Sexuality, Health, and Human Rights

Over the past 25 years, there has been a veritable explosion of public health research on sexuality. Never have sex and sexual matters been more topical or more worthy of scientific attention. After a brief interlude of research attention to the subject of sex in the mid-20th century, when the controversial Kinsey studies were published, research focusing on sexuality at the population level languished, and financial support for such work was almost nonexistent. Particularly in the wake of the emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the consequences of this long-term neglect of inquiry into sexuality and health became apparent, as did the limitations of existing conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches. The urgent need for more innovative approaches to the study of sexual life became evident. As public health researchers and practitioners have struggled to address these issues in recent decades, a new wave of research, intervention, and sexual health promotion began to take shape, usually from the ground up, in response to the needs and demands of local communities struggling to respond constructively to a range of sexual health challenges.1