Proposition 8 was overturned, and now we have to see that lesbian comedienne Ellen Degeneres as the new face of JCPenney? Where on EARTH will I shop now? Ladies, we’ve got to do something about this. Let’s protest that crazy talk show host so that her homosexuality doesn’t taint all our kids’ back-to-school clothes and our Christmas shopping.

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It’s not easy being gay. In a world where heterosexuality is the norm and homosexuality has often been seen as more than just a religious taboo throughout history—you know, when legitimately recognized at all, that is—the LGBT community has worked tirelessly to declare that sexual preference is not a “preference” at all; instead, the nature vs. nurture arguments now lean more toward a “I’m on the right track, baby, I was born this way” mantra. However, is it necessarily a winner-takes-all conclusion in the homosexuality debate? According to Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon, maybe there’s more than one way to be gay. And ton of people are pissed off about it.

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In high school, my sex ed was what you would call minimal. Since Texas firmly believes in abstinence-only education (which so doesn’t work – my high school had a day care program for crying out loud!), I consider myself very lucky that I had a very open-minded mother who taught me about sex. And now that I’m in college, by far my favorite class this semester is my human sexuality class where my professor is not only incredibly funny, but very insightful. All of this along with some personal experience leads me to the conclusion that, well, sex ed of all kinds suck.

Here’s what they should be teaching high schoolers in order to better prepare them.

1. Sex should be between two people, not two egos
The best piece of advice from my human sexuality professor so far this semester has been, “sex isn’t a show. You shouldn’t be getting performance anxiety because it’s not a performance, so stop making it one.” This is so true. Sex should be about enjoying yourself, not about how you look or how you’re doing or anything else that you’re anxious about. No one looks good during sex, and if you’re doing something your partner doesn’t like, chances are they’ll tell you in a non-offensive way. Sex is supposed to be fun, so relax!

2. It’s a sign of maturity to ask what your partner likes
No two people are exactly the same, so why should their sexual tastes be? It shouldn’t be embarrassing to talk about what you like in bed. No one knows what you like or what you don’t like better than you. We shouldn’t be turning to Cosmo or our friends for sex advice, we should be asking our partners.

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As far as people go, I am rather intolerant.  I am intolerant of people who do not clean the coffee maker after they use it.  I am intolerant of couples that walk too slowly together on the sidewalk and therefore block all of the people behind them.  Mismatched outfits and too much eye makeup make my blood boil. And don’t even get me started on people who don’t know how to parallel park.

However, I’ve always felt that I exemplify a very accepting society when it comes to the bigger issues. Things like racial inequality or sex discrimination. I’m all about equal rights for everyone, regardless of race or gender. In fact, when my professor made me argue for school segregation and against gay marriage last week as a class exercise, I started laughing because I literally had nothing to say.

Why wouldn’t we want everybody to be happy?
Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
Doesn’t the law basically say just live and let live?

Yeah, apparently not. The events of the past couple of weeks have informed me that I am completely wrong about the world and the people living in it. Turns out, my tolerance isn’t the rule, it’s the exception. And minority groups, especially the gay population, have to put up with way more than I realized. Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like flat rate tuition!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Last week, the Senate voted not to repeal the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy – a policy that’s essentially a band-aid for the absence of gay rights in the military. The policy, which was introduced in 1993, has essentially stood all of this time as a way of saying ‘you can be gay in the military, as long as nobody knows about it’. It looked close for a while there, but ultimately the policy stands – even though Obama actually campaigned on changing the policy and his administration is openly opposed to it – and I think it’s time we had OUR say.

As I’ve said before, I’m not unbiased on this issue, but regardless of my own personal moral compass being pro-gay rights, there are also some compelling reasons why the policy should be repealed. For starters, under this policy anyone who comes out or is outed in the military is given a dishonorable discharge, no matter how well they were actually doing their job. That means that we’re actively spending military budget on getting rid of military personnel regardless of the quality of their work or the necessity of their position, which, considering how much trouble there already is with military budgeting, seems like a massive waste. There’s also the very obvious fact that this is the AMERICAN military and if it were any other position, say, at an American business perhaps, a person could sue for being fired over their sexuality – because it’s freakin’ illegal! Read More »

As a resident of good ol’ NYC, my out-of-town friends always assume I’m living the Carrie Bradshaw life.  While cosmos do indeed pour out of my sink instead of water, my bedroom doesn’t boast the revolving door of men for which SJP & Co. are famous.  Sure, guys are everywhere- washing your windows in the morning, riding the subway with you in the afternoon, sleeping on your stoop at night- but selecting which ones are actually eligible for your affections is a tad tricky.

You see, everyone knows the gays love Manhattan.  Don’t roll your eyes.  Please, we have Broadway…this is their Mecca.  And across the water we have Brooklyn, a mother ship for hipsters the world over.  They come in droves, sporting their cross-body bags, boasting blasé attitudes and a taste for bands you’ve probably never heard of before.  Wondering what these two groups have in common?  More than you think, and it makes crushing really tough. And I know this phenomenon is spreading like wildfire from coast (Brooklyn) to coast (West Hollywood).

If you think I’m kidding, take a look below and try to figure out which of these boys would like you and which would like each other. Read More »

Yesterday, two years after Prop 8 – a proposition to ban gay marriage in California – was passed, Federal Judge Vaugh Walker released a 136-page document deeming the proposition unconstitutional. To say it was a big day for the gay and lesbian community in this country is an understatement. In fact, to say it was a big day for this very straight woman is an understatement, too.

