After a few hours of game play, several televisions in the downstairs bar began playing Girls Gone Wild's Search for the Hottest Girl In America, a clothes-optional survey of the bodies of U.S. women. “At first we all thought it was one of those cheesy infomercials where they censor out the boobs, but it was not,” Kemp told me via e-mail. "There was really no direction you could look without seeing a TV, and it was so distracting that it was hard to have conversations with my companions," Kemps says. “I really just wanted to leave because I was pretty offended.”

The next day, Kemps took to e-mail, Yelp, and Twitter to inform the bar that she was made "legitimately very uncomfortable" by the programming choice. Kemps pressed the bar via Tweet: "Can you please explain to my why you thought it was appropriate to play porn in on every tv in your bar last night?"

Iron Horse General Manager Daniel Williams has been wrestling with that question since Kemps' concerns came to his attention this week. “I fully understand why someone would find this offensive,” Williams told me. “I don’t want to create an atmosphere where we’re purposefully offending anybody."

But Williams says that Iron Horse never makes a decision to turn on a Girls Gone Wild flick—it just doesn't always make the effort to turn it off. The bar favors the Mixed Martial Arts programming on HDNet, and in the early morning hours, the channel's content sometimes shifts from MMA to T&A. At first, “we saw it come on, and were like, ‘what the hell is this?’” Williams says of Girls Gone Wild. “It kept coming on out of nowhere, and we really had no idea. But then when no one said anything to us about it, I guess we got comfortable with it. And we’ve got to reign it in," he says. Now, "we're reevaluating. It's not our intent to make anyone uncomfortable."

Late at night in a District bar, discomfort is relative. D.C. gay bars like Omega DC and The Green Lantern have been known to air hardcore pornography in their establishments. In a general-interest haunt like Iron Horse, though, even non-sexual programing can sometimes cause a stir. Williams remembers patrons getting grossed out over one televised investigation into "the world's biggest tumor." But the bar has never received any complaints about its MMA fights, in which men and women "are literally punching each other in the face until they are bloody and unconscious," Williams says. "People cheer when someone gets knocked out, but there's an uproar when someone sees an exposed nipple."

Still, Williams agrees that the GGW programming requires some stricter scrutiny. Williams says the bar staff relegates more risque programming to a couple corner TVs in the basement, and never airs the show on street level. “If we do let it stay on, we try to regulate it,” Williams says. But with 12 TVs down there, "we sometimes lose track of what’s on them,” Williams says. Kemp says the show "was on every TV and there was no way to look to avoid it"; Williams says the program couldn't have been on more than three or four sets.

When it receives direct complaints or senses a bad vibe, Williams says that Iron Horse will work to tailor the TVs to the current crowd's interests. And he says that if Kemps had requested a channel change on-site, "we’d have no problem changing it at all." But Williams says the bar isn't mulling a blanket ban on the show. “There have definitely been groups of girls sitting at the bar watching Girls Gone Wild and they’ve enjoyed it," Williams says. "It can be a conversation starter at the bar late at night. Other times, Girls Gone Wild comes on, and the sense is very much, ‘this is gross. Let’s change it.” And we do.”

Williams and Kemps have since hashed out the disagreement over e-mail and phone; Kemps says she appreciates Williams taking the time to give her a call and address her concerns in-depth. Her only quibble? "My only concern with his response  is that it seems like the bar doesn't have any intention of not showing Girls Gone Wild in the future," she says. "It still seems weird to me that a sports bar would be showing this it the first place."

Jenkins didn't take offense to being called a hysterical shrew, but she did ding ProFootballTalk for attributing feelings to her without so much as a phone call. "First of all the word shrew is an extremely mild term to me, especially compared to many e-mails from readers I’ve received," Jenkins told Dan Steinberg. She contined: "who cares."

DON'T TAKE THIS PERSONALLY: Jenkins is right that ProFootballTalk shouldn't have attributed feelings to her—but not only because it's bad journalism. This situation has very little to do with Jenkins' "feelings." Sexist comments aren't wrong because they hurt individuals, they're wrong because they trash an entire class of people based on their gender. Particularly in the male-dominated world of sportswriting, the perception that hard-hitting critical journalism is "hysterical" when a woman is behind it keeps all women from gaining equal footing in the profession. It really doesn't matter whether this situation offends Jenkins personally or not.

REMINDER to reporters: Sexual assault allegations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is not a fun news peg from which to explore the "rakish" and "lascivious" consensual sexual affairs of U.S. and French politicians. Rape: It's still not sex."

AND IN TIME: Anti-rape laws are so puritanical! Alleged rapists are really just libertines! Rape is seduction! "Indeed, certain analysts argue that the French President may have been betting on rather cynical odds: that by sending a notorious libertine to the puritanical Mecca of America in the first place—and to the political correct strictures of the rigid IMF in particular — Sarkozy was simply giving Strauss-Kahn enough rope to hang himself with," the magazine submits. "That may explain why it was that on Monday, the daily Le Figaro quoted Sarkozy responding to the news out of New York with a reminder that he'd alerted Strauss-Kahn of the risks of being a seducteur. 'I warned him about this!'"

SADY DOYLE on Odd Future: "Tyler, the Creator of Odd Future is just the culture’s latest excuse to get all het up about how 'provocative' and 'edgy' it is to rap about how much you like to rape ladies (because that is a totally unpopular activity, not at all common in society today), and also, say “faggot” a lot (also uncommon, and without consequence), and also, o his genius! O, his technical mastery! O, he will save music from itself! Which might be true. I dunno. I was distracted by all the raping."

