http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Study: Men have more sex partners than women do
BY DAVID CRARY The Associated Press

   NEW YORK — It’s a question that often prompts a boastful answer or a bashful one: How many sex partners have you had?
   Now the federal government says it has authoritative statistics, documenting that men are far more likely to play the field than women.
   A new nationwide survey, using high-tech methods to solicit candid answers on sexual activity and illegal drug use, finds that 29 percent of American men report having 15 or more female sexual partners in a lifetime, while only 9 percent of women report having sex with 15 or more men.
   The median number of lifetime female sexual partners for men was seven; the median number of male partners for women was four.
   The survey, released Friday, is based on data collected from 1999 to 2002 for the National Center for Health Statistics, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
   In previous versions of this survey, participants were asked questions in face-to-face interviews. The CDC believes that that caused underreporting of behaviors that might be viewed negatively, although the new survey did not provide any comparative results from earlier reports.
   This time, data were gathered from 6,237 adults, aged 20 to 59, in what are called computer-assisted self-interviews, a method designed to provide complete privacy and produce more honest answers.
   “This is the first time we’ve used this technique,” said Dr. Kathryn Porter, who served as medical offi - cer for the survey. “The participants have a headset on, they hear questions, they touch the screen with responses. There’s no one else in the room, and they can take as long as they want.”
   Porter said the findings would provide grist for further studies, notably on the prevalence and patterns of sexually transmitted diseases.
   Though the survey results were presented by the CDC without subjective comment, they will likely provide ammunition to various parties in the ongoing national debate over sex education, cohabitation and access to birth control.
   Many of the conservative groups aligned with the Bush administration on social issues promote the goal of sexual abstinence until marriage. The survey found that only about 11 percent of never-married adults had remained chaste.
   Among the other findings:
   About 96 percent of U.S. adults have had sex.
   Sixteen percent of adults fi rst had sex before age 15, while 15 percent abstained from sex until at least age 21.
   The proportion of adults who first had sex before age 15 was highest for blacks (28 percent) compared to 14 percent for both Mexican-Americans and whites.
   Six percent of blacks abstained from sex until age 21 or older, fewer than Mexican-Americans (17 percent) or whites (15 percent).
   Black men and women were more likely to report having 15 or more partners in a lifetime (46 percent and 13 percent, respectively) than other racial or ethnic groups.
   Seventeen percent of men and 10 percent of women reported having two or more sexual partners in the past year.
   Twenty-five percent of women and 17 percent of men reported having no more than one partner of the other sex in their lifetime.
   Twenty-six percent of men and 17 percent of women have tried cocaine or other street drugs (not including marijuana) at some time in their life. Seven percent of men and 4 percent of women had done so within the past 12 months.
   Whites had a higher percentage of ever using cocaine or street drugs (23.5 percent) than blacks (18 percent) or Mexican-Americans (16 percent).
   The questions about numbers of sexual partners specified heterosexual relationships, and thus the survey did not measure the extent of gay or lesbian sexual partnerships. However, Porter said there was no such specificity in the questions about ever having had sex or about the age of first sexual activity, so answers to those could have referred to straight or gay sex.  

  
  
  

Wow...now I see why they advertise for medication for herpes on tv. And we wonder why there is HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases! Hey, here's a thought....Did anyone ever think of 'self control' over your body parts? How about 'personal responsibility' or even 'consequences'?

Interesting.  They aren't being PC, calling people blacks, but this is the first time I've seen this... Mexican-Americans??? Did they check their green cards?  Maybe these people should have been arrested and deported.  Or are these the people that used to be "of latino descent?"  When did the memo come out on this?  I never saw it and hadn't figured I had to change my PC bible.  

Good point Bk...how the heck to you pick that 'one little sentence' out of this whole think. You are good at details, I'll give ya that. But with that said, if there are African Americans and Mexican  Americans and so on....I believe that causes a divide in this country. We are 'all' Americans. Some may carry on with their cultrual traditions....but come on...let's just call all us 'legal' people Americans! Hopefuly without have sex with anything that walks by!

