You know, I wanted to try World of Warcraft, but gods curse it, if my lover and I can't go as a lesbian couple, I ain't goin' at all! (I jest--but on the square. These policies would, in fact, be a dealbreaker--and doesn't incline me to spend money on future Blizzard games. I met some very longtime 'net friends over Diablo on Battle.net back in the day, so I've generally been kindly disposed to Blizzard games until now, even when their ideas of game "balancing" broke everything that worked in D2). More details here--one of the comments I find odd is something like "2% of couples in the world are homosexual, surely fewer in game." First, that's because outside pressures keep couples from forming stably or from admitting their "couple"ness, and secondly, I don't see it being fewer in game--I've known of as many lesbian (not as many male homosexual, mind, but both stats are a product of who's likely to be playing) marriages in certain games as I have straight ones.

Sexual Intelligence--a monthly newsletter on "the sexual implications of current events, politics, technology, and the media."

Please read this if you like, or hate, Dr. Phil or Oprah. I got outright angry at a Dr. Phil episode that effectively demonized my life's choices, and it took very detailed explanation of why I was angry for my best girlfriend to realize that she had both been agreeing with Dr. Phil and with my right and ability to make the choices he was demonizing--and to realize why I was upset at all. It says more than I can say about why the American public putting so much trust in its major media figures (see Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and my comments yesterday on Judge Judy for more) is bad for us. And the thing is, it's these people who have an effect on how people think and on the way the country is run, not the much-maligned "Hollywood liberal" set--it's the people who tell you "Family Values" is about hating those who make different choices or follow different inclinations about/in regard to their bodies and their lives and their sexuality who keep us from all being allowed to be proudly, openly who we are. Everything I've seen indicates that these are decent, generous people, and I don't fault that or wish them ill--but I wish they would learn nonjudgment of those of us who choose differently. Read the article--more venomous than I'd be, but that's OK.

Since we're on sex--it isn't porn if there's a consenting adult at each end? I'd say unless they're putting on a show for a viewing audience, I agree. If I have cybersex or teledildonic sex or in-game avatar sex with a partner, it's no more inherently pornographic than it is when we're in the bedroom ('cause, you know, sex, no matter how kinky, ain't porn until there's a camera). But if there's going to be a lasting electronic record, is it porn then? Is it porn if I save the text of a cybersession and get off on it alone later though I was a participant?