Having been raised in a liberal household before attending an extremely liberal college, I literally cannot understand the idea of banning gay marriage. Say what you will about the whole “marriage is between a man and a woman” thing, making it illegal for a gay couple to get married is unfair, unjust and in opposition to the morals and ideals this country was built on. Read More »

Recently, in a bright exchange of words I like to call a meaningful conversation, my good friend and I pondered about various famous men we lusted after in middle school.  Once Ricky Martin and his taut cheeks came up in the mix, we drooled and pondered about how he also liked men with taut butt cheeks.  Then we really got to thinking and grew depressed at the disappointment of the day Lance Bass took a giant leap out of the closet (even though it wasn’t the most surprising news we’d ever received).

The bright side? I hadn’t thought of Ricky Martin since shaking my bon-bon in my parents’ basement at the respectable age of 13. His coming out lifting him from obscurity and catapulted him back to the level of his days sipping out of the Cup of Life. I was hearing about him virtually everywhere. Ricky Martin hid from fame for so long and with his news, came out of a closet and basked in US Weekly glory, paycheck after paycheck.

Coming out in Hollywood is like working overtime.  It’s the key to success for has-been A-listers, a chance to return to relevance and once again soak up the limelight.  Look at Lindsay Lohan for instance; she didn’t need her leggings line anymore once she started toting DJ Samantha Ron-Hizzle around.  And who needs the title of American Idol when you’re sporting eye liner and getting frisky with other dudes on stage like one Mr. Adam Lambert? And you know Lance Bass’s “I’m Gay” cover story took him from former boy-bander who no one remembered to insta-celebrity over night.

It’s true: going gay is the life jacket to Hollywood careers. It does what no publicist, Oscar nomination or incarceration could ever manage. It’s more powerful than a nipple slip, more potent than an ill-fitting stage ensemble, and more memorable than general douche-baggery. It’s the key to going from child-star-turned-Vegan-farmer to Reality TV Show host with endorsement deals and magazine covers to boot.

And keeping that in mind, I’m surprised Heidi Montag hasn’t gotten a girlfriend yet there are a few suspect D-Listers out there who might want to consider throwing open the doors of the closet they’ve been hiding in. We haven’t seen or heard much from these peeps in awhile, but that’s nothing that an “I’m Gay” won’t fix. You can thank us later, Hollywood. Read More »

Does this look like the face of someone who would date a dermatologist's assistant?

My grandma once told me that she had a secret love affair with Elvis Presley during his gyration days of “Jailhouse Rock.”  Although the claim was about as real as Heidi Montag’s chest, my grandma made a good point: it was her word against his, and because he is no longer with us, by default, her word prevailed.  However, only us fortunate enough to listen to her rant at Thanksgiving would have knowledge of this scandal.  To protect her deceased lover’s privacy, she decided not to broadcast it to the world via Youtube. (Either that or she has no clue what Youtube is).

In the fame driven world that we are engulfed in today, a man named Jason Pfeiffer has chosen a different path than my grandmother had.  The former dermatologist’s assistant has announced to the world that he was “Michael Jackson’s boyfriend right up until the day the King of Pop died.”  In an interview on “Extra” he explains how emotionally connected him and MJ were and that it was obvious that they were soul mates.  He admits that he never asked Michael if he was “gay” but that it was implied, because of their frequent exchanges of “I love you.”

Obviously, there is no one to refute Pfeiffer’s claim, and as he continues to stand by it, no one can prove him wrong.  Under the spotlight at the VMA’s, Madonna eulogized our beloved King and spoke of her own relationship with him.  She explained his struggle of being the world’s most popular man and the loneliest man respectively.  She offered him companionship and he accepted with open arms and an open heart.  He longed for the type of true friendship that he found in Madonna.  The relationship that Pfeiffer describes seems quite similar in nature.  Clearly a disturbed man, it is quite possible that MJ did express his “love” for Pfeiffer, but did not mean it the way Pfeiffer is announcing to the world. This mans claim may in fact be the truth, but on the same token, it could be the decade’s largest publicity stunt as of yet.  If this is an attempt to join the acclaimed club: “Celebrities Famous For No Reason at All” (President: Paris Hilton, chair persons: Audrina Partridge and Kate Gosselin) then Pfeiffer might just be a genius.  Michael may have professed that “Billie Jean was not [his] lover”, but in regards to Jason Pfeiffer, the world will never know.

As a generation of Facebookers, Twitterers, bloggers, BBMers, iPhone-ers, GPS users, and so on and so on, we are often viewed by the older I-went-to-the-library-to-do-research generation as lazy and dependent.  We have the world at our fingertips and we don’t have to use our brains for virtually anything, or so they claim.

Yes, we can access Google at any moment, and no we do not need White Out to correct our papers, but to the contrary, it is our 24/7 connection that makes us anything but lazy when it comes to fighting for what we believe in.

Take for example, the heated debate of gay marriage.  While an older generation calls the shots in Congress, in most states, it is still illegal.  According to a study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 65 percent of college freshman surveyed were in favor of gay marriage.  The findings revealed that even a large majority of students classified as far-right were also supporters. Read More »