If you live in California, Texas, Michigan or New York, you probably know someone who has the clap. If you’re in Alaska, it wouldn't be unwise to just assume you have the clap.

You can't open an internet browser these days without hitting a loud opinion about how the decline of marriage — or, for less ambitious traditionalists, monogamy — is tearing society apart. Everything from hormonal contraception to gays have been blamed for the falling marriage rate in the US, and marriage proponents…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released their data on rates of STD infection among sexually active Americans in 2012 today. Merry Public Health Employee Christmas, one and all!

Talking to your ex is hard. Talking to your ex in the context of "Hey, you should get tested because I think I may have given you an STI during our halcyon days as lovers" is even harder. And, because humankind has an endless capacity for Relationship Cowardice, this sort of very awkward but extremely necessary…

Every now and again, the media likes to run with a time-honored story: GONORRHEA OMG YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE. The latest round of gonorrhea fear-mongering started with a strain of the STI called HO41. First discovered in a female sex worker in Japan, HO41 was thought to be in North America. Everyone freaked out. But…

You know how gonorrhea has always been, like, the chillest STI ever? All, "Hey, man! It's me, gonorrhea! Listen, I'm going to be hanging around your junk for a few weeks, but I'll keep it quiet—no loud parties!—and then when things start to get weird, just pop some antibiots and I'm out, brah!" Gonorrhea knows when to…

Gonorrhea — also known as "the clap," possibly because doctors used to believe the sexually transmitted infection was treatable by slamming a heavy object down on one's penis (yes, really) — is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, after chlamydia. And it's on the rise, with the…

This week, the World Health Organization warned Earth's genitalia that a new strain of drug-resistant gonorrhea was poised to unleash untreatable horror around the globe unless people were more careful with their junk. The good news is that "drug resistant" STD's aren't necessarily immune to all treatments. But the…

Researchers in Canada are flummoxed a puzzling set of statistics — despite the fact that most people had a safe sex message shouted at them from a young age, instances of certain sexually transmitted diseases have increased dramatically in the last decade or so. According to some experts the STDstravaganza can be…

Los Angeles County once had 36 clinics testing and treating sexually transmitted infections. That was in 1996; today, thanks to budget cuts, there are only twelve. Meanwhile, the county currently ranks first in the nation for numbers of chlamydia cases and second for gonorrhea, and the worst hit are young…

According to the CDC, the number of reported gonorrhea cases dropped last year to 301,000, the lowest rate since 1941. But don't start the celebratory fornicating just yet: chlamydia and syphilis infections are still on the rise.

Scientists fear that gonorrhea is on it's way to becoming a "superbug." Doctors have already noticed instances of the infection becoming resistant to multiple drugs in Japan, which is, as we know, where SuperThreats usually begin. [Reuters, image via Flickr]

Researchers report that STD rates in the U.S. are through the roof. "We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world," said John Douglas from the CDC, who suggests abstinence-only is to blame. [Reuters]

• Meet Craig Grant, founder of Caboodle Ranch. The 30-acre property is home to 500 unwanted felines. Using money out of his own pocket, Grant built an entire kitty-town, complete with lakefront cabins. •

The GOP's opposition to putting $330 million stimulus dollars towards STD prevention funding could hurt their own constituents: Gonorrhea, Chlamydia and Syphilis, the most prevalent non-AIDS STDs are unusually high in Red States. [Politico]

I feel like I'm constantly talking about the STDs I have/had, to the point that I'm pretty sure my friends are sick of hearing about it and I'm paranoid that people I first meet (who might know about it, thanks to the internet) give me weird looks when I sit on their furniture. And even though I'm burdened with…