Heather Corinna

We sometimes deal with a tough situation in direct service: a user comes in, and reports having contracted an STI; a user who also isn’t a first-time user of our site or services, and who, in a previous conversation with us about pregnancy risks, blew off also talking about STIs and safer sex and turned down help we offered to them to reduce their STI risks, not just pregnancy risks. This is one of those things where there’s no joy or pride in being right: it stinks to be right about someone getting any kind of illness and being unhappy.

Hey there, Dan. I’d never assume someone is dumb (including when someone is a young, a guy, or without a house, car or a job), nor do I think that having strong feelings for someone means a person is dumb. It sounds like you’ve had a pretty watershed emotional experience with this person, and…

When one person walks up to another person on the street and just starts punching them in the face, we don’t call it boxing. We don’t call it “unwanted boxing.” We call it assault.

Does sex feel like it’s “just happening,” rather than something you’re actively doing? Here’s how to change that.

It occurs to me that the “we both forgot to use condoms” thing that comes up often enough is a bit like suggesting that a person forgot to wear pants. For a whole day. And didn’t notice. At all.

elinor’s question continued: I know many people experience different romantic vs sexual attraction, and from talking to him, I feel like he is a little more sexually attracted to men, and a more romantically attracted to women. We also have a very friendly/open sort of relationship (we started off…

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. But, boy howdy, does it sound like plenty was wrong with this situation. You did not WANT to engage in sex with this person. You were also clear that you didn’t feel ready to have sex with this person once it was obvious to you that you felt that way…

I don’t celebrate most holidays, but I’ve always been a fan of New Year’s. New Year’s Day, actually, more than New Year’s Eve. I relish fresh starts and new beginnings. I even like New Year’s resolutions. I know, they’re cliche, and that much of the time, when we make them, we don’t stick with them…

What I’m not hearing in this is what you want. You tell me he’s been touching your body more and more, but you didn’t say anything about if that’s something you want and have been enjoying. I hear the things he’s been saying, but I don’t know what you’ve been communicating to him yourself. The…

If you’re someone who takes part in end-of-year giving, we’d like to ask you to consider giving to Scarleteen . As you may already know, Scarleteen was one of the first online resources for young people about sex and sexuality, and remains the leading, most visited online resource expressly created…