.::The End-TimeMessage HomePage::.

The law, drafted by the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Paul Martin, was opposed by the opposition Conservative Party and some religious leaders.

It was approved by 47 votes to 21, and could be signed into law as early as Wednesday.
Gay marriage was already legal in eight of 10 provinces and one of Canada's three territories.
The legislation puts Canada on a quite different course to its powerful neighbour to the south.
In the US, President George W Bush is seeking a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Hundreds of foreigners, including Americans and Israelis, have gone to Canada for civil unions since gay marriage was first allowed in some provinces in 2003.

Study: Half of All Teens Have Had Oral Sex
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/15/AR2005091500915_pf.html

Slightly more than half of American teenagers, ages 15 to 19, have engaged in oral sex, with females and males reporting similar levels of experience, according to the most comprehensive national survey of sexual behaviors ever released by the federal government.

The report today by the National Center for Health Statistics shows that the figure increases to about 70 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds.

The survey, according to those who work with young people, offers one more sign that young women are more sexually confident than they used to be. A release by the center six months ago, based on the same survey results, showed that slightly more girls than boys have intercourse before they turn 20. In addition, other national data indicate that the same proportion of high school girls and boys have sex only one time with a particular person or have relationships with others that they are not romantically involved with.

"This is a point of major social transition," James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a reproductive health organization, said yesterday. "The data are now coming out and roiling the idea that boys are the hunters and young girls are the prey. It absolutely defies the stereotype."

The data also underscore the fact that, unlike their parents' generation, many young people -- particularly those from middle- and upper-income white families -- simply do not consider oral sex a big deal.

"Oral sex is far less intimate than intercourse. It's a different kind of relationship," said Claire Brindis, professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Francisco. "At 50 percent, we're talking about a major social norm. It's part of kids' lives."

Bill Albert, communications director for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, put the generational difference this way: "We used to talk about sex in terms of first base, second base and so on. Oral sex was maybe in the dugout."

Until now, said Brindis, who has worked in the field of adolescent health for 30 years, researchers, policymakers and politicians could turn only to anecdotal evidence or small samples in order to gauge sexual behavior. Policies and programs were put into place that may turn out to be ineffective and put young people more at risk for sexually transmitted disease.

The newly released data, gathered in 2002, are sure to stir debate over abstinence-only sex education. Supporters of such programs say they have resulted in young people delaying intercourse, but opponents say they simply have led young people to substitute other risky behaviors. The new data tend to support the latter view, showing that nearly one in four virgin teens has engaged in oral sex.

Many teenagers have fully accepted the idea that postponing intercourse is a good thing to do, Brindis said. When they weigh the advantages and disadvantages of intercourse versus other forms of sex, they decide that they are far more at risk with intercourse, both because of pregnancy and the greater risk of disease.

"They're very smart about this issue," said Brindis, "but they may not have been given a strong enough message around the risks of oral sex. " Oral sex has been associated in clinical studies with gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes and the human papillomavirus, which has been linked to cervical cancer. Condoms and other forms of contraception can be used to decrease the health risks of oral sex, but few teens use them.

"If a substantial number of young people are having oral sex, as these numbers indicate, this is a big concern," said Kristin Moore, president of Child Trends, a children's research organization that analyzed the center's most recent findings.

Child Trend's analysis breaks down the federal data by age, race and ethnicity, mother's education, family structure and income. Combined, these breakdowns show that oral sex is most common among white families in the higher-income brackets.

Many sexual health programs have focused on kids from lower-income families, Moore said. The new data suggest that those programs may need to be expanded to other groups.

Author Warns Parents of Casual Sex Pitfalls Awaiting College Students

Dr. Jennifer Morse, a popular writer and speaker on family issues, says modern patterns of dating on college campuses are destructive when it comes to finding life-long married love.

Morse has written a new book called Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World. In it, she warns parents who are sending a child to college this fall that most can expect casual sexual encounters, co-ed dorms, and even co-habitation to be part of their kids' lives for the next four years.

The author says hookups -- that is, encounters involving casual, recreational sex -- are not conducive to making a proper judgment about who will be one's lifelong partner. "If you start off with the idea that sex is a recreational activity with no moral or social significance," she asserts, "you're going to be drawn to the wrong persons, you're going to be doing the wrong kinds of things -- you're just not going to be in the right kind of mode for finding somebody with whom you can share life-long love."

At schools with co-ed dormitories and sometimes even co-ed rooming groups, it is not uncommon for students who live in close proximity to begin having sex. Again, Morse says this can be relationally damaging in the long term, as social science research has shown that couples living together before marriage are more likely to divorce than couples who do not co-habit before marriage.

