Can we be frank about something for a moment? Teenagers have sex. It is biologically built into humans that we start to have sex somewhere in our teen years. Some start earlier, some later, but for most of the history of our species it has been true.
Which is what makes the whole Republican- Conservative hullabaloo about sex education so insane. Not that it keeps them from acting on it. Take the new law in Wisconsin that will mandate that in sex ed classes abstinence be stressed as the sure way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
Like nearly everything Republicans do this is true, but only are far as it goes. It is a kin to saying that the only sure way to prevent burns is to avoid all sources of heat. That will do the trick, there is no doubt, but it is just nuts to think that telling teens that will make them avoid fire.
The reason that the Wisconsin State Senate took up this bill is because two years ago the then Democratic controlled legislature did a reasonable thing and drew up a comprehensive sexual education plan. They didn’t do it for nefarious reasons (though you’d be hard pressed to convince Republicans of that) they did it because kids in Wisconsin where having sex, getting pregnant and, tragically, passing around STD’s.
The idea was that by providing information on the use of contraceptives, meaning condoms and diaphragms’ and the like, that there would be less babies having babies. Your basic liberal approach to the fact that people with their hormones fizzing and very little spending money are going to figure out that sex is free and fun. And once they figure out that Tab A goes in Slot B, well it is going to happen a lot.
But Republicans seem to have forgotten when they were teens. They seem to think that just telling someone to keep their hands out of the cookie jar is going to be enough. This of course flies in the face of the evidence but that never bothers conservatives.
Lest we think that there is a not a total disconnect between Republican thinking and reality on this take a look at this paragraph from the Twincities.com article:
Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth, a Republican and evangelical Christian, made headlines last year when he said he was so convinced that teaching contraception would lead to more teen sex that he would charge teachers who taught it with contributing to the delinquency of minors.
Yeah, Scott, it is telling them about contraception that will get those teens doing the horizontal bop, and not the fact that it is fun, feels good, is basically free and their bodies are screaming “Go! GO! GOOOOO!”.
Here is what the new law would do:
Major changes to the law are included in Lazich's bill, which is backed by Pro-Life Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. In addition to emphasizing abstinence, the plan would require sex education teachers to teach parental responsibilities and the "socioeconomic" benefits of marriage. It also dictates the makeup of parent-teacher-clergy boards that advise school districts on sexual education and loosens the definition of medically accurate information.
What boils my blood is that last bit about the definition of medically accurate information. This is important because back in the bad old days of the criminal Bush administration there were all kinds of abstinence only sex ed courses that had all kinds of spurious information like down playing the effectiveness of condoms and the birth control pill in preventing pregnancy.
As you might guess Wisconsin Democrats are not very happy about this, from the article:
"To pretend (children aren't having sex) is absolutely foolish," Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, said. "This is such a 19th-century mentality piece of legislation ... you'd think we'd want to get out in front of this and make sure they learn properly there are consequences to their choices."
This is s crux of the entire matter. Like it or not teens have sex. We can try to sweep back the sea, and put our fingers in our ears but it will not change the reality. Personally I don’t care when kids start to have sex, I just want them to be safe about it.
What is really laughably tragic is that this kind of legislation is coming form the same party that prattles on an on, ad nauseum, about personal responsibility but it unwilling to give young people the information they need to be personally responsible.
If parents would like to have a portion of the classes urging the kids not to have sex, I am not opposed to it. As willing as I am to let teens be teens and follow the nature of our evolution, there is no need for anyone to rush into things.
Teens fall in love, and part of love, especially when you are a teen, is sex. This is a real gravity, and like gravity it will punish those who ignore it.
The floor is yours.