Yeah,,,,,just ask Larry Flint and Hugh Hefner....I'm sure they would have better details on who is zooming who....or maybe Hollywood???

We are just bags of bacteria and viruses that make for great transport......

Quoted Text

Though the survey results were presented by the CDC without subjective comment, they will likely provide ammunition to various parties in the ongoing national debate over sex education, cohabitation and access to birth control.

Very simple here....one has to knock on the door without actually thinking about what is behind the door(atleast that's what the beer commercials show)......but the person opening the door and 'allowing' the person knocking in has to make a choice to let them into their personal living room and accept their baggage including the posibility of having to deal with any "extra baggage 9months later or just returning it after 4-6weeks.......the sales man always leaves.....

Gee...you're deep Senders. I had to really think about that one....but you are correct!

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Transgendered won’t fly in U.S. heartland
Froma Harrop

   The only openly gay congressman, Barney Frank, has long been subject to homophobic attacks. Happily, the Massachusetts liberal is master of the precision-guided comeback, which he unleashes with devastating results.
   No one has earned more stripes promoting gay rights than Frank, but the Democrat now finds himself targeted by, of all groups, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. And as usual, he’s not holding return fire.
   “For some of these people, you can never be an ally,” Frank told me. And the proper response is to “call their bluff.”
   “Who are they going to run against me?” he asks. “Larry Craig?”
   At issue is Frank’s decision to remove language on “gender identity” from a bill that protects gay men and lesbians in the workplace. This is a reference to the “transgender community” — people who do not identify with the gender assigned them at birth. Cross-dressers are one example.
   Frank insists that the bill can’t pass if it includes the transgendered. America is not yet ready to take that step. In response, gay advocates (though not all of them) have bitterly accused him of stripping the rights of this besieged group.
   Frank marvels at their poor grasp of political reality.
   “They think that getting a bill protecting sexual orientation is easy,” he says. “We started on the gay and lesbian thing decades ago.”
   Frustration over his party’s militants is not a new theme for Frank. In his 1992 book, “Speaking Frankly: What’s Wrong With the Democrats and How to Fix It,” Frank notes that the far left often spoiled the Democrats’ ability to win the presidency. By making the party seem soft on national security, crime and the work ethic, it scared away the swing voters needed to win.
for a whole range of issues.”
   Frank sees the campaign to push transgender rights into the anti-discrimination bill as creating a potential “Terri Schiavo” moment for the Democrats — that is, a situation where the fringes drag their party into a crusade that makes the broader public think its leaders are out of their gourds.
   The radicals have no idea what it takes to get things done in the real world, Frank complains. And they have wacky expectations.
   “We’re supposed to pass with votes from Indiana, Nebraska and South Carolina a better bill than we have in Massachusetts and New York,” Frank says. The latter two states have laws banning discrimination against gay men and lesbians but say nothing about transgendered people.
   “Like America is supposed to be easier than New York,” he adds.
   Last year, the Democrats regained power by winning congressional seats far from New York and San Francisco — including moderate-to-conservative areas that voted for George Bush in 2004. Democrats hope to expand on those victories next year, but that won’t happen if they let the far left define them.
   The babysitting has got to stop, Barney Frank says. And if that means displeasing people who were never terribly loyal to begin with, so be it.
Froma Harrop is a nationally syndicated columnist.
   And the fringe groups will never be content. They keep the party on perpetual “political probation,” he writes. Thus, Democrats waste much energy “making sure that the left wing of the party is emotionally secure.”
   Frank recently told antiwar activists holding vigils outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco that they’ve seen too many showings of “The Wizard of Oz.” They think Pelosi is Glenda the Good Witch, he said, who can wave her wand and make the Iraq war go away. Changing the war’s direction requires compromise.
   On things like appropriations, he notes that Democrats don’t have the votes to override presidential vetoes. “We’re going to have to accept inadequate funding