Editing Sexual revolution (section)

==Non-marital sex==
[[Premarital sex]], heavily stigmatized for some time, became more widely accepted. The increased availability of [[birth control]] (and the legalization of abortion in some places) helped reduce the chance that pre-marital sex would result in unwanted children. By the mid-1970s the majority of newly married American couples had experienced sex before marriage.<ref>For an analysis and facts about how technological advance in contraception changed the cost/benefit analysis for engaging in premarital sex, see Fernández-Villaverde, Greenwood, and Guner (2014) "From Shame to Game in One Hundred Years: An Economic Model of the Rise in Premarital Sex and its De-Stigmatization," ''[[Journal of the European Economic Association]]'', '''12''' (1): 25–61. The research is summarized in this video: {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR366Gq-5Sg |title=From Shame to Game in One Hundred Years - Nezih Guner |website=[[YouTube]] |date=July 5, 2010 |access-date=July 1, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026114212/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR366Gq-5Sg |archive-date=October 26, 2015 }}</ref>

Central to the change was the development of relationships between unmarried adults, which resulted in earlier sexual experimentation reinforced by a later age of marriage. On average, Americans were gaining sexual experience before entering into monogamous relationships. The increasing divorce rate and the decreasing stigma attached to divorce during this era also contributed to sexual experimentation.<ref name=GLBTQ /> By 1971, more than 75% of Americans thought that premarital sex was acceptable, a threefold increase from the 1950s, and the number of unmarried Americans aged twenty to twenty-four more than doubled from 1960 to 1976. Americans were becoming less and less interested in getting married and settling down and as well less interested in monogamous relationships. In 1971, 35% of the country said they thought marriage was obsolete.<ref name="Easy Come, Easy Go" />

The idea of marriage being outdated came from the development of casual sex between Americans. With the development of the birth control pill and the legalization of abortion in 1973, there was little threat of unwanted children out of wedlock. Also, during this time every known sexually transmitted disease was readily treatable.<ref name="Easy Come, Easy Go" />

[[Swinging (sexual practice)|Swinger clubs]] were organizing in places ranging from the informal suburban home to disco-sized emporiums that offered a range of [[Extramarital sex|sexual possibilities with multiple partners]]. In New York City in 1977, Larry Levenson opened [[Plato's Retreat]], which eventually shut down in 1985 under regular close scrutiny by public health authorities.<ref name="Easy Come, Easy Go" />