex perfumes drive the opposite sex crazy!

7. Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. IT IS 10 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN VALIUM.

8. Kissing each day will keep the dentist away. Kissing encourages saliva to wash food from the teeth and lowers the level of the acid that causes decay, preventing plaque build-up.

9. Sex actually relieves headaches. A lovemaking session can release the tension that restricts blood vessels in the brain.

10. A lot of lovemaking can unblock a stuffy nose. Sex is a natural antihistamine. It can help combat asthma and hay fever.

This message has been sent to you for good luck in sex. The original is in a room in the basement of the Dwight House Pub. It has been sent around the world nine times. Now sex has been sent to you.

The "Hot Sex Fairy" will visit you within four days of receiving this message provided you, in turn, send it on. If you don't, then you will never receive good sex again for the rest of your life. You will eventually become celibate, and your genitals will rot and fall off. This is no joke! Send copies to people you think need sex (who doesn't?). Don't send money, as the fate of your genitals has no price. Do not keep this message. This message must leave your e-mail in 96 hours. Please send ten copies and see what happens in four days.

SEXUAL COMMENTARY:

STATUTORY RAPE:

But statutory rape is not about sex the victim says she did not want. It is about sex she did want but which adults believe she only thought she wanted because she wasn't old enough to know she did not want it.
--Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors, pg

VALENCIA DECLARATION ON SEXUAL RIGHTS:

We, the participants of the XIII World Congress of Sexology, declare that:

Sexuality is a changing and dynamic dimension of humanity. It is constructed through the interaction between the individual and social structures. It is present throughout the life cycle, harmonizing identity and creating and /or strengthening interpersonal bonds.

Sexual pleasure, including autoeroticism, is a source of physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual well-being. It is associated with a conflict-free and anxiety-free experience of sexuality, allowing, therefore, social and personal development.

We hereby urge that societies create the conditions to satisfy the needs for the full development of the individual and respect the following SEXUAL RIGHTS:

The right to freedom, which excludes all forms of sexual coercion, exploitation and abuse at any time and in all situations in life. The struggle against violence is a social priority. All children should be desired and loved.

The right to autonomy, integrity and safety of the body. This right encompasses control and enjoyment of our own bodies, free from torture, mutilation and violence of any sort.

The right to sexual equity and equality. This refers to freedom from all forms of discrimination, paying due respect to sexual diversity, regardless of sex, gender, age, race, social class, religion and sexual orientation.

The right to sexual health, including availability of all sufficient resources for development of research and the necessary knowledge of HIV/AIDS and STDs, as well as the further development of resources for research, diagnosis and treatment.

The right to wide, objective and factual information on human sexuality in order to allow decision-making regarding sexual life.

The right to a comprehensive sexuality education from birth and throughout the life cycle. All social institutions should be involved in this process.

The right to associate freely. This means the possibility to marry or not, to divorce, and to establish other types of sexual associations.

The right to make free and responsible choices regarding reproductive life, the number and spacing of children and the access to means of fertility regulation.

The right to privacy, which implies the capability of making autonomous decisions about sexual life within a context of personal and social ethics. Rational and satisfactory experience of sexuality is a requirement for human development.

Human sexuality is the origin of the deepest bond between human beings and is essential to the well-being of individuals, couples, families and society. Therefore, the respect for sexual rights should be promoted through all means.

SEXUAL HEALTH IS A BASIC AND FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT.

Approved June 1997
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