FREE THE LIFELESS FETUSES: The Johns Hopkins News-Letter commends the presence of aborted fetus posters on its campus. "This Tuesday, pro-life activists protested on North Charles Street at 34th street. They carried posters with graphic signs of aborted fetuses and lynched persons. Other signs contained comparisons between abortion and genocide, which many people considered to be offensive. Many passersby were disturbed by and angry at the signs used by the protesters, and some were angry at the mere fact that pro-life protesters were near campus. Though aware of the activists' right to protest, many students admonished the behavior of the activists," the paper wrote in an editorial. "The News-Letter not only appreciates the presence of the protesters, but also believes that the protesters were well within their rights to bring posters with them. This is not to say that this newspaper supports the message of pro-life activists. Instead, it supports the presence of opposing viewpoints as they challenge the status quo." Apparently freedom's only free when you express support and "appreciation" of anything anyone else says, in any context.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY alterna-paper the Georgetown Voice collects prefrosh bon mots: "I guess wearing a straight-up bikini to class is an early indication that Thirsty Thursday has started."

HOT GIRLS ARE TERRIBLE: JHU's Mike McKenna warns men against bringing beautiful women to school dances, because they are all so much more awful than Mike McKenna is. "With the exception of people in relationships, it seems a lot of guys only focus on bringing the hottest date they can coerce into coming. She can be the most obnoxious woman in the world, but as long as she's attractive, guys will bring her. Don't get me wrong, I can see the appeal of bringing a 10, flipping off that annoying guy from chemistry lab with her on your shoulder and trying to get lucky at the end of the night. I'll even admit that I did this my sophomore year of high school (let's hope my old date doesn't read this article). But is it worth bringing someone you hardly know just because he or she is attractive?" ANSWERED: "With a few exceptions, I don't think bringing some random gorgeous woman you don't know is worth the chance of a mediocre night full of small talk."

ON LADY MCs: The Howard University Hilltop takes on women in hip-hop: "It was 1984 when Roxanne Shante appeared on the classic song 'The Real Roxanne' a response to UTFO's song 'Roxanne, Roxanne.' It was this song that was the start of a movement greater than what any label could imagine. She, along with Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Sha-Rock, The Funky Four Plus one More and others became the leaders of a movement that would change hip hop forever," Noelle Jones writes. "You could say they added more feminine faces to hip-hop's Mount Rushmore." But now, "The days of artist like Salt & Pepa, Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliot topping charts seem to be a distant memory." BUT WHITHER Nicki Minaj?

AFTER THE JUMP: On the IMF head sexual assault allegations; gay feminism 101; what Barack Obama can learn from Dominique Strauss-Kahn:

ROBERT KUTTNER, co-editor of the American Prospect, draws an offensive comparison between IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn's sexual assault charges and Barack Obama's economic failings. "You still see Obama bumper stickers in Paris, where the U.S. president remains highly popular. Barack Obama not only still stands for hope, but he represents a striking contrast to both Sarkozy and Strauss-Kahn in his irreproachable personal behavior. But with the world still in financial crisis, that's also a low bar. By itself, personal rectitude does little to rally public support of to solve deep national ills," Kuttner writes. "I suppose we Americans can take pride that our president has never been accused of assaulting a chamber maid in a luxury hotel. Now, if he would just assault the financial barons."

IF ONLY Barack Obama would step up and "rape" people—financially, that is! Kuttner also floats this phrasing: "Strauss-Kahn's reckless and grandiose personal behavior is symptomatic of a deeper sickness afflicting the European left." How about that "reckless and grandiose" sexual assault charge, everybody? Honestly, it was a little ostentatious and ill-considered for my taste. And then there's this: "The pity is that the French electorate remains left of center." And that a hotel employee is now allegedly a survivor of sexual assault. What a news peg. (Via GLAA Forum).

PLUS: Inside the assault claim conspiracy theories; the Washington Post asks why we didn't pay attention to earlier claims against him; his wife insists on his innocence.

GAY FEMINISM 101: "Consider the commonly held notion that female homosexuality is less threatening than male homosexuality. How many times have we heard or thought 'It’s easier for girls?' The most obvious and visible element of patriarchal society is the empowerment of the male over the female, masculine over feminine," Gella Solomon writes for The New Gay. "The assumed sexual roles of men and women in relation to each other are of dominance and submission. When viewing a same-sex relationship in this light, the patriarchal heterosexual mind will see a female dominating a female, and a male dominating a male, respectively. A female dominating another female may be somewhat problematic, a usurpation of power that she should not have, but ultimately manageable since one might assume that were a man to come along he could put either in their place (insert reference to male heterosexual lesbian porn fantasies). When a male is dominated by another male, however, you have a man placing himself in the role of a woman, choosing to give up the power that is rightfully his. That, I would argue, is the 'perversion' which is so feared: that God forbid, a man should make himself like a woman."

AFTER THE JUMP: Va. gender gap persists; rethinking "ghetto"; how to use the word "queen":

THE NLGJA instructs journalists on how to use the word "queen": "Originally a pejorative term for an effeminate gay man but often used acceptably as slang among LGBT people. Offensive when used as an epithet. Use only if there is a compelling reason."

WASHINGTON BLADE editor Kevin Naff's headline on the occasion of CNN anchor Don Lemon's exit from the closet. "CNN anchor comes out (no, not Anderson)."

LADY who saved donkeys dies.

VIRGINIA allows gay people to hyphenate their last names. How generous!

A TRUCK DRIVER from Vienna, Va. becomes the latest target of the state's ramped-up child pornography prosecutions. Mike Latham, 43, "has been wanted on child pornography charges since February" after "the FBI found that the IP address was being used to share dozens of 'child notable files' -- those suspected of being child pornography." Upon questioning, Latham "said he used one of his computers to view adult and child pornography, according to court documents. He said that he searched for media files of girls ages 12 to 16 and that he preferred videos to images."Women, whether they wear hats or not, more often wait to be asked.

