Happy Father’s Day!

And now, onto some horrifying news: a Cornell doctor is performing female genital mutilation on girls with large clitorises, and using a vibrator to test the results. HORRIFYING. We suspect more will be unearthed with this case–are these girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, intersexed, or just not “perfect”?

Haha, a win for local porn stores: Indiana Supreme Court declines to hear the New Albany adult store case, presumably much to ROCK’s chagrin.

Elsewhere in the defense of porn, sex blogger and advocate Violet Blue has begun Our Porn, Our Selves. She slams anti-porn forces here and here, and other blogs notice. Meanwhile, sexologist Charlie Glickman describes both sides of the porn debate and includes an interesting study that notes correlation between high porn consumption and male aggressivity.

As a sex-positive, pro-sex industry advocate, I’ll write on this a bit. Glickman reminds us that correlation does not equal causation, an important reminder indeed. PAPER supports every adult’s right to enjoy porn [and other fun given us by the sex industry], and does not believe porn is a truly addictive substance. However, such studies are extremely interesting and worth pursuing, when ethical, non-sex-negative researchers are doing the work. Such research begs questions: what sort of content are these extremely aggressive men watching? Does it interfere with their relationships? Likewise, what underlies high porn consumption in various populations? When sex-negative groups point out violence and degradation in porn–which certainly is part of some porn content, and not in the sense of kink and consent–they have something of a point. It’s just that we at PAPER seriously doubt porn turns people into sociopaths, just like violent video games and movies don’t turn people into sociopaths.

One thing you can do, if you’re into porn, is make sure you’re consuming the work of good companies. Our best advice is to Google the company, and start digging. And look at the porn: do you see performers returning? Does the company include clips of the performers talking about the experience? Does the company proudly record that all performers are over 18? Exploitation happens, but not all companies exploit. Be sure what you’re watching doesn’t. And if you don’t care if it does, ask yourself, seriously, why.

Louisville’s Pride Parade was last Friday!

A homophobic recovery outfit is seeking to expand in the Clifton neighborhood.

Oh, those theocrats: they’re not giving up on the Uganda kill the gays bill. And apparently, neither is Texas. More about this particular conservative lunacy here. Also, Montana fundies are trying to overturn a new gay rights law.

Alert! Knockoff condoms are on the shelves and do not protect you. Another reason to practice safer sex, people.

The FDA has approved ella, a form of emergency contraception effective for five days after the possible conception. Awesome! Anti-choicers are, naturally, mad.

On Yaz? Good news: the generic Gianvi is now available.

Louisiana has passed an ultrasound requirement before getting an abortion. You’d think with the worst environmental disaster in American history on, right at their shores, they’d have better things to worry about than trampling on women’s rights.

The Radiance Foundation perpetuates anti-choice lies.

Lastly, a little more on that philandering evangelical, Mark Souder, who called his affair “torrid”:

In “Lessons from a broken man,” the cover story of the next edition of WORLD, a popular evangelical magazine, Souder offers a number of revealing glimpses into his struggles to stay faithful to his wife, and the political pressure cooker that he says can destroy the Beltway marriages of even the most die-hard believers.

“I prayed multiple times a day, sang hymns with emotion and tears, felt each time that it wouldn’t happen again, read the Bible every morning,” Souder said in one of more than a dozen e-mails to WORLD’s editors. “So how in the world did I have a ‘torrid’ (which is an accurate word) many-year affair? How could I compartmentalize it so much?”

To the evangelical mind–and here, your intrepid Webmistress is speaking from experience, as she was once herself a devout evangelical–this is the portrait of sinful nature. No matter how much good one does or fervent one’s belief, one gives in to sinful desires. I imagine Souder is either wondering why God never delivered him of these desires, or hating himself for being so sinful. As amusing as such scandals are, they are perhaps full of this sort of ontological heartbreak; as glad as I am to see a sex-negative legislator like Souder come crashing down, I feel a certain pity for him. His worldview has failed him. The reality is that most of us are hardwired for lust, and that we shouldn’t feel guilt for it. We should live in a world where this was an accepted fact, and people allowed to make arrangements for it, rather than repress ourselves in shame only to see that repression breed personal hell.

Remember this, dear readers: the theocrats who want to legislate our sex lives don’t believe the wide wonderful diversity of human sexuality is natural. They believe it is transgression against divine law. And even believing this, they cannot control themselves and cannot see the failure of their beliefs for what it is, because this belief has been drilled in so hard it overrides common sense.