Sexuality

There are a few things my mother loves unshakably: Jesus, her family, and President Obama — perhaps not in that order. Growing up black in the segregated South left her not bitter, but motivated to ensure her family would have a better life. Obama's election — and reelection — are part of her dream. But the president's declaration of support for same-sex marriage pitted her difficulty with homosexuality against her unwavering support for "her man," Obama. After my daughter was done cheering the president's announcement, she said, "Uh-oh!

Susan LaBranche wants to remember what it was like to be 12. As the mother of an almost-13-year-old daughter, LaBranche is trying to recall all the feelings she had when she was an adolescent, particularly those concerning her own sexuality. "I hope to be able to put myself into her position a little more freely," the Boothwyn resident said of her daughter, Jennifer. "We do have an open relationship and we've spoken about sexuality matters ever since she was 2 or 3 years old. But when situations come up now, I hope to get back to remembering what it was like to be 12 so I can think before I react.

"TerrorVision. " A horror comedy starring Gerrit Graham, Mary Woronov and Bert Remsen. Written and directed by Ted Nicolaou. Photographed by Romano Albani. Music by Richard Band. Special gore effects by John Buechler. Running time: 83 minutes. An Empire release. In area theaters. The new pornography of movies - namely, aggressive violence, laced with overall inhumanity - comes to a head with something called "TerrorVision. " If you're an aficionado of junk, this one has everything - a plot about a TV set that houses a monster, ripping off "Poltergeist;" a cast of perfectly awful characters, representing an assortment of perversions; a monster made of slime and, seemingly, snot; lots of dirty jokes and bad dialogue, and a sprawling set that's supposed to be a suburban home but that looks like a studio soundstage.

The declaration of love came unexpectedly during a counseling session, catching the priest off guard. "She said, 'I love you more than I love my husband,' " he recalled. "I was the most surprised guy on the block. " The startled priest quickly recovered and told the woman he had no romantic feelings toward her. Things went no further. She accepted his refusal. "I was very clear to her where I was," said the Philadelphia-area priest, who asked not to be named. Other Catholic priests - and clergy from other denominations - can tell similar stories.

It was to have been a chance for Cheltenham teenagers and their parents to discuss sex and sexuality. The course would have parental consent, and the fee was minimal. But there was one problem: It would be taught by a counselor from Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a pro-choice organization. Cheltenham commissioners recently opted to avoid any township association with the organization. They voted unanimously against permitting the LaMott Community Center - a township building - to house the "Parents and Teens Together" program, which is designed and taught by Planned Parenthood.

They come to her desperate. They come when they find their fight against a life-threatening disease has also robbed them of the desire or the ability or the will to engage in one of life's most affirming acts - sex. A man recovering from bypass surgery fearing another heart attack; a women grieving over the loss of her breast to cancer; a patient suffering from diabetic neuropathy, which effects the nerve endings - they walk into Dr. Mary...

In By The Light of My Father's Smile (Random House, $22.95), Alice Walker explores the impact of sexuality on father-daughter relationships. The book opens with the ghost of a father watching from beyond the grave as his daughter makes love, first to her husband and then to another woman: "She was radiant and sensual . . . she was, as a woman, someone I truly did not know. " That lack of knowledge is at the heart of Walker's book. "Fathers tend to abandon their daughters when they become pubescent in many, many places in the world," Walker said in a recent interview.

Half of the 24 million teenagers in this country will have had sexual intercourse at least once by the time they're 19. Last year, there were one million unplanned teenage pregnancies, and a little less than half of those were terminated. In addition, more than a million teenagers will contract a sexually transmitted disease before they graduate from high school. Those were a few of the statistics presented to about 30 foster parents attending a workshop Monday night at Jewish Family and Children's Services on Castor Avenue.

TOUGH BEING a teen nowadays, that much tougher if you're gay, growing up in a home that is hostile to the person you've turned out to be. That's the subject of Dee Rees' smart, sturdy "Pariah," starring Adepero Oduye as Alike, a high-school girl living a secretly gay life under the noses of her sure-to-be-disapproving parents. Rees carves out a drama in the space between knowing and not knowing. We sense that Alike's parents are intuitively aware that their daughter is homosexual, but not yet ready to confront the issue consciously.