GENDER GAP PERSISTS in the Va. legislature: "What is clear in Virginia right now is that this year, as usual, many more men are seeking state legislative positions than are women," the Daily Progress reports. "Across the nation, 23 out of every 100 state legislators are women. In Virginia, the numbers are a bit lower. Only 19 of 100 members of the House of Delegates are women and just eight women serve in the 40-member Virginia Senate. Two of them are retiring this year. Of the first 116 candidates to announce for the House thus far, fewer than 20 percent are women. In the state Senate contests on the ballot, 18 percent of the first 61 candidates to announce are women."

RETHINKING "GHETTO" with Elahe Izadi.

LIBRARY MASTURBATION AT GW: "University Police Chief Kevin Hay said a student reported witnessing a man masturbating on the sixth floor of Gelman Library May 3, but the department’s investigative unit did not have sufficient evidence to pinpoint the individual," the G.W. Hatchet reports. "The female student called UPD a few hours after the incident occurred, at about 4 p.m., Hay said. She saw a man 'reaching into his pants and masturbating while at a computer in Gelman Library.' . . . 'She did use her phone to record a few frames of video and called us several hours later from her residence hall,' Hay said. 'When we checked out the location, there was no one in the area who met the description.'”

The "walk"—really more of a stationary rally, but Stationary Rally for Choice doesn't have the same ring to it—will take place from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, on the sidewalks outside of Reproductive Health Services in Germantown. On Facebook, organizers say that rally attendees will "stand in solidarity with [Carhart] and his staff" on behalf of "uterus owners throughout the nation and the world." There will be signs.

Also on-site at the Germantown rally spot: The Maryland Coalition for Life's new offices, which sprung up across the parking lot from Carhart's clinic last month in an effort to provide alternate "choices, information, and referrals at no cost” to women considering abortion. (Pregnancy termination has really been a boon for that office park!) At the time, Mike Martelli, executive director of the coalition, said that there "will be no protesting or picketing or harassment of people" at that office. Reached by phone today, Martelli said that the offices are "absolutely not" planning a counter-action to the rally.

AFTER THE JUMP: Grade-school Botoxers; outsized genitalia; the music of Real Housewives:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: More women arrested for D.C. voting rights; what trans people want; preventing cervical cancer with a little awareness and a lot of money.

REVISITING Chalk Circle, D.C.'s first all-female punk band.

HARASSED at the White House: "I like to walk past the White House when going to work because it reminds me of all of the freedoms and opportunities I have as an American. So being harassed right in front of it is somewhat ironic, not to mention disappointing. This guy was in his 30s, wearing a red baseball cap and red jacket on his bike. His rode right behind me for a while and made comments about my skirt (which is past my knees) and then when I turned around and yelled at him, he sped off. Coward."

THE UVA COMMUNITY can submit comments on the school's proposed changes to its sexual assault policies until May 20.

BOTOX before it's too late.

HOW TO TELL EVERYONE YOU HAVE A GIANT PENIS: "All of those wonderful huge-dick stereotypes don’t apply unless everyone knows your big secret—and that’s just not going to happen," unless you write an article about your giant penis and publish it online, like Charles Allen did. "There is no casual way to spread the word that you’ve got a plus-size penis. Any attempt to disseminate information regarding your Richard will—nay, must—be met with skepticism, pity, and annoyance. At best people will assume you’re lying; at worst they’ll believe you and think you’re bragging. You look like a tool either way." ALSO: What are the wonderful stereotypes associated with having a gigantic penis? Isn't it essentially just that your penis is huge?

CAT COMMUNE sadly a hoax.

RANKING the Real Housewives singles. "Money Can't Buy You Class" all the way, baby!

"FEELING CLEAN is soooo important."

"Cervical cancer is completely preventable," says Felder. "We have a test to detect it. We have a pap to screen for it. We have HPV vaccines to prevent it. You can’t say that about any other cancer."

But Felder didn't miss her annual pap smears because she wasn't aware she needed them—she received regular check-ups throughout college. Then, she lost her health insurance. By the time she regained coverage three years later, it was already too late.

The District of Columbia has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer [PDF] in the nation. It's also got one of the highest poverty rates for women and girls. Twenty-six percent of black women live below the poverty line in D.C.; women across the region are 35 percent more likely to live in poverty than are men.

And cancer prevention doesn't come cheap. According to Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, a basic gynecological visit for a woman without health insurance ranges from $80 to $120. If her pap comes back abnormal, she'll need to fork over $200 to $400 for a colposcopy, which allows the doctor to look at problem cells under a microscope. If those cells show moderate to severe dysplasia, she'll need to get them frozen or burned off, at a cost of $200 to $800. For many women, just getting into the exam room presents a cost barrier. "It's a huge stress on women," says Felder. "You have to take time off work. You risk losing your leave. You could not get paid at all."

Even if D.C. women are fully aware of the importance of cancer prevention, what happens when they can't afford all those necessary tests, screens, and vaccines?

"Our hope is that cost is not prohibitive," says PPMW's Adrienne Schreiber. For women who can't finance an $800 cryotherapy treatment, "we're not going to turn anybody away simply because they can’t pay," she says. Schreiber says the clinic is committed to helping connect women with federal Title X funding, grants, and nonprofits like Felder's to help defray the costs.

Part of the battle is making local women aware that the cost of medical treatment isn't necessarily out of reach. But it's also making sure that money is available when women ask for it. "We’re not an American Cancer Society. We're not a Komen. We don’t have $5 million. We barely have $5,000," says Felder. "We say we're small but mighty."

