Sexuality

When it comes to sex, can the church say more than no? Should the church say more than no?As the nation's largest Presbyterian group begins its annual General Assembly here Tuesday, it will choose a new leader and confront questions about national health care and human rights. But the overriding issue this year is human sexuality -- specifically a comprehensive report on the subject commissioned by the denomination four years ago.As a mainline Protestant group that prides itself on a thoughtful and informed approach to its faith, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.

Amid the unfolding jail scandal in Baltimore right now, there are two things relevant to the gay community that I want to bring up. I'm not sure if there are any connections between the two, or if one affects the other. But viewed together, they do present some interesting questions. First: Non-heterosexual inmates in jails and prisons across the country reported a far greater degree of sexual victimization in the last two years than their straight counterparts, according to a study released by the U.S. Department of Justice last week.

STANDING IN Baltimore Circuit Judge Stuart R. Berger's courtroom yesterday, attorney Kenneth W. Ravenell looked from the jurors and pointed to his client, former priest Maurice Blackwell. "Here's your fall guy," Ravenell told the jury. With that, Ravenell launched a shot that might not be heard around the world, but it could be heard around the communities of black America. Blackwell is charged with sexually abusing Dontee Stokes for several years starting in the late 1980s. Stokes, now 29, claims he was 13 when the alleged abuse began.

Almost three weeks after NBA player Jason Collins became the first openly gay active male athlete in a major American sport -- and yes, all those qualifiers are necessary -- new polling data shows a majority of Americans wouldn't care if their favorite athlete was gay. In a comprehensive survey conducted by Reason-Rupe, only 12 percent of those polled said they would be less likely to support their favorite jock if he or she came out, while 77...

A four-year effort by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to write a statement on human sexuality has nearly foundered since reports of a first draft alarmed members of the 5.2 million-member denomination."

A seminar on human sexuality at Loyola College, which includes explicit videos of intimate sex acts by homosexuals and heterosexuals, has ignited a campus debate about the graphic material itself and the theological questions it poses for the Roman Catholic institution.Last week, a group of students placed a full-page advertisement in the campus newspaper describing the films and saying they were "detrimental to the soul of our college." The critics claim some of the views expressed in the course are contrary to Catholic doctrine.

Annie SprinkleWhen: Jan. 18 and 19, 9:30 p.m.Where: Maryland Art Place's 14Karat Cabaret, 218 W. Saratoga St.Tickets: $10.Call: 962-8565. Performance artist Annie Sprinkle has no trouble defining what her show is not."It's not burlesque -- I know because I've done that," says Ms. Sprinkle, a self-described "post-porn modernist" who is scheduled to appear at Maryland Art Place's 14Karat Cabaret tonight and tomorrow night."It's not pornography, either -- I've done that, too," she adds.What it is, she will tell you, is "very educational."

Ever since Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church split into urban and suburban branches 30 years ago, they have celebrated their independence.This morning is no exception.At their worship services, the two congregations are taking different approaches to a controversial report on human sexuality that tested the solidarity of the 2.9 million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) last week at its national convention in Baltimore.How Brown Memorial-Park Avenue in Bolton Hill and Brown Memorial-Woodbrook across the city line in an upper income XTC Baltimore County suburb are now handling the calls for ordaining practicing homosexuals and redefining family values exemplifies the uneasy diversity that exists within Presbyterian unity.

PHOENIX -- Shaken by a debate that raised fundamental questions about how it is governed and its basic beliefs, the Episcopal Church ended its convention yesterday by sending further discussion of sexuality to local parishes and dioceses.The nearly 1,100 bishops, clergy and lay deputies who make up one of the largest representative church governments in the nation gave their overwhelming support Friday to a compromise on the main sexuality issue.The compromise, which church leaders said was important to keeping members in the 2.4 million-member denomination, restates in part traditional beliefs about sex within marriage.

Carroll's Episcopal Church leaders say they want to downplay the more controversial issues, such as sexuality, being discussed at this week's convention in Phoenix."

