Sexual and Reproductive Health

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By | January 01, 0001

With feeling

Mad Horse's latest show has exceptional heart
From the darkness, a hand strikes chalk against a spot-lit blackboard: July 1981 , it writes, and then, 16 .
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | June 10, 2010

Join in this Sunday. Despite significant progress, many challenges remain.
Starting at 7:30 this Sunday morning, tens of thousands of walkers, runners, and volunteers will begin gathering by the Hatch Shell on the Boston side of the Charles River Esplanade.
By EDITORIAL | June 04, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Harvard virginity conference pops its cherry

Roe v. Wait Dept.
At what moment are you no longer a virgin? When you get a blowjob? Give one? Give 30 ? When someone fingers you? Oral sex? Anal sex? Enjoyment? Orgasm?
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | May 07, 2010

Cover the boobs; leave the guns at home

Diverse City
Spring has barely started, and I was expecting a few of the usual seasonal assaults to the eyeballs.
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | April 28, 2010

A black leadership silent on abortion fabrications

Choice
Last month, controversial anti-abortion-rights billboards appeared in Georgia hinting that abortion is a tool of black genocide.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | March 24, 2010

The quest for the ultimate female orgasm

How far will women go for an orgasm?
Let's talk about the female orgasm, and how for some women, it can be difficult to come by.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 22, 2010

Where's the outrage?

ACORN attack tape found to be fraudulent. Plus, applause for the merger of two AIDS agencies.
Holy hell broke loose six months ago when a self-appointed truth squad sponsored by a right-wing propagandist broadcast an Internet video that appeared to show African-American employees of ACORN counseling a white pimp and his equally Caucasian hooker on how to dodge a variety of laws.
By EDITORIAL | March 04, 2010

Ending violence

It's much more of a struggle than we might think
V-Day is once more upon us, and for those not partial to Hallmark-driven capitalism, the V now also popularly stands for "Vagina" or "Victory," thanks to Eve Ensler's famous monologues about violence against women.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | February 10, 2010

Visions of hope

‘Coming Out’ at Firehouse 13; Dery and Easton at 5 Traverse
Shannon Heuklom of Providence spent the past two summers helping at a rural clinic, serving some 2000 HIV-positive patients, that is run by the nonprofit Hope Through Health in the West African nation of Togo.
By GREG COOK | January 13, 2010

Pink ribbons: Play hardball!

Breasts and Balls
In ancient times, men appeased the gods by tossing female virgins into volcanoes and families left their newborn daughters on hillsides to die since girls were less "valuable" than boys.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | November 25, 2009

Review: Precious

Purple's prose makes for wrenching melodrama
If you thought Celie in Alice Walker's The Color Purple had a tough time of it, wait till you get a load of Precious.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 18, 2009

Look for activist postcards on First Friday and beyond

AIDS Art Action
Approximately 1300 people in Maine live with HIV/AIDS, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 04, 2009

Harvard ‘ACT UP’ show gets rise from right-wingers

Tea Baggers Meet the Tea-Baggers Dept.
Taking a detour from directly bashing President Obama, right-wingers are now hot and bothered by a Harvard art exhibit. And they have an Obama administration foil toward whom they can channel their bile.
By GREG COOK | November 02, 2009

Photos: ACT UP New York: Activism, Art and the AIDS Crisis

ACT UP New York: Activism, Art and the AIDS Crisis 1987–1993 at the Carpenter Center
Photos from the exhibit on display from October 15 to December 23, 2009.
By CARPENTER CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS | October 21, 2009

Casting spells

Tomb 10A at the MFA; ACT UP at Harvard
In 1915, Harvard University and Museum of Fine Arts archæologists digging in a rocky cliff at Deir el-Bersha unearthed the 4000-year-old tomb of the Djehutynakhts, an ancient Egyptian governor and his wife.
By GREG COOK | October 21, 2009

