memo to rethugs- abstinence only losing ground

it comes as no surprise to me that abstinence only programs don’t work.

“A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration’s social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom.”

i was a teenager- and gee, i had sex.  it’s a pretty simple concept really- put hundreds of hormonally charged teenagers into a great big concrete box sitting side by side- sex happens.  and no, i am not calling america’s schools ‘breeding grounds’, but the after school hours are often unsupervised, especially with older teens.  anyway, according to a new poll, parent’s overwhelmingly support age appropriate sex education.  imagine that.

“The poll indicates that 81 percent of African-American parents who attend church once a week or more, and 85 percent of those who identify as Evangelical Christians, support age-appropriate comprehensive sex education. Studies done in Catholic schools of age-appropriate K-12 sex ed demonstrate its effectiveness.”

imagine that most normal folks in america aren’t into the creepy purity balls where fathers take their prepubescent and teenaged daughters to what amounts to incestuous proms- and most realize that young people will have sex because it’s nature.  sex isn’t ugly and dirty outside of marriage (well, i suppose it could be if you are into that sort of thing) and it’s only the holier-than-thou crazy christian groups rattling the cage to get contraception out of schools and out of pharmacies.  looks like that worked out well for sarah palin and her daughter.  hopefully, she gets her head out of her ass soon- she has 2 more daughters at home- and bristol, apparently, is pretty fertile.

“By the way, as has been pointed out, Palin backed abstinence-only education during her 2006 gubernatorial race. In an Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire, Palin gave this response to the following question:

Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.”

Sphere: Related Content

girl talk

I am just an average 42 year old woman trying to survive in this crazy world. I love the thought of writing but don’t always have it in me. That said, I am the mother of 2 teenaged boys and one 21 year old boy. Let me tell you life is not easy! and I fear every sin I have ever made is coming back to me through my kids. The world is a whole lot different than when I grew up. I wanted to write about the boys but the thing bothering lately are girls. I want to know what happened. Girls today are so thin that I wonder if we were all obese growing up. I watch the girls walk in the city and my neighborhood with the belly shirts and they must all be a size 2 or less. Do they eat?, or is it peer pressure, or have bodies changed over time? I fear for these girls’ mental and emotional states- which leads me into my next issue- sexuality. Lately, it seems, I have been witnessing a ‘new’ phenomenon. Girls today seem to be proud to be experimenting with bi-sexual or lesbian relationships, as well as, heterosexual. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think it is more chic in these girls’ minds and it’s ‘the cool thing’ to be with both. I have met many girls who find it chic and I wonder if their parents even know what they’re doing and with whom. Have they talked about protection? I fear someday these girls will grow up and regret what they have done. So what do you all think? I’d like to hear your opinions.

tags: teen issues, teen eating disorders, parenting 2007

Sphere: Related Content

I Homeschool In Favor Of The “Homosexual Agenda”

Well, not exactly, but when I read about organizations trying to encourage families to home school by using bigotry, it really pisses me off.

Of course, one of the main “selling points” when it comes to home schooling is the fact that each individual family can decide for themselves what is best to teach their children. Although, the reasons to home school are as varied as the many patterns of snowflakes, the fact that religious bigots get more media play when it comes to home schooling than people who home school for more eclectic reasons really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

It’s hard enough to dispel the myths about home schooling without also having to defend the fact that not all home schoolers are Fundamentalist Christians, much less Christian, at all. In fact, one of the reasons I balked at home schooling, when my husband first brought it up, 9 years ago, was because I did not want to be associated with Fundies and I was a practicing Christian, at the time.

The “Campaign for Children and Families” based in California, is calling for California parents to “stand for family values” by encouraging them to home school their children and pull them out of California public schools, as they prepare to push their “homosexual agenda” through “sexual indoctrination” on California school children. They are against two new laws passed in California that are designed to educate kids about homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals and teach tolerance of same. Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Spending our Tax dollars on Abstinence-only websites?

Yes, my dear reader, our federal government is spending our tax dollars on government websites that promote abstinence-only when it comes to the sexuality of our youth.

Last time I checked that isn’t a government function, indoctrinating individuals to abstain from sex prior to “marriage”. But here it is in all it’s ahem..glory. The first words on this site are:

You can help your son or daughter make healthy choices, including deciding to wait until marriage to have sex. 4parents.gov can help you talk to your child, pre-teen, or teen early and often about waiting to have sex, what happens as he or she grows, and other important topics.

This website is divided into three main parts. Each area will help you as a parent to talk with your pre-teen or teen to come up with ways to handle lots of situations:

Talking to Your Pre-Teen or Teen About Waiting
How to talk. Answers to tough questions. Skills your son or daughter needs. Healthy relationships.

Sex and Risky Youth Behaviors
Risks of teen sex. Birth Control. Alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and violence.

Sexual Development and Reproduction
Puberty. Sexual Development. Pregnancy.

The website states that it provides parents with “information” to help them talk to their children about pre-marital sex, or more correctly, how to make them abstain from pre-marital sex. The problem is, as ThinkProgress points out, the information isn’t grounded in science. Also, and more importantly in my humble opinion, abstinence-only programs have had “no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence” as this report commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services points out in its Executive Summary:

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

The realness cloud…

I am pleased to announce that the Angry Black Bitch has allowed us to post one of her fine musings. Please take a moment to check out her blog..she is a creative genius that uses her words very wisely.

A certain Marva, who is a self proclaimed black Republican, wrote this bitch an e-mail.

Blink.

After reading several posts, Marva was moved to “urge me to come down off of my fantasy cloud and face the reality that liberal politics hurt black people”.

Ahhh, this bitch hasn’t heard the fervent plea of a black conservatism in a month of Sundays.

Welcome, Marva!

Shall we?

A bitch has been floating on a cloud of realness, honey…for years…and I’m sure as shit not coming down anytime soon.

You know and I know that you know and I know that this country hasn’t seen real liberal policies in forever and a day, so let’s stop bullshitting and get down to business.

A system of public education that equally distributes funding, provides oversight as well as assistance when that oversight finds flaws and that values teaching our youth rather than dismantling public education through passive aggressive policy-based terrorism will be good for America.

Tax reform that closes loop holes and taxes rich motherfuckers too instead of handing them a pass…that eases the burden on the middle class and single parents and young people and the working poor…that actually takes in money from corporations instead of granting them a fabillion trillion ways to get over…cough…that kind of reform will be good for the majority of Americans and last time I checked black people are in that number.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content