WASHINGTON: Costs incurred in sex-change operations and procedures are tax-deductible, the US Tax Court has ruled.

The court ruled that hormone therapies and sex reassignment surgeries were necessary to treat gender identity disorder in the case of a Boston man who became a woman named Rhiannon O’Donnabhain after 20 years of marriage that produced three children.

”The court is persuaded that petitioner’s sex reassignment surgery was medically necessary,” Judge Joseph Gale wrote in a decision for the majority.

The decision is the first to rule that sex-change operations qualify as medical care and overturns a 2005 Internal Revenue Service policy denying medical expense deductions in such operations on the grounds they are ”cosmetic”.

The case involves a $US5679 ($6450) tax bill assessed by the IRS, which denied medical deductions Ms O’Donnabhain claimed after she underwent sex reassignment-surgery in 2000.

Ms O’Donnabhain, a civil engineer, was diagnosed with gender identity disorder in 1997.

She sued the IRS after it denied her a deduction of $US25,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs associated with the surgeries and other care such as hormone treatments and counselling, according to Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which represented her in court.

Karen Loewy, a lawyer with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said the court’s decision ”recognises that expenses related to medical care for transgender people should be treated no differently than expenses related to an appendectomy or chemotherapy”.

STORY SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au

Minnesota, December 10 — Debunking the popular perception that convicts casual sex for causing emotional damage, results of a new study state that such encounters are not always detrimental to well-being of young adults.

Hooking up casually no longer fuels depression, and it is quite easy to step out from the “friends with benefits” relationship unaffected, researchers affirm.

1,311 young adults (574 men and 737 women) from the University of Minnesota were enrolled for the study. Aged between 18 and 24 years, the cluster was made up of full-time students, part-time students, or young adults who weren’t students at all.

The participants were questioned about their sexual behaviors and emotional well-being.

Speaking about their recent sexual encounters, about one-fifth reported it as casual; for 25 percent it was out of intimacy and commitment; 12 percent admitted it to be with a ‘close but not exclusive partner’; and 55 percent disclosed it to be with an exclusive partner.

The upshot of the trial
Interestingly, the emotional status of those engaged in casual sex was the same as those in committed relationships, researchers aver.

Moreover, regardless of the type of sexual encounter, the researchers spotted no difference in incidence of depression or loss of self-esteem cases.

“When we looked at the emotional well being across these groups we really found no differences, in things like body satisfaction, in self-esteem and depressive symptoms” reported Marla Eisenberg, study’s lead researcher.

“We were so surprised” Eisenberg said. “The conventional wisdom is that casual sex, ‘friends with benefits,’ and hooking up is hurtful. That’s what we’ve been teaching kids for decades.”

Also, the results of the current trail contradict the results of the study released last year that found more women to report depressive and negative feelings after casual sexual encounters, compared to men.

Researchers say ‘No’ to casual sex
Though the findings of the study seem to spare mental health, casual sex is extremely detrimental to overall health and well-being, Eisenberg marked. “The study does not encourage casual sex.”

Young adults who engage in such casual hookups are exposing themselves to physical harms. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), unplanned and teen pregnancies, and interpersonal violence can only lead to potential disaster, Eisenberg cautioned.

Eisenberg said, “Its things like STD prevention and pregnancy prevention and we really need to focus on those when we’re doing health education programming with young adults.”

STORY SOURCE: http://www.themoneytimes.com

Decriminalization increases safety, say some in business

Three sex workers launched a controversial constitutional challenge against Canada’s prostitution laws on Tuesday, arguing that decriminalizing some elements will make it safer for them to work.

The applicants — a dominatrix, a former sex trade worker and a working prostitute — say provisions under the Criminal Code endanger their safety by preventing them from taking precautions, such as working indoors or hiring security guards to protect themselves. The Government of Canada disagrees. It contends that there is no such thing as a safe place for prostitution, regardless of whether it’s legal or illegal.

“This case is not about a constitutional right to be a prostitute,” Alan Young, who is representing the women, said in his opening remarks to Justice Susan Himel of the Superior Court of Ontario on Tuesday in Toronto. It is about depriving them of security and liberty, he said.

READ FULL STORY:  http://www.canada.com

Conservatives condemn the Artificial Virginity Hymen Kit as technology that will promote promiscuity. Others say the furor over the device raises disturbing questions about double standards.

Reporting from Cairo – Whether it’s seen as a clever little gadget to help a woman keep a secret or a devilish deception that threatens Islam, the Artificial Virginity Hymen Kit is not welcome in Egypt.

The kit allows a bride who is not a virgin to pretend that she is. A pouch inserted into the vagina on her wedding night ruptures and leaks a blood-like liquid designed to trick a new husband into believing that his wife is chaste. It’s a wink of ingenuity to soothe a man’s ego and keep the dowry intact.

Egyptian conservatives condemn the device as technology that will promote promiscuity in a culture that forbids premarital sex. Their protests are arising in a nation that over the last 40 years has gone from miniskirts and secularism to hijabs and religious devotion. But seldom have conservatives faced such brazen advertising.

“No more worry about losing your virginity. With this product, you can have your first night back any time,” states the website of Gigimo, a Chinese mail-order company that sells the kit and other sexual products, including sex dolls and bondage toys, worldwide. “Add in a few moans and groans, you will pass through undetectable.”

READ FULL STORY: http://www.latimes.com

FOXSexpert: The Real Reason Women Have Sex
Monday, September 21, 2009

“Why Women Have Sex.”

Given the stereotype that women are never in the mood, it’s not surprising that this book title is grabbing people’s attention. Written by researchers Cindy Meston and David Buss, the work flushes out the results of a survey of 1,006 women.

And their findings are all over the board; the authors highlight 200 reasons.