According to Morse, the destructiveness of casual attitudes toward sex is born out when one looks at how college students behave in their dorms or elsewhere in extra-curricular campus life. For instance, she notes, the binge drinking phenomenon is closely related to the university campus hookup culture.

"People will go to a party thinking that they want to be sexual," the writer explains, "but they don't really want to take full responsibility for wanting to be sexual. So what they'll do is get themselves rip-roaring drunk and then have a sexual encounter and kind of not remember it the next day."

Morse says parents sending their children off to college this fall need to sit down with their kids and have a serious discussion about the hookup and binge drinking scene on campus so the young students will be prepared to confront it.

Dr. Jennifer Morse, a popular writer and speaker on family issues, says modern patterns of dating on college campuses are destructive when it comes to finding life-long married love.

Morse has written a new book called Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World. In it, she warns parents who are sending a child to college this fall that most can expect casual sexual encounters, co-ed dorms, and even co-habitation to be part of their kids' lives for the next four years.

California Legislature Approves Gay Marriage Bill

Courtesy of STEVE LAWRENCE, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 6, 2005

(09-06) 21:37 PDT SACRAMENTO, (AP) --
The California Legislature on Tuesday became the first legislative body in the country to approve a bill allowing same-sex marriages, but the measure faces an uncertain future before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

There were loud cheers from the Assembly gallery as a 41-35 vote overcame two earlier defeats in that house and sent the bill to the governor, but the celebration could be brief.
A spokeswoman for the Republican governor said Schwarzenegger believes the issue should be decided by the courts, not by his signature on legislation.

"He will uphold whatever the court decides," spokeswoman Margita Thompson said.
A state appellate court is considering appeals of a lower court ruling that overturned California laws banning recognition of gay marriages.

On Tuesday, gay-marriage supporters rejoiced at their victory. They compared the legislation to earlier civil rights campaigns to eradicate slavery and give women the right to vote.
"Do what we know is in our hearts," said the bill's sponsor, San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno. "Make sure all California families will have the same protection under the law."

Leno's bill had failed in the Assembly by four votes in June, but he was confident he could get it through on a second try after the Senate approved a same-sex marriage bill last week.
Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, called bans on gay marriage "the last frontier of bigotry and discrimination, and it's time we put an end to it."

Assemblyman Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat who abstained when another gay marriage bill failed in June, said he was concerned about what his three children would think of him if he didn't join those "who sought to take a leadership role in terms of tolerance, equality and fairness."

Umberg joined three other Democrats who didn't vote the last time the bill came up — Assembly members Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino, and Simon Salinas, D-Salinas. They provided the winning margin this time.

But opponents repeatedly cited the public's vote five years ago to approve Proposition 22, an initiative that was put on the ballot by gay marriage opponents to keep California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries.

"History will record that you betrayed your constituents and their moral and ethical values...," said Assemblyman Jay La Suer, R-La Mesa. "You are not leading; you have gone astray."
Specifically, Proposition 22 added a section to the state Family Code stating that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

California voters could be asked to decide the issue again. Opponents are trying qualify initiatives for the 2006 ballot that would amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.

Leno had vowed to bring the issue to a vote Tuesday after the Senate approved the bill on a 21-15 vote last week. He said the momentum generated by that support would help him find the votes he needed for passage in the Assembly.

Leno amended the provision of the bill defeated in June into another that already had passed the Assembly and was awaiting action in the Senate. It was that bill the Assembly approved on Tuesday.

Assemblyman Doug La Malfa, R-Chico, protested the procedure Leno used to revive the issue after the Assembly twice rejected the legislation in June. La Malfa said one of his constituents was "totally offended" that the issue was still alive.

California already gives same-sex couples many of the rights and duties of marriage if they register with the state as domestic partners. Massachusetts offers marriage licenses to gay couples and Vermont grants civil unions, but both resulted from court rulings rather than legislative action.

Leno said a recent poll found that Californians are now evenly divided over whether same-sex marriages should be legal.

Tuesday's vote in the Assembly showed that gay rights advocates had "turned the corner on the issue of marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples," said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a backer of the bill.

"As the debate today shows, love conquers fear, principle conquers politics and equality conquers injustice, and the governor can now secure his legacy as a true leader by signing this bill," he said.

Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, a conservative group opposed to the bill, said Schwarzenegger should announce immediately that he would veto the legislation.

"Schwarzenegger can't afford to sign the gay marriage license bill," he said. "He'll actually become a hero to the majority of Californians when he vetoes it."