DISPELLING FUNDAMENTALIST SEX ED MYTHS

Still, the Kaiser survey spotlights areas of concern: Four in 10 sexually active teenagers have taken a pregnancy test or had a partner who did so. A significant minority of young people -- about one in six -- say having sex without a condom occasionally is not a big deal. And one in five say they have had unprotected sex after drinking or using drugs.

Other surveys have found that nearly two in three teens will have had sex by the time they graduate from high school. The Kaiser survey shows that many have intimate relationships before that, with more than half of 15-to-17-year-olds saying they have been with someone in a sexual way. Among teens who have not yet had sex, nearly a third say they have been "intimate" with a partner.

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"Abstinence based" sex education aims to keep teenagers from having sex until they are married. Of course, this goal is completely doomed to failure: "two in three teens will have had sex by the time they graduate from high school." Attempting to get teens to abstain is simply wishful thinking. The genie is out of the bottle. We live in a sexualized society--most Americans now have no problem behaving and speaking in an openly sexual way when they desire; psychologists understand that this is completely healthy. Furthermore, mass media corporations are making too much money to ever give up the exploitation of sexual imagery. The abstinence crowd is up against impossible odds; they seek to re-engineer society from the classroom, but don't seem to realize that they can't. Caught in the dangerous crossfire are America's youth, who want to have sex, and will have sex, but have no idea how to approach it intelligently, ethically, or safely. This hopeless ideological battle waged by the Christian right cannot achieve its goals, but it does cause teen pregnancy and STDs to be far more likely among teens.

Thanks to J. Orlin Grabbe.

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