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San Francisco Hosts 'Masturbate-A-Thon'
Mon May 5, 2003 10:23 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - More than 100 men and women gathered in famously liberal San Francisco this past weekend for what organizers said was the city's second annual public "Masturbate-a-Thon."
Organizers said they have taken the event "from the sheets to the streets," offering volunteers -- 18 years or older -- the opportunity to overcome their inhibitions in "a safe environment" and raise money for charity.

Horace Santry, 55, said the Friday night event was his first. "I have a lot of anxiety, but doing this among a group of like-minded people does make it easier," he said.

Men and women ranging in age from the early 20s to the 50s, mingled at a local performing arts center in San Francisco's South of Market district, known for artists, galleries and nightclubs, before getting down to business.

To the strains of soothing new-age music, the men and women -- a number of them couples -- were shown into rooms for men, women or both.

"This is an effort to counter centuries of censure, to make masturbation more fun and to make it more accessible," said Thomas W. Laqueur, a professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley and author of the recent "Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation," in a telephone interview before the event.

The event is a fund-raiser for the local Center for Sex and Culture, a non-profit organization that provides sex education.

San Francisco Masturbate-a-Thons have raised more than $25,000 over the past five years, said Center co-founder Robert Lawrence.

The event has inspired others in several U.S. states and countries, from Alaska to Germany, in which participants raise money in the privacy of their homes.

Israeli Cop Mistakenly Undressed, Fondled at Party
Mon May 5, 2003 10:27 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli policeman responding to neighbors' complaints about a rowdy hen party received an unexpected welcome at the door when revelers mistook him for a stripper and began to take off his clothes and stroke him.
"The women had ordered a stripper dressed as a police officer," national police spokesman Gil Kleiman said on Monday.

The policeman showed the women his badge but they thought it was part of the act. He was extricated only after his partner came up and vouched for his identity, Kleiman said.

"She took off my shirt and untied my shoelaces," the officer was quoted by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily as saying about one of the partygoers. "She started stroking me and called on her friends to join in."