As a narrative, Sue Miller's The Good Mother examines a society that would drive a wedge between qualities that are organically connected. Pow! comes the wedge, sundering a divorced mother's love for her child from that kindred desire she has for her lover. Pow! pow!: it drives deeper, splitting maternal responsibility from responsible sex. Pow! pow! pow! - there! a clean break between the mother and her own sexuality. Since this is the emotional equivalent of atom-smashing, little wonder that the devastation is total.

WASHINGTON - Senators investigating the Secret Service prostitution scandal said Wednesday that dozens of reported episodes of misconduct by agents point to a culture of carousing in the agency and urged Director Mark Sullivan to get past his insistence that the romp in Cartagena was a one-time mistake. The disconnect between the senators and Sullivan reappeared again and again throughout the two-hour hearing, even as the Secret Service chief for the first time apologized for the incident that tarnished the elite presidential protection force.

A former Norristown schools marching band technician has been arrested and charged with statutory rape and related offenses in connection with two sexual assaults that allegedly took place two years ago, Montgomery County officials said Wednesday. The suspect was identified by police as Steven M. Fitzgerald, 24, of Pennsauken, N.J. He was taken into custody Tuesday and ordered held at the Montgomery County prison when he could not post $100,000 cash bail, according to court records.

Even in the world of entertainment, somebody's always mad about something. At the Cannes Film festival, five women from French feminist group La Barbe took to protesting on the red carpet due to the lack of female directors at this year's fest. Of the 22 films vying for this year's Palme D'Or, none were directed by women. La Barbe (which means The Beard) previously had a letter complaining about the male-dominated line-up published in Le Monde and The Guardian newspapers.

There are a few things my mother loves unshakably: Jesus, her family, and President Obama — perhaps not in that order. Growing up black in the segregated South left her not bitter, but motivated to ensure her family would have a better life. Obama's election — and reelection — are part of her dream. But the president's declaration of support for same-sex marriage pitted her difficulty with homosexuality against her unwavering support for "her man," Obama. After my daughter was done cheering the president's announcement, she said, "Uh-oh!

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia's file on the Rev. James J. Brennan had dozens of documents bluntly detailing what the archbishop, nuns, pastors, and even Brennan himself thought of his strengths, flaws, and potential. Missing from those records were words like sex abuse, molestation, and accusation, a detective acknowledged Wednesday. "Those words are not used, no," James Dougherty, an investigator for the District Attorney's Office, told jurors at the landmark trial of Brennan and Msgr.

DEAR ABBY: When I was in sixth grade, my 19-year-old brother, "Ray," came into my room and fondled me late at night. I told my mom afterward. She told me not to tell my father and bought a lock for my door. Years later, when my sister found out what happened to me, she told me Ray had also done it to her. She told Dad and confronted Mom. Neither one ever said anything to Ray. They told us it was "in the past" and to leave it alone. Because my sister is openly confrontational about it, she isn't invited to family events that he is attending.

  A student at Germantown High School was in police custody Tuesday after he allegedly raped a fellow student in the basement of the school early Friday morning. Special Victims Unit Capt. John Darby said the students, two freshmen who'd known each other a few weeks, had been hanging out talking in a stairwell around 7:45 a.m. Friday when the boy ran down the stairs into a basement area, prompting the girl to follow. "The initial contact on that particular day was conversational," Darby said.

A Philadelphia police officer charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a Bucks County motel was released from custody Friday after posting $50,000 bail. Anthony Dattilo, 36, a seven-year veteran of the force, also was suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss by Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey. Police investigating the possible abduction of a 14-year-old girl found Dattilo with her and a 21-year-old woman in a room at the Lincoln Motel on Lincoln Highway in Bensalem about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

JAMES HARRIS is a man tormented. He dreams often of suffocating, choking as he wakes, unable to catch his breath. He keeps a knife tucked into his waistband almost always, a desperate defense against horrors he can easily imagine because he says he has lived them. He hesitates to get into anyone's car, unwilling to surrender control to the person behind the wheel. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia. Although five years have passed since the incident that changed his life, his torment doesn't end because his tormentor is still out there.