Lipstick traces

When Frank hipped me to the whole Rainbow Party tempest in a teapot, I was all like, "Nuh-uh." And he was all like, "Yah-huh." (Actually, he was more like ::shrug:: but whatever.) Anyhow, the Times, ever with its finger on the three-week-old pulse, examines the controversy, and ultimately surmises that the Rainbow Party is the 21st-century equivalent of the girl in high school with the hotdog in her cooter.

"This 'phenomenon' has all the classic hallmarks of a moral panic," said Dr. Deborah Tolman, director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University. "One day we have never heard of rainbow parties and then suddenly they are everywhere, feeding on adults' fears that morally bankrupt sexuality among younger teens is rampant, despite any actual evidence, as well as evidence to the contrary."