srparedon – editorials (archive)

December 1998

Sexual liberation has launched enormous changes in sexual behavior in the last three decades. But old sexual "morality" has proved hard to shed. Sex remains judged by how closely it resembles the "ideal": a husband's penis in his wife's vagina attempting to conceive a child. The more sex deviates from this hallowed model, the more suspect and condemned it is. But we live in an increasingly overpopulated world, most definitely not in need of more mouths to feed. For the planet's well-being, we must complete the sexual revolution by chucking out the erroneous notion that "dirty" sex needs… Continue reading →

November 1998

Ken Starr's prosecution of President Clinton for adultery has generated interminable media chatter billed as "debate." Talk show panels and op-ed pages have Clinton attackers routinely paired with presidential defenders. In addition to a civics lesson in constitutional law, we are also– supposedly– getting a robust discussion about heretofore taboo topics. Self-congratulatory media folk tout the "new openness" in discussing oral and extramarital sex. Clinton's Oval Office philandering has, we are led to believe, elicited the full gamut of possible responses. Turn on any television, open any newspaper, browse any search engine and you'll be told we are… Continue reading →

October 1998

Many gay groups and women's organizations have hailed two recent Supreme Court decisions that expand the definition of sexual harassment. But these are decisions only lawyers could like. By reinforcing the notion that sex is fraught with unique, malevolent, criminal– and increasingly profitable– danger, the court actually retards our arrival at the saner sexual values that would truly advance women's and gay people's status.

In Oncale v Sundowner a man claimed that male co-workers repeatedly harassed and assaulted him. The court held that federal law did not require him to be a woman in order for sex… Continue reading →

September 1998

Elizabeth Birch, head of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a gay rights organization, has been quoted calling Sex Panic a "kind of lunatic fringe group." Birch may have been referring to a recent conference called Sex Panic which addressed issues of sexual freedom. Or she may have been talking about Sex Panic!, a New York-based group resisting efforts to eradicate, police, and criminalize ever more sexual expression. Whichever "Sex Panic" Birch was criticizing, her comments were meant to suggest that the gay cause was being hurt by those focusing on basic sex issues.

And Birch is not… Continue reading →

August 1998

Top on the agenda of many gay and lesbian groups is enacting "hate crime" laws. Such laws require courts to evaluate language used during a crime to determine if the offense was motivated by "hatred" of the victim's religion, ethnicity, or– in some jurisdictions now– sexual orientation. If the crime is deemed "hateful," these new laws mandate harsher punishments.

Gay collaboration with drives to enact such measures is a terrible mistake, for hate crimes laws are incompatible with justice. Moreover, it is short-sighted for gay people to further arm the state with more ways to punish people… Continue reading →

July 1998

The erection-enhancing drug Viagra has garnered enormous attention. Talk shows, editorial pages, and the Internet have been inundated with news, humor, and comment about the drug. Two messages emerge from all this Viagra hoopla. 

First, American culture has made significant progress towards more rational and less destructive sexual attitudes. Two generations ago religious-based injunctions against all non-procreative sex were so pervasive that laws banned pharmacists from dispensing birth control even to married couples. But the sexual revolution won the right to reproductive choice, thus uncoupling sex from baby-making. The success of that revolution can be seen… Continue reading →