Repugs Cause Stupid Sex

On Thursday, soon-to-be-ex Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin epitomized the work repug governors across the country are doing to create jobs and grow the economy by signing legislation to ... wait for it ... mandate teaching abstinence instead of sex education in the state's high schools.

For the zillionth time, teenagers are going to have sex, regardless. The only question is whether they have smart sex or stupid sex.

Via Bon The Geek, yet more proof that teaching abstinence causes stupid sex.

It has been reconfirmed -- yet again. Research conducted by the Guttmacher Institute indicates that sexuality education does not encourage teenagers to have sex sooner or to engage in more sexual risk-taking behaviors. As a matter of fact, it delays sex.

As governments fail to make sexuality education a priority or continue to fund abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, we're once again being given scholarly, evidence-based data that indicates the importance of comprehensive sexuality education. This complements Douglas Kirby's 2008 review of evaluation studies examining abstinence, comprehensive, and/or STD/HIV sex education programs. Kirby found that two-thirds of the 48 programs teaching both abstinence and contraceptive use had positive behavioral effects.

So given the good news such studies yield time after time, when will the politicians start to listen? How many research studies like these do we need before policymakers begin funding and supporting comprehensive sexuality education efforts? They've been ignoring the evidence for far too long, continuing to cultivate a culture of sexually ignorant youth, who lack the knowledge and skills necessary to postpone sex or protect themselves.

My 6th-grade class was the first in the Lexington, Kentucky public schools to receive sex education. It was a week of cartoons illustrating female reproduction, with virtually nothing on male reproductive organs and less than nothing on the mechanics of actual sex.

But what it did present were, in fact, actual facts. Not lies about contraception and condoms. Not myths about virginity. Not destructive propaganda about abstinence.

Yet another fight we won 40 years ago and are having to fight again.