When I entered in the mid 1980s, the chances for Federal funding of research on sexual topics was exceedingly limited, if not nonexistent in the social science fields.  (I am not talking about funding of sexual issues using animal models.)  The AIDS epidemic began to mainstream concerns for population-based research on sexual behavior at least at NIH, but there was growing resistance in the Congress to fund it.  Both my project on a national survey of adult sexual conduct and the Adolescent Sexuality study were initially blocked from funding in 1991, but subsequently, with the change of administration, it became much easier to get funding on a fairly broad range of topics.  There are still efforts today to forbid funding of sex studies by some members of Congress but their efforts are regularly rejected by the Congress more generally.  I am presently collaborating with a number of colleagues, including physicians and biopsychologists, on a massive study of intimacy, networks, and health among the older population (57 to 85 years of age).  While it probably will never be a cakewalk, I think the possibilities for pursuing mainstream careers in sexuality research are quite good. – Edward Laumann, Full Professor, Sociology, University of Chicago