Rock the Casbah

I hate to break it to the conservatives out there, but people did not begin having sex with the advent of the TV and condoms. It drives me crazy to hear people advocate the "Leave it to Beaver" lifestyle, if such a thing ever existed. To those of you who believe this was reality, I don't think you'll find many happy families with two twin beds in the master bedroom. People have been having sex since the dawn of our species, and differences in cultures, religions and beliefs have not changed that trend.

I strongly support the distribution of condoms in middle and high schools. Evidence shows that giving condoms to teenagers does not cause teens to have sex earlier or increase the amount of sex they have. It does increase the amount of protected sex they have. Teaching abstinence only in schools, on the other hand, does not decrease the amount of sex students have, or their likelihood to begin having sex. Its only side effect is making it less likely that the teens engage in sex safely.

"Abstinence only" education has been the largest public health circumvention since AIDS was called a "gay cancer." Teaching abstinence only in schools is not based off any medical safety grounds but by conservative "moral" grounds.

The same people who oppose condom distribution or safe-sex education in schools oppose needle exchange (as if giving drug users clean needle, thereby lowering their changes of giving or receiving AIDS and other diseases, increases their drug usage) and claim masturbation causes hair to grow on your palms. How can critically thinking individuals support that position? I’m fairly smart, and it alludes me.

The worst part about their belief is the hypocritical nature of their argument. They want to apply a different set of moral and societal standards on others than on themselves. I’m willing to bet all my money (it’s not much) that the people who push for abstinence only education did not practice what they preach when they were youth. I’m willing to give someone all my money if they can explain how protected sex is “immoral.”

The Beatles were right, all you need is love…as long as you’re married, you don’t use protection, you do it on a bed under the covers, in a locked room with the lights off.

It’s so simple!