A new poll released today shows the largest measured gap between Americans who believe individuals are born gay and those who believe sexual orientation is caused by external factors. According to Gallup , 47 percent of Americans chose "nature" over "nurture" when asked about same-sex orientation, while 33 percent say they believe being gay is a product of an individual's upbringing and environment. As recently as 2011, public opinion on the causes of sexual orientation were about equally split.

The Baltimore City Detention Center had the nation's second-highest rate of sexual contact between jail staff and inmates, according to a U.S. Department of Justice study released less than a month after federal prosecutors accused corrections officers at the jail of sleeping with gang members. The report, released Thursday, also found higher-than-average rates of inmate abuse at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup. Women in prison are generally subjected to more abuse than men, and nearly 13 percent of inmates at that facility reported being abused either by a fellow inmate or staff member.

A Baltimore County police officer pleaded guilty to misconduct and agreed to resign after admitting to filming himself numerous times engaging in sex acts and neglecting to respond to calls while on duty. Aaron Z. Pross, 29, who had been assigned to the Pikesville Precinct, took more than 120 images and 20 videos engaging in sexual acts with himself, including one where he masturbated inside his patrol car while reports of "possible guns involved," can be heard over a police radio, prosecutors said.

The recent study estimating that there may have been 26,000 cases of sexual assault in the military last year stirred a lot of tough talk from the Pentagon and the White House over the past 24 hours. But the question is whether that outrage will translate into much-needed reforms within the armed forces. On that front, we have our doubts. The U.S. military's failure to adequately address sex crimes within its ranks is hardly a new problem, but the rise of such incidents - up from 19,000 in 2010 - is shocking.

A former volunteer firefighter who worked with youths at the Lansdowne department pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing a teenage boy he mentored in a training program at the station. Anthony Maurice Cottle, 23, who appeared Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, also faces federal charges. Cottle, a resident of Owings Mills, was also a paid firefighter with the Baltimore County Fire Department. He has been suspended without pay from that department since being charged in October.

A former Columbia school worker whose love letters to an 8-year-old student led to a precedent-setting conviction for sexual abuse asked the state's highest court Friday to overturn the finding. Karl Marshall Walker Jr., 41, was convicted in 2011 of sexual abuse and attempted sexual abuse of a minor based on his letters to the girl. His lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Katherine Rasin, told the Court of Appeals on Friday that Walker, a former teacher's aide at Bryant Woods Elementary School, neither molested nor sexually exploited the girl, nor had he tried to. "There has to be something sexual for it to be sexual child abuse," Rasin told the seven judges.

Loyola College announced yesterday that it will provide "closer oversight" of future human sexuality seminars after several students protested the showing of films of intimate sex acts as part of a noncredit course.A faculty committee appointed to look into the content of the course taught on the North Baltimore campus since 1993 "has decided that explicit videos and films will not be used in future offerings . . . unless they are first reviewed and approved to ensure that they are appropriate and necessary for undergraduate students," Loyola's provost said.

Jim Peters' paintings of women, at Loyola, are expressionistic, psychological and disturbing. The upstate New York artist has been quoted as saying his art is "on the edge of sentimental," but sentimental is hardly the way they come across.His figures are placed in often bare or ramshackle interiors, achieved with gestural passages that suggest emotional or physical upheaval, even violence. In some there seems to be no way out of the interiors, only a window too small or too high, or both, for escape.

Doctors and patients alike are often uncomfortable talking about sexual health and sexually transmitted disease. But a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows that this squeamishness costs society millions of dollars spent trying to treat or cure diseases that could have been prevented, vaccinated against, screened for or detected at an earlier stage of development. According to the CDC, about 19 million Americans each year are affected by sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

A Jarrettsville man was sentenced to 80 years in prison last week for his role in the sexual abuse of a child. Jeremy Shane Cochran, 32, of the 4100 block of Federal Hill Road, was found guilty in December by a Harford County Circuit Court jury of three counts involving the sexual abuse of a minor girl, according to court records. The jury found Cochran guilty of sexual abuse of a minor - continuing course of conduct, sexual abuse of a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual abuse of a minor, according to the case file.