Despite its modest scale, Felder says her organization receives applications "from around the country"—sometimes around the world—from women with cervical cancer who can't afford their medical costs, child care, rent, and bills. Often, larger cancer organizations send cervical cancer sufferers Felder's way. And meeting those demands is getting harder. Tomorrow, Tamika and Friends will hold its fifth annual cervical cancer awareness walk at RFK Stadium. It was nearly derailed for lack of a corporate sponsor.

For a "small but mighty" organization like Felder's, consciousness-raising and community-building efforts are a lot more feasible than personally financing the costs of cervical cancer prevention and treatment for the world's women. District women shouldn't have to choose between securing preventative healthcare and feeding their kids. But until the money's there, they may just have to rely on sheer determination. "I have what I call my 11th commandment," says Felder. "Busy, broke, or scared, never miss your pap."

That brings our current total to: 34 men and 25 women arrested for D.C. voting rights. It may seem like a little thing, but gender parity in the arrest roster ensures that District women hold visibility and influence in the city's politics—and that they have the social support necessary to risk spending the night in the clink.

The full document, delivered to Office of GLBT Affairs Director Jeffrey Richardson last week, is after the jump:

Dctc Priorities for Gray Administration

SAUSAGEFEST: the world of "fantastic" journalism.

AFTER THE JUMP:  Lena Chen, Barney Frank, and Chaz Bono on gender:

BOOTYCANDY on hate crimes.

LENA CHEN lays down the basics of intra-LGBT bigotry: "if you look into the history of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) or the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), there are examples galore of trans people being thrown under the bus in exchange for political expediency. And if it were just about being instrumental (or in kinder terms, 'practical'), that’d be one thing. But it’s not. The reason why it’s so easy to dismiss certain letters in the LGBTQ alphabet soup is because here’s the not-so-pretty truth: being queer and being bigoted are not mutually exclusive."

BARNEY FRANK on how to stop Uganda from killing gays.

JASON LINKINS wins headlines: "Florida's Bestiality Law May Have Accidentally Outlawed Sex Entirely."

CHAZ BONO is terrible.

FLAVIA DZODAN is doing really interesting work over at Tiger Beatdown on feminism and international identities.

THE GENDER GAP in federal employment: "When it comes to equal pay for equal work, the federal government is significantly closer to that goal than the nation as a whole," the Washington Post reports. But still: "Women in the federal government make 11 cents less on the dollar than their male counterparts."

SLATE ON HOW TO NAME A MURDERER: "For aspiring serial killers looking for a snappy nickname, the lesson is twofold: If you want a good name, come up with one yourself. And don't get caught."

It is bad manners to send physical graduation announcements; it's obvious they are just money grabs. The sole acceptable situation for soliciting a person's salary is the job interview. [Miss Manners]

Heloise refuses to divulge which chocolate-covered caramel individually wrapped in copper-colored foil and sold either in a bag or in a roll she uses in her candy snacks. But it's a Rolo, obviously. [Hints from Heloise]

When deciding whether or not to abort the child of your husband who recently died in an accident, turn to the Internet. It is unreasonable to expect your social circle to honor your request to never be in the same room as your estranged mutual friend ever again. If your husband is profoundly disturbed by the idea of you acting as a surrogate host to your infertile friend's offspring, you must consider your husband's needs before ultimately valuing those of your friend. Earbuds. Upon discovering a riding crop wedged behind your guest room bed following your daughter's stay, keep the sex toy in an unused dresser drawer until the rightful owner claims it. Your husband is living with his girlfriend; you are beyond couples therapy. After reprimanding two boys for pummeling each other in the pews, do not confront their mother to rehash the issue. Don't abort your baby; some stranger says so. Call to ask after the many expensive gifts you sent to your relatives without so much as a thank-you; if that fails to prompt a note, send a card next time. By the second or third date, it's appropriate to say, "I want to let you know I have [lupus, or whatever]." You can afford to live in a group house. Not showering after a bath is normal and/or unsanitary. [Dear Prudence]

Not all LGBT activists are humorless scolds, but that contingency tends to be overrepresented on college campuses. The only thing more annoying than a whiny, college-age queer with a persecution complex is a smug, college-age queer who takes his good fortune for granted and couldn't give a shit about other people. A guy who's single, bi, and amazing in bed at 46 is likely to be single, bi, and amazing in bed at 48. Condoms alone are NEVER a recommended form of birth control. [Savage Love]

Your son wants to eat cookies and watch Sponge Bob all day like his cousins do, and you don't want to offend their parents' sensibilities by explaining their deficient parenting to your son, so just tell him something purposely vague like "different families, different ways." Or just give in. Ten years old is too old for spanking; just talk to the kid. You and your husband are not fantastic partners of 15 years; you are competitors and ideologues. It's fine to marry without sexual attraction, if you want a roommate. [Carolyn Hax]

You didn't see a problem with publicising your scantily-clad body, and he did; neither of you is wrong. It's amazing how much crappy behavior one will put up with when one is getting laid. [Miss Information]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The battle over Virginia abortion regulations begins now; the Washington Post's exaggerated claims of equality for gays; the University of Maryland's high standards for sexual assault claims.

AFTER THE JUMP: When to appropriate 'Geronimo'; the gender politics of Cheers; defending Slutwalking:

GERONIMO! Not a terribly appropriate code name for an infamous international terrorist leader you are killing.

THE GENDER POLITICS OF CHEERS: "The politics in particular get to me," Alyssa Rosenberg writes of revisiting the show (what up Netflix Instant!) "It's amazing that a full eight years before Murphy Brown got pregnant, Cheers had a main character who was already an unmarried mother of four get pregnant again, and have the cast be broadly supportive, except for some mild ribbing. I don't know if the show pulled it off because it wasn't yet a ratings phenomenon, or because Carla Tortelli was clearly coded as both ethnic and working-class, and so she didn't need to be attacked as some sort of Threat to the Family because she didn't make single motherhood look cool."

