Alabama, propaganda and Googling your penis

Your Daily Package of newsy and naughty bits from around the world


Russian LGBT support group leader found guilty of gay propaganda

Elena Klimova, the founder of a support group for Russian LGBT teenagers, has been fined 50,000 rubles ($900) for spreading “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations.” The infamous gay-propaganda law was passed in 2013 and effectively bans telling children about gay people. Klimova ran Children-404, a popular site where LGBT teenagers shared messages of support.

Read more at BuzzFeed.

Alabama judge strikes down gay-marriage ban

An Alabama federal judge has struck down the state’s ban on gay marriage. At the request of the state attorney general, she also put a stay on the ruling of 14 days until gay couples can actually marry. It is very unlikely the ruling will be overturned, since the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal, which has jurisdiction over Alabama, has already upheld similar rulings in other states.

Read more at the Washington Blade.

Portugal votes again to reject gay adoption

The Portuguese parliament has voted again to refuse gay couples the right to adopt. Any single person, gay or straight, can adopt a child in Portugal, but when parliament legalized gay marriage in 2010, it expressly withheld the right from gay couples. Previous attempts to reverse this discrimination, in 2012 and 2013, also failed, but the margins have grown closer each time.

Read more from Agence France-Presse.

Sweden opens LGBT-friendly swimming pool

The Stockholm suburb of Sundbyberg has opened a swimming pool specifically designed to be friendly to gay and trans patrons. The pool features individual changing cubicles, for those uncomfortable with one-gender change rooms, and was built with the approval of Sweden’s national LGBT rights group. Sundbyberg already has an LGBT-approved library.

Read more at The Local.

US gay education lags behind gay marriage

Gay marriage may now be legal in most US states, but education about gay sex lags far behind, Mother Jones reports. In Arizona, where marriage is legal, children cannot be taught anything that suggests homosexuality is “a positive alternative lifestyle” or that suggests there are any methods of safe gay sex. In Mississippi, where gay marriage will likely soon be legal, the curriculum teaches that homosexuality is a “detestable and abominable crime against nature.”

 

What can Google tell us about sex?

Lots, says Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, an economist writing in The New York Times. He analyzed millions of Google searches about sex and discovered how much men care about their penises, who worries most about not having sex, and the 17 most common vaginal odors.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children-404#mediaviewer/File:Deti-404.jpg

Niko Bell

Niko Bell is a writer, editor and translator from Vancouver. He writes about sexual health, science, food and language.

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