I truly believe our government has lost it’s mind.
Here is a great column on the SFGate website entitled Sex Will Make You Go Blind
Single? Under 30? You are in grave danger. Your government says so. Please, stop laughing
…
It is the only viable explanation. It is the only way to account for something like, say, the latest twist in the Abstinence Education Program from Bush’s increasingly laughable Department of Health and Human Services, a $50 million slice of embarrassing government detritus that is now actually encouraging all states to tell their single, youngish residents that they should — how to put this so you don’t shoot coffee through your nose? — that everyone should avoid sex entirely, until they turn 30.See? See your reaction? You are like: No way. You are like: Is the United States government really saying that? You are like: Laughter, a smirk, maybe a shrug and a sigh and a sad shake of the head and another glass of wine because, you know, what the hell is wrong with these people?
Maybe you think I am making this up. Maybe you think that our fair government, as sad and lost and nipple-terrified as it is, can’t seriously be suggesting that, to avoid STDs and unwanted pregnancy and unchecked misery in their obviously sad and irresponsible little lives, single people under 30 should not have sex, like, ever. And maybe not even then.
You would, of course, be wrong.
It’s for real. It’s an actual HHS dictum and there are people who actually believe it should be adhered to, and I’m right now guessing you broke this rule this very morning and if you didn’t you really, really wanted to, and if you’re over 30 and/or married chances are you are sitting there right now wishing you were still single and/or under 30 just one more time just so you could squishily, juicily break that rule again, oh my God yes please. Just a guess.
He’s right, that’s my reaction.
This is total insanity.
As they say over at Pandagon all the time, Why is everybody in the U.S. Government so concerned about what people do with teh cock?
It’s none of their fucking business!
Everybody with a functioning brain knows that abstinence only sex education doesn’t work! People are going to have sex, no matter what you tell them (and why shouldn’t they?)
So if you are really concerned with the teenage abortion rate, as all the fundimentalists claim they are, then you need to reduce teenage pregnancy. And if you want to teach abstinence, that’s fine, but you need to teach them about birth control and safe sex too, so that when they do have sex, which they will, they don’t get pregnant or contract an STD.
More from the column:
I remember Joycelyn Elders. I remember this feisty and outspoken surgeon general, appointed by Clinton back in ’93, who dared to suggest, in public, that masturbation is fine and healthy and nothing to worry about and perhaps should be taught to teens as a safer alternative to riskier forms of sex.
The nation blinked. The Christian right, of course, was apoplectic. Clinton was forced to ask Elders for her resignation. Later, on the lecture circuit, Elders famously said, “As long as I was in Washington I never met anybody that I thought was good enough, who knew enough or who loved enough to make sexual decisions for anybody else.” And there you have it.
I remember Ms. Elders (vaguely). I didn’t remember that she was forced to resign because of the damned fundies.
I don’t think anyone in the government should have any right to make any type of sexual decisions about anyone other then themselves.
Don’t like gay sex? Fine, don’t have it. But don’t tell other people they can’t have it just because you don’t like it.
And I’ll finish up with the end of the column:
I know, I know, it’s all a bit silly. After all, the Bush government is all about restriction, contraction, containment and self-righteousness and pain. They’re about as likely to pump out some positive sex vibes as the pope is to offer free condoms in the Vatican gift shop.
But Jesus with a Hitachi Magic Wand, one thing you can reasonably hope for is a government that’s at least remotely in touch and relevant, the slightest bit informed about how life really is and hence will stop throwing these obnoxious bones to the gasping sexless Christian right. This is what you hope.
Meanwhile, we’re still stuck with the same old questions: Is this really what our government is all about? Will this ever change? Can they really not hear all the derisive laughter?
