Maryland voters will face the question of whether to vote for or against question 6 On Novmeber 6th, 2012. Voters will be well advised to pay attention to the case of Gallaudet University associate provost of diversity and inclusion, Angela McCaskill. Ms. McCaskill simply signed the petition to put Question 6 on the ballot in Maryland. For that she was put on administrative leave from her job. Two lesbian faculty members decided that it was inappropriate for her to serve as chief diversity officer and wrote a letter to Gallaudent Univesity president T. Alan Hurwitz.
Here in Washington DC I have had a similar experience. In 2007, I was circulating a petition to remove the inclusion of language describing same sex relationships as normal in the revision of the DC Public Schools Health Education Standards. (find out more about this here Former DC Public School officials Richard Nyankori and Chad Ferguson called me in for a private, off the record meeting. They stated that I was free to circulate the petition, but that if I did our HIV and pregnancy prevention and relationship intelligence program would not be welcome in DC Public Schools. Nyankori and Ferguson also asked me what my position is on Same Sex
Marriage. I refused to answer, stating that it had nothing to do with our program. However, Nyankori and Ferguson made it clear that those not in favor of same sex "marriage' would not be welcome in DC Public Schools. So much for "inclusion" and "diversity".
Legalization of same sex "marriage" in Maryland will have far reaching consequences. Many of those who simply contributed to the campaign opposing legalization of same sex "marriage" in California were blacklisted and forced to resign from their jobs. Check this blog. Those who think that the push to legalize same sex marriage is just about allowing same sex couples to be "married" would do well to learn from the examples above. Your personal and religious freedoms are at stake. Be sure to vote AGAINST Question 6 in order to preserve traditional marriage in Maryland as the union of one man and one woman. Do not be fooled. A FOR vote is a vote to legalize same-sex marriage so you will want to make sure you vote AGAINST Question 6.
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
Showing posts with label comprehensive sex education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comprehensive sex education. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Challenging the Scientific "Priesthood" on World AIDS Day
Today's (12/1/09) New York Times article by John Tierney, "E-Mail Fracas Shows Peril of Trying to Spin Science," points to the self-serving efforts of British climate scientists to block perfectly legitimate requests by other scientists to see the raw climate data on which their public proclamations about man-made global warming were based as well as their "plotting revenge against those who question the dangers of global warming" and planning "retaliation against the journal and the editor" who dared to publish a skeptic's paper.
As any 9th grade science student knows, silencing of other points of view and ad hominem attacks are the opposite of the open debate and access to raw data that is essential to true scientific debate and progress.
But, on World AIDS Day, it's important for us to realize that man-made global warming is not the only sphere where official dogma reigns, or where suppression/misrepresentation of data and alternative viewpoints are practiced.
Consider the suppression by leading journals and UNAIDS of reports and articles by researchers like Ted Green and Norman Hearst showing that the condom strategy for reducing the spread of AIDS in generalized epidemics such as exist in sub-Saharan Africa was failing and that the ABc approach emphasizing abstinence for youth and monogamy/partner reduction among the sexually active was having lifesaving success in reducing the prevalence of HIV infections in Uganda by two thirds (from 15% to 5%). The stubborn and blind refusal to consider a new approach because of political or ideological agendas in the U.S. and at the United Nations has contributed to the deaths of millions of Africans.
The recent CDC report "Group-based Interventions to Prevent Adolescent Pregnancy, HIV, and Other STDs," which stated the effectiveness of programs that include condom instruction, is another example of agenda-driven science, released just in time to affect proposals in Congress to cut funding for abstinence education programs and to shift it to "evidence-based" programs that promote condom use.
The CDC refuses to release the underlying statistics for public scrutiny by other scientists. Sound familiar?
In the supposedly open and democratic West, which prides itself on basing public policy on evidence, reason and legitimate science, that shouldn't be acceptable, but most of the media docilely accepts pronouncements from experts whose proclamations we are supposed to accept on faith. Shame on the "scientific priesthood," shame on much of the media and shame on us for allowing unexamined claims and half-truths to endanger the physical and emotional health and lives of youth in this country and around the world.
Richard Panzer, Ph.D.
Moderator and Director
Free Teens USA
(http://www.freeteensusa.org)
(http://www.freeteensyouth.com)
(http://culturemachine.com)
(http://thewaronintimacy.com/twoi/?e=freeteensusa)
************
As any 9th grade science student knows, silencing of other points of view and ad hominem attacks are the opposite of the open debate and access to raw data that is essential to true scientific debate and progress.
But, on World AIDS Day, it's important for us to realize that man-made global warming is not the only sphere where official dogma reigns, or where suppression/misrepresentation of data and alternative viewpoints are practiced.
Consider the suppression by leading journals and UNAIDS of reports and articles by researchers like Ted Green and Norman Hearst showing that the condom strategy for reducing the spread of AIDS in generalized epidemics such as exist in sub-Saharan Africa was failing and that the ABc approach emphasizing abstinence for youth and monogamy/partner reduction among the sexually active was having lifesaving success in reducing the prevalence of HIV infections in Uganda by two thirds (from 15% to 5%). The stubborn and blind refusal to consider a new approach because of political or ideological agendas in the U.S. and at the United Nations has contributed to the deaths of millions of Africans.
The recent CDC report "Group-based Interventions to Prevent Adolescent Pregnancy, HIV, and Other STDs," which stated the effectiveness of programs that include condom instruction, is another example of agenda-driven science, released just in time to affect proposals in Congress to cut funding for abstinence education programs and to shift it to "evidence-based" programs that promote condom use.
The CDC refuses to release the underlying statistics for public scrutiny by other scientists. Sound familiar?
In the supposedly open and democratic West, which prides itself on basing public policy on evidence, reason and legitimate science, that shouldn't be acceptable, but most of the media docilely accepts pronouncements from experts whose proclamations we are supposed to accept on faith. Shame on the "scientific priesthood," shame on much of the media and shame on us for allowing unexamined claims and half-truths to endanger the physical and emotional health and lives of youth in this country and around the world.
Richard Panzer, Ph.D.
Moderator and Director
Free Teens USA
(http://www.freeteensusa.org)
(http://www.freeteensyouth.com)
(http://culturemachine.com)
(http://thewaronintimacy.com/twoi/?e=freeteensusa)
************
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