Art dodgers

Letters to the Boston editor, October 9, 2009
David S. Bernstein points out some key facts about who voted for Michael Flaherty in “Can Flaherty Woo Yoon?”, but he neglects to mention that, if Sam Yoon had won, he would need the base that voted for Flaherty, and he would also need to woo Flaherty’s support to win the mayor’s seat.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | October 07, 2009

Hot controversy over sexuality center in Pawtucket

Pleasure Dept.
Too hot for Pawtucket?
By ALEXIS HAUK | September 30, 2009

Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird'

Museums and galleries gather their objets d'art
The art of 2000 BC Egypt, visions from the Iraq War and AIDS activism, and the magic of a digital technology and Harry Potter make up the highlights of Boston's autumn art calendar.
By GREG COOK | September 15, 2009

10 years later, we told you so

Ten years of being right (well, mostly)
Like many in the alternative press, we pride ourselves on being ahead of the game. Sometimes, of course, that means we're wrong about what might be coming down the pike — that's part of the risk of being "out front" and not just reacting to the news as it happens.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 16, 2009

Living with HPV

It afflicts millions, yet no one talks about this nightmarish STD. Now one woman bares all.
The results are “normal.” I breathe a sigh of relief. But should I be relieved? It’s been two years since I heard a registered nurse tell me “You have HPV,” and I am still getting scraped from the inside out, still making appointments to see doctors, and still terrified that I’ll get cancer.
By LISA SPINELLI | September 04, 2009

Gay Activists Work for Ted

Activists note Kennedy's gay rights work
Gay-and-lesbian community activists are heavily involved in what the chairman of the Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance of Massachusetts, Todd Fernandez, calls "a full-court press to ensure that Ted Kennedy's re-elected."
By LIZ GALST | August 26, 2009

Local activists crusade to cut circumcisions

Protesting male circumcision
What do William Shakespeare, Don Johnson, Sean Hannity, Redd Foxx, and Ralph Nader have in common with Jenna Jameson flicks and 70 percent of men worldwide? They're all uncut.
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 29, 2009

Letters to the Portland Editor: July 10, 2009

Dump gay marriage and regroup!
A recent EqualityMaine campaign letter claimed that gay marriage is "the fight for our lives." I wonder whose lives they are talking about, when AIDS service organizations and community health/reproductive clinics across the state have been tightening their belts and desperately trying to crunch numbers.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | July 08, 2009

Celebrating the original DIY

Sex can't get any safer than having it with yourself
Like you, dear readers, I was apparently too busy exploring south of the border to even realize it, but I just found out that May was National Masturbation Month.
By YOUR SECRET ADMIRER | June 11, 2009

The original DIY, observed

Celebrating the safest of sex, plus what to do when dates collide
This explains a lot: May was National Masturbation Month, first held by the San Francisco-based sex shop Good Vibrations in 1995, and celebrated nationwide. (Some places even hold Masturbate-A-Thons to raise money for local HIV- and AIDS-prevention organizations.) Is that why everyone's been so giddy of late?
By YOUR SECRET ADMIRER | May 27, 2009

Dr. Edelin and Dr. Sabath: They've Never Met

Indicted Doctors Talk on Abortion Issues
Last week the Massachusetts House passed a bill outlawing abortions after 19 weeks of pregnancy, except when the mother's life or physical or mental health are endangered — contrary to the Supreme Court ruling last year which allowed abortions through the second trimester or about 26 weeks.
By CONNIE PAIGE | May 28, 2009

Review: Fig Trees

Strikes a delicate balance among solemnity, wry humor, and rage
Here's a first: an AIDS documentary nested inside an opera that's obsessed with albino squirrels, figs, palindromes, and Pythagoras.
By SHAULA CLARK | May 06, 2009

Boston's Severin problem

Is WTKK up to measuring degrees of intolerance?
The questions raised by the Severin incident have a philosophical and moral resonance that has been touched upon only in passing.
By EDITORIAL | May 06, 2009