I have begun collection of data for my dissertation. Anyone who identifies as transgender and is at least 18 years old is eligible to participate. Here is the information:

Please click the link shown below to participate in my dissertation research project.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/124285/sknovI am a doctoral student at the University of North Dakota. I am collecting data on an important mental health topic. I appreciate your taking time to complete this online study. It should take from 20 to 40 minutes to complete. As a means of saying thank you for the time you put into this study, I am offering twenty $100 cash prizes in a raffle that will be conducted after the study closes (Fall 2009).

This study has been approved by the University of North Dakota Institutional Review Board. Further information about that approval can be found at the study web site.

If you need further information please contact me at (701) 885-1125 or by email at: lmdickey.research@gmail.com.

Please feel free to forward this message to others who may qualify for participation.

- lore m. dickey

I woke up Monday morning as sunlight filtered through new spring leaves and fell on my window and the tiny chapel below my room. Springtime on the East Coast is striking to someone who lives in California and never witnesses such a verdant rebirth. Spring is often associated with youth and innocence, but in reality it is dramatic resurgence of life, reproduction, and vitality that is neither innocence or inexperienced. In fact Spring should be a celebration of sexuality and passion. After all, those flowers on the trees and the songs bird sing are all advertisements for sex.

Looking out my window still foggy from sleep and a little jet lagged, I started to think about sexuality and new beginnings.  I realized that the tranquil and blossoming landscape I was gazing upon is home to rebirth of sexuality research, after all I’m in Bloomington, Indiana home of Alfred Kinsey, the Kinsey Institute, and the Center for Sexual Health Promotion.

It’s my first time here, and it feels like a pilgrimage. Walking around a campus and a town that has not changed much since Kinsey worked here, I wonder if the abundance of Spring in this sleepy Indiana town inspired his sexuality research. While he may have lived during a moment in American history where human sexuality was silenced, the natural...

I've settled into my hotel and made a trip up to campus to make sure everything is set for tomorrow.  In less than twenty four hours, I've been amazed at how much sexuality-related stuff has crossed my path.

First, soon after landing, I checked my email and had received a message and an attachment regarding a new report released from the Texas Freedom Network called Just Say Don't Know: A Report on Sexuality Education in Texas Public Schools.  Not surprisingly, the findings show how abstinence-only education programs are failing students and families in Texas.  And that most of the information students are receiving is distorted or completely wrong. This report was released yesterday and I can't wait to discuss at the training in the days to come - what amazing timing! It's almost like we planned it.

Second,on my way to the University of Texas campus this morning where I was meeting my former adviser and mentor, I was searching for something on the radio to listen to during the drive when I heard someone talking about the "warning signs" that parents whould watch out for if they are concerned that their child may be "considering a homosexual lifestyle."  There's too much to go into, but my two favorite things were A)...

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Barbecue, Tex-Mex, South by Southwest (live music in general), wildflowers, margaritas, technology, the Longhorns, and George W. Bush (unfortunately) are just a few of the things that most people think about when they think about Austin.  It's a bustling, growing city nestled up to the Hill Country on the west and to rolling plains on the east.  Ask anyone about Austin and they'll tell you that it's a liberal oasis in the middle of a conservative wasteland.  If they're from there, they'll probably tell you it's the only place in Texas they would live (but they might give San Antonio a chance).  If they've never been, they'll tell you it's some place that they'd like to visit and have heard it's a pretty great place.  It never fails when I've been with someone on their first visit, they always say that they're surprised at how green it is (too many Wile E. Coyotes and Westerns have given a false generalization to a very large and diverse - demographically and geographically - state).  It's also the place that I'm most likely to identify as home when anyone asks me where I'm from. 

I'm traveling to Austin this week for the first time ever for work rather than to visit family and friends and to eat some long...

The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing released a new study today called: Sex and the Seminary: Preparing Ministers for Sexual Health and Justice. This comprehensive survey data provides even further and compelling proof that we are living in a national state of emergency when it comes to the lack of connection being made between sexuality and religion. The bad news is that even the most progressive of the seminaries surveyed are not adequately providing sexuality education and training. The good news is that despite this unholy disconnect, there are many organizations and religious denominations nation-wide working to turn this deadly trend around.

NSRC began training clergy in 2001 at our first annual Summer Institute on Sexuality, Society and Health. In 2003, we held our first Religion, Spirituality and Sexuality Interfaith Roundtable Discussion—much to the dismay of many of our colleagues in sexual health who frown on religion (many if not most of whom have endured religious persecution based on sexuality in one way or another).  Over the years, in our...

When I came out to my very loving, supportive and well-intentioned parents during my youth, they were worried that I would have a harder life because of being gay. They had no clue where to turn for accurate, dependable information, resources and research that would help them in their journey to understand and support me. They were terrified and felt alone. They didn’t understand that how they reacted to me (with acceptance, tolerance, rejection) would have a direct impact on my future health and mental health.  They couldn’t then realize that how they reacted would directly impact my ability to live, thrive, merely survive or even consider suicide. They were never trained in how to deal with my developmental needs. They couldn’t make recommendations about doctors and therapists appropriately trained to work both with me and with them. They never learned how to address the social/peer victimization I was facing and they never learned how to talk about my being gay with our ultra conservative family members. To this day, they still struggle with how to maintain loving relationships with their own friends and our family who reject me and their acceptance and support of me.

A new survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has found that 22% of teen girls have posted nude or semi-nude pictures online. Most important findings from the survey are below.

Also check out research that was published in our own Sexuality Research and Social Policy Journal - Journalist or Panderer? Framing Underage Webcam Sites - which talks about new technologies changing social relationships and view of teen's sexuality.

Survey Findings:(Full survey summary is here).

• One in five teen girls (22%)—and 11% of teen girls ages 13-16 years old—say they have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude images of themselves.
• One-third (33%) of teen boys and one-quarter (25%) of teen girls say they have had nude/semi-nude images—originally meant to be private—shared with them.
• The survey of 1,280 teens and young adults indicates that 15% of teens who have sent sexually suggestive content such as text messages, email, photographs or video say they have done so with someone they only know online.
• Teen girls are not the only ones sharing sexually explicit...