Washington DC at large City Councilmember David Catania's Youth Sexual Health Project has just released a 140 page report.
Mr. Catania's brave new world will teach that "youth sexual health is the ability to understand, respect, and enjoy the different dimensions of sexuality". A sidebar in the introductions quotes from the Canadian Health Education Guidelines, 2008 "Sexuality encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy, and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expresssed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behavior, practices, roes and relationships".
The word "abstinence" is mentioned only four times in the entire document. "Condoms" are mentioned about 50 times. The report includes a newly developed sexual health curriculum for 7th to 12th grade called "TRISH", for Teen Relationships, Identity, and Sexual Health. Two thirds of the curriculum deals with "Identity" (Sexual Orientation), and "Gender". There is a lot of very objectionable material in this curriculum, and I will be examining it in subsequent posts.
How can a major document written by four supposed "experts" and six research assistants working in the city with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the nation not even mention reducing the number of sexual partners as a goal for sexual health? Also how can there be almost no focus whatsoever on promoting sexual abstinence? This is because the report is based on the flawed view that all kinds of sexual exploration are healthy for youth and that you should not discourage sexual exploration.
Dedicated to raising youth leaders to develop good character and to model and teach about the benefits of sexual abstinence, in preparation for marriage and successful family formation. View recent Blog posts at our new site: New Blog
