37% of Americans believe that they can get HIV through kissing.
Yet we should not discuss condoms in school.
16% of Americans believe that they can catch HIV from toilet seats.
Yet we should not discuss condoms in school.
Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, has repeatedly said that the HIV can "easily pass through" condoms. He's not been publicly reprimanded or contradicted by the Roman Catholic Church.
Yet we should not discuss condoms in school.
13% of Americans are African-American. 51% of new American HIV diagnoses are of African-Americans.
Yet we should not discuss condoms in school.
Do we (quietly) think that we know how to avoid getting it, so we can (quietly) keep our loved ones safe from HIV/AIDS, and that's why we (quietly) don't care about this epidemic? It's not people like us who are dying. Is that why there's still reluctance to do what's necessary to stop the spread of this disease? Do we still, after all this time, wait to hear how someone was infected before (quietly) deciding whether or not they deserved to get HIV/AIDS? Do we (quietly) think that this is a Darwinian plague?
We should all be ashamed. We are not doing enough. We could be be doing much, much better.
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9 comments:
As far as I know, we do discuss condoms here in school. But I went to a Catholic university in a small town and they refused to put condom dispensers in the washrooms (although the campus doctor would provide birth control - wonder if the priest who was so archaic in his thinking knew about that). Even though I was baptized catholic, I always went to Anglican church(like Episcopalian) with my mom. Two religions could not possibly be closer, so I would go to mass with friends. The day that I stopped going to the chapel was one I will never forget. The archaic priest gave his sermon, and he made me just furious by saying that "women are invading the workforce, leading to the breakdown of the family unit." In the same sermon, he also said "the condom is a form of abortion" Huh? I guess he never got those basic human anatomy/sex ed classes!
I am a strong supporter of teaching ALL the options. Yes, abstinence does work against all diseases and pregnancy. But as today's youth are sexually active at younger and younger ages, preaching only abstinence is irresponsible. Condoms are absolutely required. Period. Because as bad as teen pregnany is, living with an STD for the rest of your life, or dying from HIV/AIDS is far, far worse.
We don't discuss condoms in school because we (and I mean the U.S.) are still a Puritanical society that just likes to pretend that we're all grown-up. And to discuss condoms in school would of course be the same as admitting to--gasp--children that--gasp--sex is--gasp something that they might actually have. We are so afraid of sex that we will do anything and sacrifice anyone so that we can keep our fingers in our ears and go on buying our beer from half-naked incestuous twins and pretending to ourselves that our children will always be virgins and the Man will always take care of us.
And yes. It makes me want to vomit.
what ppb said.
Amen!
I was taught the very basic birds & bees in first or second grade. Just enough to deal with all of those innocent questions truthfully, and enough to know to tell if somebody is touching there. Then again in 7th or 8 grade, a bit more in depth. Carefully described what would get one pregnant or diseased. This was all at a parochial Lutheran grade school.
I went on to a parochial Catholic, all-girls high school. There we had Personal Development/Sexuality as freshman and Biology as sophmores. Both emphasized abstinence for now, and rhythm method family planning when married. But in both we were informed of all of the other forms of birth controls, emphasizing the effectiveness ratings (both published and in acutal use) of less than 100%.
Having all that knowledge, I did make a choice not to have sex as a teenager, and was not sexually active until I was old enough to legally drink. Give kids the full, scary facts and most will make the right decision. Keep kids ignorant, and they don't know enough to make the right decision. This is a topic that gets me going, and why I am a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood & family planning programs.
Off my soapbox now.
Flatflo
I am very open with the discussion of sexuality with my teens, because I would rather they be educated and informed, than to come home with a std, sti, or pregnancy.
Some of my friends say that I am to open with this line of conversation with them, but in my mind, knowledge is power...and I want them to be armed with all they need to know to prevent unfortunate mistakes.
I will say that in Iowa, their highschool provided condoms in the nurse's office. They also knew that planned parenthood, and a few women's clinics gave these supplies out free.
While I don't think they have ever had the need to use them, they do know where to get them, just in case.
One of my daughter's closest friends is 16 and pregnant with twins. She is 28 weeks along, and on strict bedrest, and has had a difficult pregnancy. My daughter is going to spend a month or so with her friend this summer to help with the babies because her sister (who adopted her) works all day.
I think this will be another wonderful reality for my daughter in discouraging her from doing what her friend did. Twins are a great deal of work for adult parents, but as a teen...oh my I just cannot imagine.
I don't often go around quoting sitcoms, cancelled sitcoms at that. But one of my favorite quotes from Mary Jo Shively on Designing Women was when she was running for school board and said, "It's not about preventing births. It's about preventing deaths." Amen to that. And Amen to you, SL.
Good post.
I didn't know that there were proportionately more HIV diagnoses among African Americans than other Americans. That's a pretty damning statistic. Unsurprising, given the intersection of poverty with race, but still. Says to me that the government deosn't care about racial minorities to the point where it's ok to put their lives at risk.
But then, it's not like we didn't know that before.
--IP
And it's not just between the Catholic Church and its parishioners. They're actively legislating this stuff.
In Missouri, it's no longer legal for any state funds to go to programs that distribute contraception of any kind, or refer women elsewhere for information about contraception, for any reason.
Evil.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/14109047.htm
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/state_data/states/missouri.html
Holy crap, that's fucked up.
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