I'm not ace so I can't speak to that, but I can speak to consent! And this is actually a problem I have with the "consent means enthusiastic consent" thing; I can totally see where it's coming from, in terms of challenging the idea that a reluctant "yes" is consent (It's not! Not...

I'm a bit late here, but my experience is that feeling like your doctor is really listening to you and taking on board what you have to say can make a big difference to how well cared-for you feel, regardless of whether you actually think they're wrong or not doing a good job medically. So if you're...

I found this really awesome site recently, which is a catalogue of YA fiction featuring non-straight-white-cis characters. It doesn't focus on the authors' identities, but I imagine that a fair number of them belong to one or more minority group since, as you say, folks do tend to write the people t...

I'm also cis, but I've been through that process you describe of seeing someone come out and trying to rejig my thinking about them, so hopefully my experiences can help you a bit. In terms of pronouns, the easiest solution is to ask your friend what they prefer - English also didn't used to have a ...

Maybe we can switch the perspective - why is it that you didn't go and say hi to her in this class before? I think it's a mistake to assume that she's doing things - or not doing things - AT you; it's a possibility, but it's probably equally likely for any given action or non-action that she wasn't ...

One thing you can do is to stop answering the calls or responding to the texts. Have you tried that already? And have you asked him to stop calling/texting you? Of course, you know better than I do how he'd be likely to react to that, so if you're worried, by all means talk about your worries before...

I wonder, why do you both feel that your ex wouldn't be happy if you started dating/friends-with-benefits-ing? P.S. I hope you enjoyed the movie. I also hope you both recognised that it depicts an extremely abusive relationship, and if anyone ever treats you like that you should run away and call th...

I think it's okay for anyone of any age to like anyone else of any age, so long as both people are genuinely interested in and caring of each other, have things in common which work as the foundation of a relationship for them, respect each other and feel like each others' equals in the relationship...

And also, bear in mind that much as you're feeling awkward and unsure of how to deal with this situation, she may well be feeling the same. If her solution is "act like nothing happened" while yours is "try to get answers", that's an unfortunate mismatch; it may mean that there i...

I also didn't chip in because I don't really feel qualified to talk about this. I've read about the intersection of misogyny and internalised racism in black (and other racial minority) guys, but never seen it in real life, so I'm not sure it'd be appropriate for me to start riffing.

You've grown up in a very different setting from where I have, so I've no doubt your experiences are different, and I'm not trying to trivialise what you've seen happen at all - I realise what I said could have come off as a bit condesending, I didn't mean it to - I'm just describing my experiences....

I think the thing about him not being in the wrong because you asked him to tell the truth is interesting. It is always good to be open and honest in a relationship, even when that means telling your partner difficult things, so I agree that he wasn't wrong to say what he did. But I also think that ...

Just jumping back to the "first relationship card" thing - it's not a card, it's your experience! It's easy to discount experience just because lots of people have had similar ones, or because it's a commonly-told or spoken about story, but that doesn't make it any less real or impactful f...

I think it depends massively on the age of the people involved. Especially as a teen, it's easy to see anyone younger than you as a kid - so I can see how a 16 yearold, for example, might say "gross" to the idea of dating a 15 yearold but be fine about dating an 18 yearold. Although it's n...

Just to add, in terms of thinking about your own readiness for sex, thinking that "I don't think it'd be that terrible" about a given type of sex is usually a good sign that you probably shouldn't do it just now. :) Sex should be fun for everyone involved, and should be something the peopl...

Isn't that just the problem! We see time and time again this attitude that women and girls can't be trusted to make good decisions (while boys also don't get good sex ed, there's a definite focus on discouraging girls in particular from thinking that sex can be relatively safe and lots of fun and a ...

Aromantic is a term for someone who doesn't feel any desire for romantic relationships with other people. Not to be confused with asexual, which describes someone who doesn't have any desire for sex or sexual interaction with other people. Does that help? There's a great article on the site called t...

I know I'm not staff, sorry :P I just have a quick suggestion which might help you get deeper into the issues you want to ask about. Whenever I'm dealing with a "Does x lead to y?" question, I find the best place to start is by asking "How would that work?". How do the people say...

Why did the article think cheerleaders would be at particular risk of incontinence? I just wonder because it sounds a bit like The Onion to me.

The first thing I would say is, don't worry about gifts as a symbol of commitment. They're not! Some people (me!) love giving gifts and do it all the time, some people (my partner!) find it really hard and generally stick to low-key stuff, and it's all good. You show you care through the stuff you s...

Those are great ideas! There's also always the option of not buying a present, but doing something nice for the person - offering to cook them dinner, for example, or setting aside some time to watch their favourite film(s) and eat popcorn. Or, if you have the cash, taking them out somewhere they'd ...

Also, this isn't explicitly mentioned in the article, but as with any kind of sex - if it hurts (and pain isn't something you're aiming for), it's probably a good idea to stop. Not because you're doing yourself any damage, but just because sex is meant to feel good, not bad. That includes anal sex! ...

In terms of effectiveness, what are you trying to achieve with the massage?

It happens!

It does seem that the legislation has been floating around a long while, yeah. It's concerning if it now has a better chance of becoming law, though.

The date on the piece is yesterday, though. And having now looked through a few of the inline links, it looks like if thinkprogress were mislead, it probably wasn't their fault - The Hill is also reporting that the bills were reintroduced this week (after passing in the house but failing in the sena...