Posted on 06/20/2002 2:48:17 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack's interest dimmed Tuesday as a member of the public droned on toward the end of a Commissioners Court meeting. He casually flipped through his agenda, looking back at some of the items he and his colleagues had just approved.
To his great dismay, Radack saw that he had just voted to spend $2,200 to send 10 county HIV and sexually-transmitted-disease counselors to two Planned Parenthood seminars on human sexuality.
Radack, a social conservative not averse to using his political power like a Louisville slugger, immediately prevailed upon his colleagues to go back and retract their approval.
Although successful, Radack remained livid after the meeting that the item had even been on the agenda.
"This is a position I'm taking because this is the most outrageous damn thing I've ever seen on a Commissioners Court agenda," he said. "If it takes this kind of training for county employees to be able to go out and talk about these issues, they shouldn't be county employees. This is not the role of county government. Taxpayers should not fund this."
But Leo Nosser, the director of the Public Health and Environmental Services' HIV program, said the counselors are supposed to stress to the public that education is the key to preventing the spread of HIV and STDs.
To do that, Nosser said, the counselors must be knowledgeable about human sexuality, a subject with which they deal daily in jails, homeless shelters, clinics and substance abuse centers.
Although he declined to express an opinion on Commissioners Court's approval -- or later rejection -- of the seminars, Nosser did defend the request.
But Radack -- who said his actions had nothing to do with his anti-abortion views or any ill feelings toward Planned Parenthood -- disagreed.
He said he was even more angry after seeing the Planned Parenthood materials attached to the request. The seminars, he said, were to cover such subjects as sexual bias, sexual arousal, masturbation, fantasy role-playing, contraception and religion.
"This is a school that talks about all types of sexual activities, including how to create greater arousal," said Radack. "I just don't believe government should send its people to schools like this. ... If these people want this training, they can get it on their own time, and if Planned Parenthood thinks it's so socially redeeming, they can offer it for free."
Meryl Cohen, Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas' vice president of education and counseling and the seminar instructor, said she will consider doing just that. While conceding that some of the subject matter might be difficult to discuss, she said that is the point.
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