Posted on 06/16/2007 7:51:35 PM PDT by Baladas
LITTLE ROCK - Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders says presidential nominee Dr. James Holsinger's views on homosexuality should not matter but how he squares those views with the job of promoting "a sexually healthy nation" should.
"It would be very difficult for me to feel that this is the person that we should be confirming in this day and time with all the problems we have, related to sexual health," Elders told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Holsinger, a Kentucky cardiologist nominated to the surgeon general post by President Bush last month, has come under fire from gay rights groups for voting to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church and writing in 1991 that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy.
"I think as the nation's chief health educator we need to know what he would do to help America evolve into a sexually healthy nation," Elders said. "As far as I'm concerned his views on homosexuality should not matter, but how he uses those views to educate and promote attitudes and feelings in our country should matter."
Elders commented on Holsinger in a Monday interview with the newspaper's religion editor, the paper reported Saturday.
As surgeon general under President Clinton, Elders also was controversial and resigned in 1994 after suggesting that it might be appropriate to teach masturbation as a way to avoid the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
As surgeon general, she also advocated the distribution of condoms to young people; said the government should consider legalizing drugs; endorsed gay and lesbian adoptions; and accused conservative Christian critics of "selling out our children in the name of religion."
Now retired from her medical practice, Elders said the U.S. is a "sexually unhealthy nation." As evidence, she cited the rise of single-parent households and the number of pregnant teenagers and Americans with AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
"...when 56 percent of the young black gay men in our nation's capital are HIV positive, that's higher than in sub-Saharan Africa," she said. "How can we say that we're a sexually healthy nation?"
Elders said the topic of sex should not be controversial.
"You know, what you do in your bedroom is none of my business," she said. "We need to understand that sex is about what I call the three Ps: procreation, protection of yourself and everybody else, and pleasure. And 99.9 percent of sex that goes on in the world is for pleasure."
Like anyone with half of a brain cares what this moron has to say...
You got that right, I guess it must be a slow news day in LaLa Land...
Meadow Muffin
Should take her comedy act on the road.
She was a joke. She remain a joke. Clinton was an incompetent scum ball who laughs at the foolishness of those who adore him.
Is THAT true? If so, I'd be a really pissed DC person about the new $30Billion going to Africa.....for AIDS. And, I'd be wondering WHY it's so high in DC?
this is the one who distributed rubbers in arkansas schools that were known to be leakers, right?
>> Elders said the U.S. is a “sexually unhealthy nation.”
I’ve never seen the Surgeon General’s job description. But given the press accounts and the focus of confirmation hearings, the job must consist entirely of Sex in America.
If you have (say) cancer, sorry, you’re on your own. Unless it’s cancer of your sex organs! Then the SG is back on the case...
Ummmmmmmmmm is this woman retarded?? You cannot have sexual health when practicing a perversion that is life threatening and medically dangerous at best!! Anyone with half a brain would never go near that behavior, as they know better. But this woman would rather bash smokers or something equally PC.
Coming from her, that’s a ringing endorsement.
Retarded, no. She was smart enough to earn her M.D.
Now messed-up in the head, that’s a different matter entirely.
I think she wanted first-graders to know about “self-touching.”
It seems likes a position where the government gives health advice.
How do we evolve into a sexually healthy nation? Easy! Be moral.
Isn’t she the one who wanted to teach the kida how to masterbate?
Who else?
Was that a poll of all men, or were a lot of those polled faking it?
I agree. This is one stupid governmental position that needs to be eliminated. If the government was run as a private company this useless job would have been eliminated looooooonnnnngggg ago.
>> Isn’t she the one who wanted to teach the kida how to masterbate?
Yep!
From http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/april23/elders-423.html:
“Elders, better known as the “Condom Queen” to her conservative opponents in Congress, spoke about her now-infamous address to the United Nations on World AIDS Day in 1994. Asked if masturbation should be taught in schools as a way to prevent AIDS, Elders replied, “Masturbation is something that is part of human sexuality, and is part of something that perhaps should be taught.”
So, remember, kids:
IF YOU CAN READ, THANK A TEACHER!
IF YOU HAVE REALLY THICK GLASSES AND HAVE TO SQUINT TO READ, THANK JOCELYN ELDERS
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