Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Haslem has signed the ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’ bill into law. Earlier this year, the Tennessee Republican controlled legislature overwhelmingly passed the bill, passing the House 68-23 and the Senate 28-1. The governor signed the bill before the Mother’s Day weekend.
The law is so vague that it could define kissing and holding hands as ‘gateways to sexual activity’ and make it difficult for sex education teachers to address such activity in class. The law also may prevent sex education teachers from discussing contraception.
The new law allows teachers who do encourage the use of contraception to promote safe sex to be punished, which could scare teachers from even mentioning contraception at all, meaning sex education courses would consist of just abstinence-only programs, which are proven to not work in preventing teen pregnancy.
The law also levies a fine of up to $500 to guest speakers who promote safe sex or “gateway sexual activity.” So if a speaker from Planned Parenthood or another organization visits the sex education class to speak, talking about anything that isn’t abstinence-only would be punished. What this amounts to is the punishing of free speech and it’s the Republicans who passed it.
Sex education teachers are being boxed in by a party that has been hijacked by religious extremists who think anything they consider sexual is evil. This bill has made Tennessee a joke. To outlaw crucial information from being discussed in sex education is unfair to students who will one day have to go out into the real world unprepared. Sex is a part of human nature and when abstinence-only is all that is taught, the likelihood that students will have unsafe sex that lead to unwanted pregnancies increase. If Republicans really believe that teaching only abstinence will stop kids from having sex, they’re living in a dream world. If there is one thing teenagers are curious about when they hit puberty, it’s sex. No matter what parents do to keep their kids from engaging in sexual activity, they can’t protect their kids all of the time. That’s why teaching about safe sex methods is critical. Because if kids are going to have sex, they should at least have the knowledge to make it safe. But since when do Republicans actually want our children to learn anything at all? It’s almost as if the GOP wants our kids to be stupid and unsafe. [source]
Here is why I simply don’t think simply the teaching of abstinence is going to be effective.
1). We can’t sit here and talk to our kids about abstinence for 30 minutes a day when the other damn 23.5 hours of the day they are bombarded by sexual images and sexual suggestions in every damn thing they do, see and hear! Listen to 30 minutes of pop-radio (if you can stomach it) and tell me how many of the songs you hear are NOT about sex, dating, romance and such in some way shape or form. Chances are… the number will 0% because in 30 minutes you’ll hear the same 6 damn songs 5 times. But I digress.
Hell, the video for Call Me Maybe isn’t on for 20 seconds before it turns the fact the young girl’s vagina is blowing smoke signals at some dude’s perfect abs n ish.
2). Teaching one course of action simply makes no sense. ANy good sexual education course should exist of both abstinence and REAL world instructions about how to take care of yourself and be protected.
Telling kids “JUST DON’T DO IT!”? yeah… because teenagers are prone to listening to instructions….
That is just my opinion. What is yours?
Thanks to Wanna for the send in.. get nekkid, girl.
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Real talk, this is just more reason why religion and politics are not and should not be bedfellows.
ABSTINENCE ONLY EDUCATION DOES NOT WORK!!!! It never has and it never will. The states that teach AO Sexual Education have the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country (you listening Mississippi?).
While there are some teens who do manage to escape high school without seeing someone else's peen or vajayjay, there are thousands that DON'T. It is irresponsible to society as a whole to say: "Sure you may be curious about sex…and it's everywhere around you…but don't do it or you'll go to hell". WTF?!
…..
i need out of the south. like, now. above the mason-dixon line just to be safe. twinkles, what's the markey like up in jersey? wait, you still got christie in office….eh he's barely tolerable….yes, i'm desperate
Hun, it's not the south you should be running from it's the crazy religious neo-cons who have hijacked this country that should have you shaking in your boots
i read your post and you're absolutely right. it starts with speaking out around you and attending meetings where these people already hold decision-making seats and speaking out against it THERE. it greatly helps when you research and vote to make sure they do not hold said seats in the first place or ever again. if you're not brave enough to tackle the entire country, fine, but you can start right in your own town, county, etc, especially with the bombardment of social networking. one can't complain about the state of things if they can't be bothered to do their civic duty.
From a Christianity standpoint (at least THIS Christian), teaching abstinence without teaching the things that happen spiritually when you have sex is pointless. And you can't do that because it's illegal. Every school should have comprehensive age appropriate sex education. Numbers don't lie.
Here is the thing I will NEVER understand about people. Why is it that folks can't understand the minute you tell someone they can't do something, it becomes all that more attractive because they have just been told they can't do it.
For example, Prohibition didn't work. Telling folks that they couldn't drink not only made it attractive to folks, it birthed and funded criminal organizations who's remnants still plague our society some 70 odd years later. Grant it, it did give birth to NASCAR and some how helped keep the mullet in style for the last 70 odd years, but that is a minor travesty.
But who do we have to thank for that bull****, the Christian Moral Majority, the same fuggers that are pushing the abstinence movement.
