Recently, there's been a lot of talk about abstinence only education in the schools. For those of you who are not acquainted with this hideous fusion of church and state, allow me to give some (VERY topical) background. It's government money given to schools on the condition that sex education be what is called Abstinence Only. There are several caveats that the schools must strictly adhere to or risk being stripped of these badly needed funds.

The crux of these caveats is that "sex-ed" programs must have as their exclusive purpose the teaching of abstinence and that sex inside of the context of marriage is the universal standard. Birth control cannot be discussed except in terms of its failure rates.

Basically, it's perpetuating a hetero-normative, sex-negative, and inherently Christian value system in our schools. Besides the fact that if you want to teach your kid to be a sheet wearing homophobe I think it should be done in the privacy of your own trailer, this is also dangerous in the context of public health. By not teaching kids about sex and contraception we put them in the dangerous position of making uninformed decisions which, in my mind, is tantamount to murder. The Clap is not our number one fear anymore...kids are contracting diseases that are KILLING THEM. And we basically have a government mandate to continue this.

And it's not just in the schools now. There is a government website called 4 Parents. Please keep in mind that this is .gov site. It's really chilling that medically incorrect information is being perpetuated by the government as impartial fact (chilling but not surprising I guess). This article points out a lot of inconsistencies on the site, but here are a few of my favorite gems.

**In vitro fertilization: A technique in which a female egg cell is removed from the body and placed in a culture dish to which sperm are added. After fertilization has occurred, the embryo is placed in the female's uterus, where it develops into a child. (From the Glossary Section)

**"Oral sex has taken the place of the "spin the bottle" game with children as young as 11 and 12 years old."

**The failure rate for condoms is 15% and is only 10% more effective than the rhythm method. I know an Irish Catholic family with 15 kids that would probably beg to differ with this statistic.

**They also constantly refer to an embryo or fetus and an "unborn child" and to homosexuality as a choice or preference.

So much for the separation of church and state. I wonder how much longer people are going to allow a moral minority to masquerade as a majority while leading this country around by the balls. As teenage pregnancy rate soar and government aid programs dwindle, young people are becoming infected with HIV at alarming rates. At what point do we declare ourselves a nation in crisis and call on our leaders to take their crucifixes out of their asses and DO something? I just don't understand why there isn't more outrage about this.

On a lighter note: The website defines masturbation as: "Self-stimulation of the genitals that may lead to orgasm". May lead to orgasm? We know the Right is ineffectual on many levels, but wow........ that's a new low.

Posted by LMM14_1 :: 7:33 PM :: 0 Comments:

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