They’re all just commitment-phobic sex addicts…right? — Being an openly polyamorous woman in a world that believes monogamy is the only legitimate way to have a healthy romantic/sexual relationship is tough, let me tell ya. Thanks to the constant misrepresentations of polyamory in pop culture (can we please, once and for all, educate people about the difference…

Disclosing your STI status can be scary and awkward, but it doesn’t have to be. — Earlier this year, I came out to the world about something most people would keep to themselves: I have HSV-2, or what is commonly thought of as genital herpes. You can read all about it here, but the short version is that the diagnosis caused my main sexual partner at…

One day a week of saying “fuck it” has saved my sanity during quarantine. — “That’s it. I’m having a fuck-it day! Huzzah!” I cackle maniacally at my husband’s raised eyebrows and pour myself another whiskey straight.* A half-smoked joint rests seductively in the ashtray, and a cartoon bubble with visions of the gigantic four-cheese pizza I will soon consume dances over my head. Normally…

Real talk about a virus that’s just not a big deal. — My first thought when I got my herpes diagnosis was, “Fuck, Brad’s gonna flip.” Brad was a boy I was seeing at the time, and although he’s pushing 50, the word “boy” definitely applies — as you’ll see when you read on. My second thought, however, was, “Yay! I can…

She was ready to devour him...if he didn’t kill her first. — The vampire sat by the window gazing at the treetops, wondering when her visitor would arrive. The full moon had been floating through the sky for two hours, making her skin feel hot and flushed. Even the reflection of sunlight was a little painful, but she reveled in the sensation…

Notes on stupidity and selfishness during the pandemic crisis. — The other day, as I was walking through a public nature preserve near my home in Colorado Springs, I came upon a group of teenagers having a sex party. They were in a small clearing, fully visible from the path. I saw a girl with a blonde ponytail kneeling on…

The biggest heartbreak of my life taught me to stop selling myself short. — “We need to talk.” My best friend, Tina, looked up from her phone, a frown knitting her brows. No, that’s not her real name. “Okaaay. What’s wrong?” I had decided to fess up about what I’d done. I took a breath and sat down at our breakfast table, the one…

Finding joy during a crisis doesn’t make you a monster. It makes you sensible, sane, and more likely to do some good. — I’ve been grappling with a lot of guilt ever since my husband and I began sheltering in place a couple of weeks ago. While the severity of this crisis weighs heavily on our hearts, the dominant effect of social distancing has been to grant us more time together, at a…

In dark times, our shared humanity illuminates a way forward. — Human beings across the globe are living through the scariest ordeal most of us have ever faced. Aside from the fear of catching and spreading an aggressive, deadly virus, aside from the horror of the deaths we’ve seen already and those still to come, aside from the bleak predictions of…