And the teen pregnancy and STD rate just went up by 100%….I swear I can't stand extremist…the ones that act the most frigid are the ones that fck sheep, kiss monkeys in the mouth and jam pins & needles into their genitalia….So glad I teach safe sex & STD prevention at home! I know teenagers will be teenagers and they are going to hump, so rather than me be a grand diva (cause I rebuke the name, grandmother, cause I'm too fly) at the age of 38, I get my son's condoms and tell them to strap up each and every time! I don't sit up and pretend as if my 2 damn near grown sons (18 & 17) aren't screwing their brains out….and when my daughters reach the age, I will have them on BC pills, the shot, an IUD, something!!! Also, here's a tip, wanna scare your kids into using condoms, show them graphic pics of STDs…
*slow clap*
The more I hear about stories like this, the more I HATE RELIGION! It's primary purpose it to scare and control. And for all the "moderate" Christians out there who claim to oppose this type of shyt, where were you when these things came up and the politicians who authored such bills were running for office? Huh? Just WHERE IN THE WORLD WERE YOU? Did you stand by and with these fools? Or did you just laugh them off thinking their kind of crazy wasn't a threat?
Stop coming out after the fact talking about these fools don't represent "true Christians" when YOUR AZZ sits idly by and don't put a stop to the madness. All you're doing is lending bullshyt lip service.
*kicks over soap box*
"Stop coming out after the fact talking about these fools don't represent "true Christians" when YOUR AZZ sits idly by and don't put a stop to the madness. All you're doing is lending bullshyt lip service."
I swear the stars aligned when you wrote this…
Oh, and if YOU think these NUTS don't represent Christianity, you're WRONG! They do. They are the face of your religion. If you don't want them to be then YOU need to step up and speak out louder than they do otherwise your silence is viewed as direct complicity.
Yeah but here's the problem….This is the first I've heard of this. In fact…most of the time NOBODY hears about sh*t like this until after the fact. Local and State governments pass this bullsh*t up on through the lines quietly and it isn't until AFTER the fact that some bored ass junior intern at a local tv station is tasked with going over the daily happenings that they come across this stuff.
Don't get me wrong. This is 99% of the reason I denounce all religion. I think it's a bunch of horsesh*t created by men to manipulate the masses into doing what they want. All I'm sayin is most of this 12th century B.S. doesn't even come out until after them sneaky a$$holes have passed the damn laws.
"Don't get me wrong. This is 99% of the reason I denounce all religion. I think it's a bunch of horsesh*t created by men to manipulate the masses into doing what they want."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All of that, right there sums up how I feel about religion…and don't get me started on my people and Christianity….Chile…..
I can't help it. I cannot. help. it. I've tried. My mama tried. My daddy tried. My husband's family is all kinds of Catholic. I think it's all a load of absolute rubbish. Is there a God? I dunno. Was Jesus real? I dunno. Don't care. But if there WAS and IS…..does anyone honestly think they'd be this much of a condescending hypocritical a$$hole douchebag as these dipsh*ts that are trying to turn the world into a 1940 Totalitarian state while they slide their feet under bathroom stalls and hump their side pieces while embezzling millions? F*ck off with all that booooosh*t.
I have issues with religion.
I'm pretty much on the fence with God as well…I mean, children are raped, the elderly are killed, children in other countried starve to death, but we have this all knowing and loving God..*shrugs* I just don't think this loving & just God can allow innocent children to starve to death, while Eddie Longstroke is living high off the hog…And the Bible? Nah, son….It says it right there on the cover that it's someone's version of events…I am leaning towards practicing to become a Buddhist…it's just such a peaceful practice..
Exaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactly!
I absolutely believe in a higher power.
and I absolutely believe every religion has it wrong when it comes to worshiping him/her.
I am absolutely sure there is a metaphysical existence that neither religion or science has right.
but i also realize MY beliefs are a personal affirmation… and personal affirmations should not be laws for the masses
"but i also realize MY beliefs are a personal affirmation… and personal affirmations should not be laws for the masses"
exactly.
I'm not even going to get into the language of this bill, it's just ridiculous. No argument there.
HOW this bill and so many other bills got passed is my biggest gripe.
I wish people paid the same amount of attention to their respective state politics as they do to federal politics. They have just as much, if not more power, than some federal policies.
I'm trying my damndest not to go full Samuel L. Jackson, but shyt.
State Legislation doesn't fall out of the sky, it takes months of planning and preparation for this shyt to be allowed to happen.
State legislators don't do this shyt under covert manners and behind closed doors. This shyt is done in yo face…televised live…with re-runs… available for copy on paper or DVD…for anyone to see.
No one ever pays attention until it's too little, too late.
If residents just showed up at their State Capitals and actively participated in their state government, stuff like this wouldn't happen. Please believe me. PLEASE BELIEVE ME.
TL;DR-Muhfckers-Participate in your state government before they even go into session and well BEFORE the bill goes to third reading and gets signed into law by the Governor. Call them, write real letters, go up to the Capital. Even if you're apart of the minority party, they still work for you, you tell me what to do, not the other way around.
It is 100x easier to prevent governmental control than it is to fight to have governmental control repealed..
See – over here, what you would get from teenagers and teachers alike when trying to start an abstinence only-programme would be outright laughter. I had a biology teacher who did it right IMO – she showed us a video of childbirth. ALL OF IT.
You would not believe how effective that was in terms of getting us to think about consequences.
I live in Mississippi and have for most of my life. When I was in school (private school), they didn't discuss sex at all — the teachers, that is. It just wasn't a class. The kids were, of course, curious. What kept me a virgin until college was my mother. There was no religion-based argument. There was no "If you do it, you'll get pregnant." There simply was, "IF YOU SO MUCH AS LOOK AT ANYONE'S PRIVATES, I'LL BEAT YOU. I will beat you in front of your friends. I will then beat you at home. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
Sorry, your Mama's sex ed lessons made me laugh over here. Still, you got a lot more than most children get from their parents. Even in this day and age.