TAYLOR SWIFT dooms her bullies to failure in her latest vid. Snarking on another girl's footwear, however, just might catapult you to super-stardom.

JACK SHAFER on the loose tweets of Rashard Mendenhal, Keith Olbermann, and Nir Rosen: "I reject the idea that Twitter trips up naïve users such as Mendenhall and other athletes who don't fully understand how social media works . . .  Nor do I think that Twitter turns the meek into blowhards, a proposition I'm willing to test with a scientific experiment. And don't even try the 'open microphone' excuse on me. . . . What's more likely is that most of us say five or six provocative things a day about our friends, co-workers, the baristas at our coffee shop, ethnic groups, athletes, celebrities, politicians, other public figures, and anybody else who falls into our sightlines. Depending on the subject, we either mutter the comments so nobody can be outraged, or we pick an audience sympathetic to our views, thereby staying out of trouble."

LINDSAY BEYERSTEIN resolves the feminist/slut dilemma: "If you try to argue that you're not a slut, you're implicitly buying into the idea that there are sluts out there. If there's some criterion that will set you free, that standard will indict someone else--someone with a higher 'number,' or shorter skirt, or a later curfew. So we get bogged down in slut/non-slut border skirmishes over a line nobody should have tried to draw in the first place, and we all lose. The only 'refutation' is to laugh in your accuser's face and get on with your life, however you choose to live it. That's what Slut Walk is about."

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia is seeking approval to make $200,000 in improvements to two operating rooms in its Virginia Beach health center. There, it plans to perform non-emergency surgical procedures to treat stuff like ovarian cysts, infertility, and incontinence in women. The bureaucratic hurdle that stands in its way: A Certificate of Public Need doled out by the Virginia Department of Health. At a public forum held to debate the certificate Monday, dozens of protesters flooded the proceedings to argue that Virginia Beach doesn't need Planned Parenthood's services, which they characterized as "racist," "eugenics," and "genocide."

The Planned Parenthood health center, of course, also provides abortions. And Monday's fire-and-brimstone forum provided a taste of what's in store for abortion clinics across the state in the coming years.

In February, state legislators voted to enact stricter regulations on the state's first-trimester abortion providers. The exact specifications of the regulations are to be determined, but other states that have adopted these targeted regs have required their abortion clinics to undergo expensive renovations to look more like hospitals—a shift that would force abortion clinics to secure exactly the kinds of changes that Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia is seeking to cinch now, regardless of the looming new law.

To recap: anti-abortion politicians in the Virginia legislature want the state's abortion providers to beef up their facilities to be more like hospitals; anti-abortion activists on the ground want to prevent those improvements at all costs. The legislature says that it's invested in securing the "safety" of women undergoing the relatively uncomplicated procedure of a first-trimester abortion. But anti-abortion activists protesting the Virginia Beach health center's planned improvements say that those conspicuously safe operation rooms could allow the clinic to perform even more complicated procedures—like second trimester abortions.

"It's a self-fulfilling prophecy," says Erin Zabel, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia's Director of Marketing and Public Relations. Zabel says that the organization has no plans to provide second-trimester abortions in Virginia Beach—and that first-trimester abortions make up only 3 percent of the clinic's reproductive health services now. That hasn't stopped anti-abortion activists from closing in on both sides in the state—simultaneously forcing abortion providers to ramp up their facilities while protesting their efforts to do so.

"There is a very small, vocal, loyal group of folks here in the area that protest everything we do," says Zabel. They protested Planned Parenthood's plans to open the clinic, they protested the construction company that made it, and they protest the patients who enter it. But they haven't gained a voice in the actual business practices of the clinic until this week. "There's been nothing for them to do except complain," says Zabel. "But here, the public hearing is actually a part of the application process."

That process could make providing healthcare harder for Planned Parenthood, as the public forum testimony is likely to inspire increased state scrutiny on the health center's plans in the coming months. In the end, though, "we have every confidence that our application will be examined on its merits," Zabel says. "If someone wants to come in and inspect our facility, it doesn’t bother us. The politics go on and on, but some women just can’t wait for services."

Is it?

Glancing at the flip side: Less than half of Virginians agree that gay people should have basic rights. The state lags behind the wider U.S., where 53 percent of people support marriage equality. And we don't even know where the final ten percent of state residents stand in the Post poll. Have they made a striking and dramatic shift toward not not supporting gay rights?

How much good is this all going to do Virginia gays on election day, anyway? The state can't even claim a majority of residents who support gay marriage over the phone, much less in a voting booth. Young Virginians overwhelmingly support marriage equality, but they don't vote like old people do [PDF]. And what Virginia's anti-gay-rights set lacks in numbers, it makes up for in enthusiasm. According to the Post, "about 30 percent of all Virginians 'strongly' support gay marriage, and 35 percent oppose it just as adamantly."

Hardly anyone voted in Virginia in 2006, but those that did likely came out specifically to stop gays from getting hitched. Right now, 47 percent support for gay marriage is a nice thought, and that's about all it is.

NAME IT: The Johns Hopkins University News-Letter throws its weight behind Until It's Zero, a new campus blog airing anonymous accounts of JHU sexual assaults: "In general, but specifically at Hopkins, sexual assault and rape are vastly under-reported as a result of stigmas perpetuated within our community. Some victim s are embarrassed and many are unaware of what constitutes sexual assault. In fact, at an event . . . held on the breezeway, one passerby realized that they in fact had been sexually assaulted. The vague popular definition of sexual assault certainly contributed to this confusion." Read their stories here.

