Posted on 03/26/2004 7:47:33 AM PST by writer33
With helmets, a bullhorn and an Easter basket full of condoms, youth activists canvassed downtown Spokane streets Thursday in search of signatures and support for comprehensive sex education.
About a dozen students, who represented Odyssey Youth Center and Planned Parenthood, came together for the national My Voice Counts campaign. As with other youth groups around the country, their aim is to educate the public about comprehensive sex ed and collect signatures on a petition in support of the federal Family Life Education Act (FLEA).
The act would set aside $100million a year for five years for comprehensive sex education -- with curriculum that includes both abstinence and contraception -- in schools. The federal government currently funds abstinence-only education programs.
"We support (FLEA) because abstinence-only education is exclusive. It censors important information about contraception," said Katharine Isserlis, an intern at Planned Parenthood and a junior at Lewis and Clark High School. "Students need to make informed decisions about their health."
"Abstinence-only education discriminates against a large population of kids. By saying you should wait until you're married to have sex, it disregards the needs of gay youth who can't get married," said Odyssey intern Adam Cogswell, a student at Spokane Falls Community College. "It disregards those who have already had sex, and those who have been sexually abused."
Odyssey is a Spokane-based center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender young people, as well as youth unsure about their sexuality.
To share their message Thursday, some students broadcast various statistics through a bullhorn as they asked people to sign their petition.
"If we don't honor our bodies we don't learn to care about ourselves," said Spokane resident JoAnn Zugel, who added her name to the petition. "We need integrity in learning to be sexual. It's part of who we are."
Some students wore colorful sandwich boards plastered with statistics, such as "Every 11 seconds, a young person in the U.S. gets an STD," and "Half of new HIV infections in the U.S. occur in people under age 25."
For part of the morning, group members scrawled statistics in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the federal building -- until police told them they were defacing public property. Undeterred, the students washed their work off the sidewalk and continued their trek.
Another group donned protective gear, such as helmets and shoulder pads, and walked around with someone dressed as a wand-toting, purple-winged "condom fairy." Their sign read: "You wear protection for everything else, why not sex?"
With numbers for Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Rep. George Nethercutt programmed into their cell phones, students urged citizens to make a call urging the politicians to "show their support of honest sex ed" by sponsoring FLEA.
"I have 16 nieces and nephews, and talking to them about what they learned in school -- I know they don't learn all they need to know," said Browne's Addition resident Brigid Flynn-Sevier, who stopped to sign the petition and make a call.
"When I was growing up, going to a Catholic school, I pretty much learned nothing. My dad gave me a book called `Know Your Body' and told me `Read this or you're grounded,"' she said, as her 8-month-old daughter Louisa squealed happily. "I want my daughter to have sex ed that is complete and honest. That's the only way kids will know what to do."
Those who disagreed with the students' mission looked away, shaking their heads. Some said abstinence-only education makes the most sense, and others thought sex ed should be left up to parents.
"There are lots who don't want to sign the petition," said Eastern Washington University student Megan Cuilla, an Odyssey member.
"But for every one who does, it's a step forward," she said. "We're not empowering people to have sex. We just want them to have the information they need to stay safe if they do."
And there it is. Exclusiveness 101. A regular course in today's colleges of America. (Sarcasm for your morning's enjoyment)
"Some students wore colorful sandwich boards plastered with statistics, such as "Every 11 seconds, a young person in the U.S. gets an STD," and "Half of new HIV infections in the U.S. occur in people under age 25."
Once again. I believe abstinence covers this issue as well. And I don't want to hear they're going to do it anyway. Because that's not entirely true.
A DOZEN and it makes the news! A DOZEN of them!
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| Culture of Vice ( www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/977884/posts ) |
They need the government to teach them about sex?? Are they looking for licenses????
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