Condoms

As another way of showing my dedication to 1100 Torches, I wanted to report on an important blog post my friend Don sent me.

Advocates for Youth has been championing a great cause - that we zero out Abstinence Only programs and instead begin mandating comprehensive sex education be taught in public schools. The 2010 Budget Blueprint, AFY reports, only includes a section under Health and Human Services for preventing Teen Pregnancy.

"Prevents Teen Pregnancy. The Budget supports State, community-based, and faith-based efforts to reduce teen pregnancy using evidence based models. The program will fund models that stress the importance of abstinence while providing medically-accurate and age-appropriate information to youth who have already become sexually active."

We've had years of programming that simply isn't working - and further, in 2007 we found out that the Bush Administration's HHS Department was fudging data and requiring the use of

"misleading" and "scientifically inaccurate" information in three curricula used by programs that receive federal abstinence-only funding."

At this point 17 states including California opted out of Abstinence Only Education refusing federal funds that mandate it be the only way if funding is accepted. The AP went further by reporting that "participation in the program is down 40 percent over two years. . . Arizona and Iowa recently announced they will pull out at the start of the upcoming fiscal year."

This means of the 28 states that accept the funding only $21million of the full $50 million allotted to states was actually being used because states just didn't believe in the program.

AFY goes further raising questions about the 2010 Budget because it says it will provide

“medically-accurate and age-appropriate information to youth who have already become sexually active.” Does this mean that those who haven’t had sex yet don’t get this sex education? How will “sexually active youth” be identified? Or what assumptions will go into deciding who receives these lessons?

Are the “model” programs that “stress the importance of abstinence” also required to provide the “medically-accurate and age-appropriate” components? Or are those “model” programs stressing abstinence the same “faith based efforts” that the previous Administration funded?

Will we see a parallel stream of funding that allows those ineffective, harmful abstinence-only programs that are rooted in simply telling kids that it is dangerous and immoral to have sex before marriage, while ignoring or misleading youth on the effectiveness of contraception?

And perhaps most concerning, there is no reference to “comprehensive sex education" AFY Blog

The points are well argued and raise an important issue that is necessary for the next HHS (whoever that might be) to take on as soon as possible. We must stop these reckless programs which consistently mislead and outright lie to young people who deserve to have the proper information and education to better arm themselves against health threats.

I'm reminded by the great opening West Wing scene which I lovingly refer to as the Religious Smackdown where the good Pastor says "Show the average teenage man a condom and his mind will turn to thoughts of lust." And Toby says "Show the average teenage male a lug wrench and his mind will turn...."

Fictional Surgeon General or not - condoms reduce teen pregnancy and HIV and AIDS. (pdf)

Even though Trojan Condoms launched its Evolve America tour last April, the safer sex campaign still made quite an appearance at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Calling it the "condomvention" Trojan's bus rolled into Denver, Colorado for a huge party the first night of the festivities.

With special guests including Ja Rule, Spike Lee, Alan Cumings, Josh Lucas, Tony Goldwyn, and Gloria Reuben, the party started with open bar and a little comedy.

The Evolve tour targeted delegates, sexual health advocacy groups, policymakers and the presidential candidates themselves, urging them to acknowledge safer sex issues and get them on the political and social agendas.

According to the International Business Times, the tour is designed to engage Americans directly by pledging to use a condom every time and sign a petition for change. This, they say, is in light of:

"condom advertising restrictions on network prime time television in effect, and over a billion dollars spent on abstinence-only education that does not advocate condom use..."

There are two tours continuing from the conventions. Evolve Yourself and Involve Yourself plan to crisscross the country through the final months of the Presidential campaigns.

"Trojan Evolve is a call to action," says Jim Daniels, Vice President of Marketing for Church & Dwight Co Inc. "We're quite literally going city to city asking Americans to pledge to use a condom every time, sign a petition for change and help turn the tide on the unhealthy state of sexual health in this country."

See my video on the campaign below and take the pledge at TrojanCondoms.com

Editorial rant: Why is it that we don't see Democrats hitting the GOP on how these programs didn't work and opposing them because republicans still want to do abstinence only education?? if 90% of American is for comprehensive sex education ... then why aren't we standing up and saying - so are democrats and republicans aren't. Just curious why more people aren't pushing this issue given new facts, data, the Trojan tour, and .... need I mention the VP's own little at home experiment?

Crossposted from Wiretap Magazine