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Contrary to the perceptions of many, homosexuality is not necessarily condemned by the Church. In fact, the experiences of three LoveYourself volunteers - Rye Tumbaga, Gibs de los Santos, and Geno Maglinao, point to the Church as a safe place of acceptance and love. By Kris Tangco In a TV5 interview in February 2016, Manny Pacquiao, who was then running for the Senate, provoked a storm of controversy with his views on same-sex marriage and relationships. Homosexuals are “worse than animals,” the conservative Christian said on national television, quoting the Bible as reference for his statements. Social media was abuzz for several weeks, and the divisiveness was palpable. Articles from writers like Shakira Sison of Rappler started resurfacing, strongly advocating support for same sex marriage. In one article , the staunch defender of LGBT rights bemoans those who claim to be friends with LGBTs insofar as they are “funny for calling out what’s wrong with [that girl’s] outfit” but are a

By Carlos Diego A. Rozul There are some things from our childhood that we leave behind. We throw away our old clothes, our old school books, and even our old security blanket. Not all things from our past are thrown away, however. There are a lot that we carry into adulthood such as the lessons we’ve learned, the memories we’ve formed with old friends, and for some of us, even our old toy collection! As we grow older, the games we play tend to get more and more complicated. From the simple rules of Snakes and Ladders to the complex dynamics of a strategic board game, we play to obtain the same objective - to win. When we realize our nature as sexual beings, we begin to play with trust, pleasure, and health. In the game of safe and satisfying sex, the choice is ours to pick what card to draw. Mutual Masturbation and Dry Humping The first card we may have drawn when first engaging in sex is manual sex and frottage. In more accessible terms, mutual masturbation (jack off or fingering) an

By Kris Tangco The HIV crisis has gone on for four decades, and for four decades the world has struggled against it. Doctors, scientists, educators, policy makers, writers, artists – people of all walks and all colors have, in their own ways, sought to make sense of this crisis and its relationship with society. From citizens to states, from medicine to prayer, from cures to cries for reform, people’s visions of how to respond to the crisis are as diverse as the people who bear its scars. The goal of this series is to give you a glimpse of these visions: the roles people of different passions and disciplines have played in this crisis that, as of January 2017 as recorded by the Department of Health’s Epidemiology Bureau, is infecting 28 Filipinos daily. The HIV crisis in the Philippines requires urgent attention due to increasing rates of HIV infection, in contrast to a worldwide trend of plateauing or decreasing rates. Moreover, of the 26 Filipinos daily who contract HIV, 8 of them a