Sexual Activity

Lesbian and gay activists won a partial victory yesterday when a Baltimore judge ruled that it was not illegal for people of the same gender to engage in sexual activity in Maryland.Circuit Judge Richard T. Rombro ruled that the state's anti-sodomy law violates homosexuals' constitutional rights. The law prohibits oral sex between people of the same gender but not between heterosexual partners. Lawbreakers face a maximum 10-year prison sentence. Anal sex is illegal for everyone and was not part of the case.

BOSTON -- When the news broke early this month that teen-age motherhood had dropped by nearly 12 percent in the past five years, I had a bit of trouble putting on my party face.Teen-age motherhood was down to the level of the 1980s? Teen-age motherhood was down to the highest level of any industrialized country? Been up so long this looks like down to us?Nevertheless, the usual suspects claimed credit for the usual reasons. One side said that abstinence education was working. The other side said that contraception was working.

IT'S too soon to call it a sexual counter-revolution, but a growing number of teen-agers appear to be saying "no" to early sexual activity and its consequences. For the sixth year in a row, births to teen-age mothers declined. In 1996, according to figures released by the federal government and other studies, the drop is at least partially a result of fewer teen-agers engaging in sex, particularly in their early teen years. Ironically, this trend occurs at a time when all too many adults have given up trying to discourage teen-agers from having sex.For years, the sexperts have been telling us that a "just say no" approach will never work when it comes to teen sex, and baby-boomer parents have largely bought the line.

LOS ANGELES -- A free condom program at a Los Angeles County high school has increased sexual safety without any corresponding increase in sexual activity, according to a study being reported today by researchers at the RAND Corp.The percentage of sexually experienced males using a condom each time they had intercourse rose by a third, from 37 percent to 50 percent, at the unnamed high school, according to a report in the journal Family Planning Perspectives.But, rebutting the fears of condom distribution critics, the study found that the number of males and females who had ever had sex remained constant at 55 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr's investigation of President Clinton covers allegations that Clinton lied under oath about an affair with a young White House intern and urged her to also lie about it if asked.Specifically, according to sources, Clinton stated in his deposition in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual misconduct case that he never had a sexual relationship with the former intern, Monica Lewinsky. Starr is trying to determine whether the president lied in saying so and whether he instructed Lewinsky to lie in her deposition.

One year ago, police followed a trail of sexually explicit electronic mail that led them to a newly dug shallow grave in front of a broken-down trailer in Caldwell County, N.C.They had hoped to find Sharon Rena Lopatka, 35, of Hampstead alive. They hoped the messages Maryland State Police had retrieved from her computer saying she wanted to be sexually JTC tortured to death were fantasy or at least not carried out.Victor Lopatka reported his wife missing Oct. 20, 1996. Five days later, authorities unearthed her body and sent sheriff's deputies to arrest the trailer's owner, Robert Frederick Glass, at his office in nearby Hickory.

"Take off your clothes, put the towel around you and I'll be right back," the 22-year-old masseuse said as she took a customer's credit card yesterday to tick off a $65 charge for a half-hour of massage at Absolute Health Spa off Security Boulevard.At the Baltimore County spa, which could lose its license because of allegations of misconduct, a tape of an Irish band was playing softly from an overhead speaker, and a small floor fan cooled the small room lighted softly by a table lamp.The wall beside the table, which was covered with a pink sheet, was fully mirrored.

WASHINGTON -- In the most complete court defeat yet for the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, a federal judge in New York ruled it is unconstitutional for the armed forces to treat homosexuals differently solely because of their sexual activity.U.S. District Judge Eugene H. Nickerson of Brooklyn, ruling in a case that may go to the Supreme Court, said the military services may not impose "unequal conditions" on homosexuals based on their sexual behavior."It is not within our constitutional tradition for our government to designate members of one societal group as pariahs," the judge said.

A drama teacher at Mount St. Joseph High School in Southwest Baltimore has resigned amid criminal charges that he had a sexual encounter with a teen-age student.Robert Alan Gee, 41, who also taught religious studies at the private boys' school since 1993, was charged Friday with child abuse and perverted sex practice.He has been released on $5,600 bail and has a court date June 30.He could not be reached for comment yesterday.Charles L. Reiter, president of the high school, said Gee was "well-liked, well-respected."