COLD AS ICE: The Towson University Towerlight details the demise of the campus' closest sex shop, Love Ones. The adult-oriented business will be replaced by a shop selling "Jamaican-themed apparel and jewelry, as well as Italian ice." “I figure the Italian ice is one of the main attractions because in the summertime it’s hot,” said a store manager. “In the winter we’re going to be doing coffee.”

POSITIVE, NEGATIVE: The UMD Diamondback profiles married couple Shawn Decker and Gwenn Barringer. Shawn is HIV-positive; Gwen isn't.

LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX: The Georgetown Hoya weighs in in favor of a new proposed sexual health curriculum on campus: "While the creation of a sexual health peer education group will be a step in the right direction, there is still uncertainty regarding the group's jurisdiction and role on campus. The university could easily take two steps backward if in the name of religion it fails to equip the group to freely provide necessary information. The group should be able to engage in frank dialogue with students to dispel myths and promote safe practices as a part of the university's initiative to create a greater on-campus support system surrounding sexual health issues. As an institution that values education, the university has an obligation to provide the necessary means for students to stay safe and informed."

WORDS SPEAK LOUDER THAN: The Georgetown Voice one-ups the Hoya, urging student sexual health advocates to focus on more talk, less action: "Although protests are certainly an important tool for student-led movements to raise awareness, affect campus opinion, and push an often-distant administration to respond, a confrontational approach alone is unlikely to be effective," the campus alternative paper said. "Because most Georgetown students are not involved in on-campus activism, student movements that rely too heavily on protests with the intent of shaming the administration risk alienating the student body. For example, after the protest last year, which happened during a visiting weekend for accepted students, the president of the Georgetown College Democrats publicly disapproved of Plan A’s tactics."

AFTER THE JUMP: Sluts speak; bisexual men exist; John DeVore has a penis:

JACLYN FRIEDMAN explains this dangerous movement at the Boston Slut Walk: "It ends today. It ends because there is truly nothing, nothing, that you can do that makes someone raping you your fault. It ends because calling other people sluts may make you feel safer but it doesn’t actually keep you safer. And it ends because all of this slut-shaming does more to us than the violence of rape, as if that weren’t enough. The violent threat of slut shaming also keeps us afraid of our bodies and our desires." HORRIFYING.

SERIOUSLY, THOUGH: I'm still undecided on the contributions of the men wearing the "I LOVE SLUTS" T-shirts.

JOHN DEVORE discusses his penis at length: "I don’t think I have a small penis. I mean, I’ve stared at it all of my life. I can wrap my fingers around it, so I know it’s not of Sasquatch proportions. There are inches there, multiple inches, of love. I’d say it would make a nice cigar. I have been given the standard statement I think most women tell men who are small to average size, that I’m “just right.” Like the bowl of porridge Goldilocks most preferred. I imagine men who are prodigiously gifted are told the same thing, just to keep their ego in check. Maybe during sex, these women also say 'Slower! Stop stabbing me in the guts!' I wouldn’t know. I just know that once upon a time, for a hot minute, I thought I had a huge dong."

BISEXUAL DUDES, the unicorn of the sexual spectrum: “'You’re either gay, straight, or lying.' I first heard that oft-repeated phrase when I was an 18-year-old freshman at UC Berkeley," Hugo Schwyzer writes. "I was at my first meeting of the GLBA (Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Alliance). I’d recently broken up with a girlfriend, and had been dating (and sleeping with) both men and women; I was ready to 'come out' as bi and to get involved in campus activism. But as I quickly found out, though there were equal numbers of gay men and lesbians in the group, the only bisexuals were women. And while many of those women faced a certain amount of 'bi-phobia,' at least the GLBA acknowledged their existence. Bisexual men, I was told, didn’t exist: we were either cowards or liars, too scared or too dishonest to admit we were really gay."

THE VILLAGE VOICE discovers guys who are attracted to fat women. The anthropological approach redeems itself with this quote: "So many girls end up entering the community just because of one guy,” one guy tells the Voice. “Just discovering ‘Wow, I can be attractive!’ And that changes your life. It just never occurred to you before, which is so weird. . . . That’s why I’m willing to put my life—if you want to call it that—on the line for this.”

QUICKIES: Retiring portions of the gay taxonomy; a conservative reads National Geographic; Albert Haynesworth gets pwned.

On college campuses, rape claims are subjected to a much lower burden of proof than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" required in criminal trials. That's because university tribunals don't hold the power to strip convicted rapists of their freedom—all they can do is bar them from attending one school out of thousands.

Of course, colleges can't indiscriminately ban men from campus based on unsubstantiated sexual assault claims—but they also can't deny women equal access to education by refusing to take their assault claims seriously. Under the Title IX guidelines, campus accusers and accused stand on fairly equal footing: Victims are required to prove to administrators that their version of events is the more likely one.

Most Washington area schools currently conform to the "preponderance of evidence" standard in their codes of conduct, including The George Washington University, the Catholic University of America, Gallaudet University,  the University of the District of Columbia, Virginia Tech, George Mason University, American University,  Georgetown University, and Howard University. But Security On Campus Director of Public Policy S. Daniel Carter says that "not a tiny number" of U.S. colleges and universities still hold victims of sexual assault to an unreasonably high burden of proof.

Among them: the University of Maryland. According to the UMD code of student conduct, most recently amended in March, "the burden of proof shall be upon the complainant, who must establish the guilt of the respondent by clear and convincing evidence." That "clear and convincing" standard lies somewhere between a preponderance of evidence and that shadow of the doubt—and the U.S. government has decided that enforcing that burden effectively discriminates against women in education.

