Sex! Now That I Have Your Attention Part 2

Through a stroke of luck, I was part of an informational fair today for the museum I work for, and was seated next to two very smart and dedicated ladies from the Central Health Center, where I'm on the board. One traveled and tested folks for HIV, the other worked the front lines at the CHC. She called herself a condom pusher.

During lulls in the fair, we talked about issues pertinent to CHC business, but then I got curious. Like many, I read the recent study from Florida that talked about the number of young people who believed ridiculous things about sex, such as a shot of bleach could cure a STD or that Mountain Dew served as a prophylactic. No kidding. http://www.local6.com/news/15773787/detail.html

I started to ask them about the urban myths in Florida (our most f---ed up state, thank you Tim Henson) and it turns out things are just as bad here. Among the myths these front-line employees reported hearing from girls right here in central Nebraska:

-AIDS is transmitted through toilet seats, but only in Africa.
-Douching with Coke (and only Coke) after unprotected sex will stop pregnancy. It has to do with the acid in the world's most popular cola, so she heard.
-Oral contraception for women can be shared with no change in the pills effectiveness
-You cannot get pregnant the first time you have sex (this is a pervasive one, they said)
-Women can't get pregnant if they have sex on top of the man.
And finally, and most terrifying
-You shouldn't wear condoms because they don't work.

That last one is really scary. Really really scary.

It's scary because it's what's taught in abstinence only education classes. There are many curriculum and many documented instances of this line of thinking going from our educators mouths into the heads of children. And, God love them, they're listening. And instead of using condoms, the one product that's worked more in my life personally than just about any other product, they just aren't using them at all. They're having sex, they're just not using condoms.

We can go on and on about how it's unconscionable that we're teaching our children information that is wrong and recommending action that is unrealistic. Your average young person loses their virginity before the age of 16, and that's factoring in those who make it to college as virgins.

And they're being taught not to use condoms. And they're listening.

If this administration has been scared of anything, it's been information. They desperately try to control the flow of information to fit their world view, and so far they've been remarkably successful at it. This is a fairly minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but any time, ANY TIME you have a large portion of the young population believing that Mountain Dew prevents pregnancy, it's time to move that priority up on the list. We are beating our children with silence and rank, partisan stupidity. And the front liners are dealing with it.

The woman who tests for HIV said, thankfully, there's not many cases in this area and those who have it tend to know. But, by and large, bad information led to their infection.

Imagine that.