RELATED: New Book Reveals the Real Reason Women Have Sex

So why do women have sex? The vast majority (84 percent) have sex to guarantee a quiet life or to persuade their men to do some housework. Some of the other reasons given in interviews include…

1. She’s alleviating boredom – it gives her something to do.

2. She wants to relieve a stress headache or migraine.

3. She’s trying to put an end to an argument.

4. She wants a better complexion.

5. She’s thanking her date for a nice dinner, a present, or spending a lot of money on her early on in the relationship.

6. She’s after a spiritual experience since sex is seen as “the closest thing to God.”

7. She’s refining her sexual skills.

8. She feels sorry for the fellow.

9. She likes that he has an extravagant lifestyle.

10. She’s in a long-distance relationship and wants action now versus later.

Ironically, romance and passion ranked low on females’ reasons for having sex. Instead, sex was viewed as being all about fun, with 60 percent of survey respondents admitting to regularly sleeping with a male friend who was not their boyfriend.

Attraction, too, apparently ranks low on a lady’s list. What’s interesting to note about this factor is that while most men find most women sexually attractive, researchers said that the gals don’t see the guys in quite the same way.

Women reported being attracted to men who were described as tall, having a deep voice, and smelling good. A male having a symmetrical body was also liked, indicating that he could give her strong children. Still, those men not living up to such visions can take comfort in her preference of men with lower levels of testosterone, since this suggests that he’s less likely to pursue others.

It’s important to take these findings with a grain of salt. The way that they’ve been presented largely reinforces the idea that women aren’t sexual by nature as much as capable of using sex as a bargaining tool. Writings cast women as using sex manipulatively or to put up with a partner and her relationship.

Then, muddling matters in terms of how to interpret results is the issue of women having sex versus wanting sex. These are two different factors in one’s sexual activity that aren’t being dealt with independently. Which reasons are ones where women desired sex or skin-on-skin contact? Which reasons felt instinctual?

The University of Texas study has also been criticized for focusing solely on university students at the UT Austin campus who were mostly young and white. We have to remember that these are the results of one group of women — they’re not representative of all women. Still, the book’s press release claims that the work is the “richest and deepest psychological understanding of female sexuality.”

Really?

Collectively, the reasons presented in this survey make all women look conniving, selfish, narcissistic, and shallow when it comes to sex. It paints us as using sex for bartering purposes or approaching it as a hobby or sport. And while that may be the case for these women to some degree, the original research and book actually misrepresent all women by claiming that these findings apply to all of us.

There are a lot more reasons why women are having sex — and they aren’t being captured in this book.

If you ask me, and lot of other women of all ages and backgrounds out there, the reason women have sex, they’ll tell you… They’re having sex to express affection, to get in tune with their sexual core and feel sexy, to make love, to feel close to another, to maintain a long-term relationship by keeping the passion alive, to relish a shared, special moment… and because they like sex when it feels good.

STORY SOURCE:  www.foxnews.com/

Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright is a sex educator, relationship expert, columnist and founder of Sexuality Source Inc. She is the author of several books including, “Touch Me There! A Hands-On Guide to Your Orgasmic Hot Spots.”

The warnings about jelly bracelets are back.

Following waves of schools before them, administrators at the Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, CO have made it clear that the thin stretchy colored bands, first popularized by Madonna in the 1980s, are not welcome on school property.

Why? Because it came to the attention of teachers that the different colors on the bracelets signaled different levels of sexual activity in which the student was willing to engage.

According to the various websites where jelly bracelets are discussed, the girls wear them and the boy who breaks them can claim his “prize” based on the color code: yellow is a hug, purple is a kiss, blue is oral sex and black is intercourse. There are more (and they get more graphic) but you get the idea.

I would be appalled at this game, and I would applaud attempts to ban the bracelets, if I thought the threat was real. But what has just come to the attention of administrators at Angevine has been wandering the Internet for years.

In an extensive analysis on Snopes.com — the website dedicated to examining urban legends — Barbara Mikkelson likens the jelly rumors to the beer and soda tab lore of 30 years ago, when it was said that a broken pull tab could be exchanged for a kiss and an unbroken one could be traded for sex. (They also remind me of the “rainbow party” rumors a few years ago, where girls supposedly wore different colored lipstick to leave multicolored rings after oral sex, which turned out to be urban legends, too.)

Then, like now, Mikkelson writes, there was no reason to believe that kids were actually compelling each other to provide sexual favors on the basis of a can tab or a broken bracelet (which, she points out, are darn hard to break.) She writes:

We’ve heard from hundreds of folks. The adults who’ve written almost always say their kids are never going to wear those bracelets again. On the other hand, almost without exception, the middle- and high-school kids from all across the US express shock that the adults would think they were actually obeying this “code” and disappointment in their elders for failing to understand the bracelets are no more than a cool fashion accessory that has attracted a silly rumor.
That is what students seem to have told administrators at Angevine Middle School too. “It’s turned out that a lot of the kids, especially the girls, wear them as fashion statements,” Briggs Gamblin, a spokesman for the school district, told my colleague Dan Frosch this weekend, “and some were adamant they didn’t have any connotation.” And of the dozens of websites I clicked through while researching the bracelets, every one of them talked about how ridiculous the rumors were, or how worried parents were, but none seriously promoted the code.

What is serious, though, is that the bracelets have young children talking about sex, possibly in ways they don’t yet understand. As Mikkelson notes, “one way the pull tab beliefs differ from the ‘sex bracelets’ code is the age of the participants; the rumor of thirty years ago was circulated mainly in high schools, but today’s version is moving through grade and middle schools.”

So maybe the lesson here is not to ban the bracelets in the classroom, but rather to talk to our children at home?

Original Story: parenting.blogs.nytimes.com