Let's take a look at how a standard like that that plays out on a campus of 27,000 undergrads. Last month, student journalists at UMD discovered that only four students had been disciplined for sexual assaults at the school in the past decade. The Department of Justice estimates that five percent of college women experience an attempted or completed rape on campus each year (a smaller percentage of college men will also become assault victims while at school). That means that approximately 675 women at the University of Maryland will experience sexual assault in any given year—and not even one student is held responsible for those crimes.

Lowering the burden of proof for sexual assault claims won't bring justice to all UMD rape victims. But for the ones persistent enough to bring their claim in front of the university, it would at least put the school's men and women on equal ground.

This Thursday, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and LUNA Bar will team up to present ten short films by women and auction off prize packages for spas, cupcakes, and pilates in the most female event of all time. The flicks, selected for this year's LUNAFEST, include docs on San Francisco's first and only cable car operator; a young table tennis competitor gunning for a world championship; and a 92-year-old Alzheimers sufferer clinging to self-dependence. Proceeds will benefit NARAL. More info here.

Below, a map illustrating just how limited the 750 foot rule is:

All three existing sex shops in Manassas lie well within 750 feet of several structures on the city's laundry list. Despite their proximity to residences and schools, Manassas adult shops MVC Couples Boutiques and Fashion Fantasy evaded municipal attention for decades because they are located in what are perceived as lower-class strips. Only when KK's Temptations moved in to the city's Old Town district did townspeople rally to crack down on the shops.

After the protracted fight over KK's presence in town—and with three shops already whetting the town's adult appetite—it's unlikely that a new sex shop will attempt to call Manassas home anytime soon. But while the new regulations can't kick out existing sexually-oriented businesses, they can stop places like KK's from moving to a new location—or selling to another sexually-oriented shop.

So where can Virginia's sexual entrepreneurs go from here? If you can spot a location within the city limits where a sex shop could lawfully open, point it out in the comments and I'll add it to the map.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Georgetown begins talking about sex—carefully.

AFTER THE JUMP: Baltimore midwife Kathy Carr and birth zealots; advice for witnesses of public sexual harassment; Bin Laden and the villains of pop culture:

KATHIE LEE GIFFORD talks consent and groping.

WHAT CAN MEN DO to combat public sexual harassment? "I was taking the red line home from work and witnessed a man talking to/hitting on a woman who was clearly uncomfortable not interested. The man stood quite close to her and persisted in talking to her loudly and calling her 'baby,' even while she ignored him and put on headphones. She looked uncomfortable, but she didn’t say anything," a witness writes to Holla Back DC. "I was standing a few feet from them on the train, and I wasn’t sure whether or not I should say anything. I could tell that the woman was uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to be a patronizing 'rescuer' or risk making it worse by getting involved, so I stayed silent." Chime in in the comments.

LOUIS CK, blackest white comedian.

ON KATHY CARR, the Baltimore midwife who pleaded guilty to child endangerment in the death of a baby: "in some corners of the home birth movement, a zealotry has set in. Doctors have become demonized and the belief that women's bodies were 'designed' for childbirth drifts into believing that because childbirth is 'natural,' it's not dangerous," Amanda Marcotte writes. "The ugly truth of the matter is that while childbirth is safe for many or even most, it's still very dangerous by most reasonable measures. Extremists in the home birth movement remind me of anti-vaccination zealots; they paint a picture of 'natural' medicine being superior to medical science without acknowledging the sky-high maternal and infant mortality rates of the era before medical science. The result is what happened in Carr's situation, where a breech birth led to an infant stuck in the birth canal for 20 minutes, leading to the baby's death."

THE HOTTEST MTV Movie Awards "Best Kiss" nominees.

BIN LADEN and pop-culture villain-making: "I have to wonder how growing up in a world where that kind of villain seems real–seems beyond real, seems larger than life–has shaped the minds of the youth of America–and how it will continue to shape American culture (and pop culture)," writes Lux Alptraum. "Already, Arabic (or vaguely Arabic) characters have become a default villain in American cinema, the way Russians before them and Germans before them have; I’m curious to see what place bin Laden has in American pop culture ten or twenty years from now–when those scared little children turned jubilant college students are finally at the helm of culturemaking. Maybe al Qaeda will never replace the Nazis as the go to villain–but I suspect, given the impact bin Laden has already had on the minds of so many young Americans, that they might get close."

One year later, GU is no closer to lifting the chains, but it is considering pulling off that tape.

Last month, the university confirmed plans to implement a new sexual education program that would allow student educators to spread information and dispel misconceptions about sex (even the premarital kind) to fellow co-eds. Taking the university’s lead, student health advocates at GU have moved on to Plan B: They’re abandoning their tangible demands in exchange for the right to speak openly about sex.

Just how freely student advocates will be authorized to gab remains to be seen. “We have only had preliminary conversations about developing a program and are committed to helping our students lead healthy lives in support of our educational mission as a Catholic and Jesuit University,” university director of media relations Rachel Pugh told me via e-mail. “I don't have any more information to share at this time.”

The university won't elaborate on how it plans to reconcile its Catholic mission with its students’ sexual one. But talking about talking about sex is a step forward for Georgetown. In years past, the Jesuit institution has traditionally shied from so much as acknowledging the thousands of unmarried students who copulate on its property. (In a recent campus survey, 23 percent of Georgetown students rated the school’s sex ed curriculum “nonexistent”). “Our big concern is the question of what exactly is allowed to be discussed,” says Jared Watkins, a graduating senior who has participated in closed-door meetings on the sexual health initiative since last fall. “Even among university folks, there seem to be a lot of misconceptions about what can and cannot be said.”

The very idea of Georgetown entering the sex ed has caused a stir in the Catholic establishment. Catholic school watchdog group the Cardinal Newman society—which previously dinged GU for producing the Vagina Monologues and hosting a non-conforming school dance—is already monitoring the initiative. Catholic commentators have flocked to student newspaper The Hoya to express their disapproval. One said the university has fallen “into the trap of needing to be ‘safe & informed’, the sexual swamp, that pervades modern society, creating persons incapable of forming lasting relationships, and the debasement of the human person.” Another said that the program would serve “the emotionally and spiritually broken persons made incapable of true love by a history of promiscuity.”

Even the student activists pushing for the program are surprised the university is listening. “The university does have some Draconian policies as far as sexual health goes,” says David Schwartz, a GU junior who helped organize Plan A last year and has since attended several of the initial sex ed planning meetings. “It’s a pretty interesting development that the university wants to work with us on this.”

Things will get more interesting when Georgetown begins to hash out its conception of Catholic sexual education. Below, the major battle lines yet to be drawn:

HORMONAL BIRTH CONTROL. “The line we’ve heard in the past is ‘education, not advocacy.’ Students and the university are allowed to educate about artificial birth control, but not advocate for it,” Watkins says. “That’s a really blurry and confusing line. And I think both students and folks in health education services are confused about it"

CONDOMS. Administering rubbers under GU’s name is a long-established no-no: H*yas for Choice, a student reproductive rights group that distributes condoms in the campus “Free Speech Zone,” is forbidden from claiming the “o” in its name. But what about informing students where they can find condoms? “I don’t think that's a main issue. I don’t think that students are worried about where they can find condoms close to campus,” Schwartz says. “We have a CVS within walking distance of the front gates.” Ahem.

ABSTINENCE: Watkins says he doesn’t believe the university is “seriously” considering requiring students to discuss “the rhythm method and other not-very-effective birth control techniques.” But will student educators be required to expound upon the benefits of 100-percent-effective not-doing-it when they provide “education, not advocacy” about other contraceptive methods? “I don’t think they’ll try to push abstinence-only education,” says Schwartz, “but I don’t know.” And the issue isn't a sticking point for Watkins. “As students, we’re advocating for sexual health, not sex,” says Watkins. “The point is to know all of this stuff so you can make an informed decision to say yes or no.”

SABOTAGE: Watkins, a leader of student anti-violence group GU Men Creating Change, sat in on the sessions to ensure that the sex ed program broaches issues of consent. That means not only “communicating sexual wants and desires,” but also addressing “contraception tampering and pressuring partners to not use contraception.” Pressure to forgo contraception—isn’t that kind of a Catholic thing? “I talked about the problem of contraception tampering in one of the meetings, and no one seemed to challenge me on that,” Watkins says. “But it is still a very, very fuzzy line.”

ABORTION: “I think the only thing you can’t educate about where to get something is an abortion,” Watkins says. “Abortion will not be addressed, I don’t believe,” Schwartz concurs.

PULLING OUT: The “education, not advocacy” bit becomes more complicated when student sex educators consider how to translate the sexual intel into pithy, memorable, poster-ready slogans. Asks Schwartz: “How do we say pulling out is not OK, without saying that?”

CHAINING SELF TO JOHN CARROLL STATUE: OK. No advocacy! But what about after the sex ed session ends? Can students get back to hounding the school to bring contraception out of the world of ideas? “I don’t think there would be any problem with students doing any individual advocacy campaign, but I don’t think that’s something that’s going to happen," Schwartz says. "We’re committed to working within the system right now. We’re really excited to work with the university. And the university is interested in working with students who are committed to respecting its boundaries." As soon as it figures out what they are.

Yesterday, women in D.C. rallied outside the U.S. Capitol to protest their lack of voting and abortion rights in the District of Columbia. Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser announced that women's reproductive rights are under attack. DC Abortion Fund president Tiffany Reed and the Center for Reproductive Rights' Laura MacCleery detailed the near impossibility of paying for an abortion without health coverage. And D.C. League of Women Voters past president Billie Day gave a shout-out to the dozen women who were arrested in the first DC Vote action on April 11. Yesterday, every protester arrested for forming a barricade in front of the U.S. Capitol was a woman. Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh was among them.

BONUS: Five tips for getting arrested as a woman.

MORE ON THE BILL:

WHO VOTED FOR HR3? Sady Doyle breaks it down: "please excuse Mother-Jonesy language about 'House Republicans.' Because, yes! Republicans are very ideologically misguided! I believe you wholeheartedly! But also, factually, WE KNOW THERE ARE DEMOCRATS WHO SUPPORT THIS BILL AS WELL? I get the need for concise language. But also, we run the risk of just partisan stirrin’-up-the-masses stuff when we say 'House Republicans' when what we mean is, 'House Republicans, who are mostly dudes, and also one or two super-extreme Republican ladies, but also Democrats who are dudes as well, so basically: House Dudes."

SEX = DEATH. Amanda Marcotte on the bill's effects: "The bill attacks the lives of pregnant women in two major ways. First of all, the bill will force all insurance companies in the country to drop abortion coverage. For women getting first trimester abortions of choice, this will be a burden, but since this is more of an attack on women who already have insurance, they're likely to be in a slightly better financial situation than the women who get screwed daily by the Hyde Amendment, and therefore more likely to be able to get the $500 together for an abortion. . . . Not so for women who are 20 weeks along, develop eclampsia or cancer, and need an abortion or they'll die. That procedure can costs thousands of dollars, well out of the reach of many women who need it. So they'd be screwed."

AARON SORKIN needs to find a new kind of woman.

GOING LONG on Bradley Manning in the Washington Post Magazine, including a series of coming out moments for the soldier at the center of the WikiLeaks scandal.

BREAKING DOWN D.C.'s next steps in the fight against HIV/AIDS.