Holding Hypocrite Congressman Souder's Feet
to the Fire on Dangerous Abstinence Education

From AlterNet:

Yesterday, news broke that Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) is resigning in the wake of an affair with a female aide. A “family values” conservative who’s sold himself as a proponent of “traditional marriage,” Souder repeatedly advocated federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs even after the programs were exposed as ineffectual and harmful to young people.

Shortly after the news of his resignation broke, a video surfaced of Souder being interviewed by the staffer with whom he was reportedly having an affair. In it, he attacks a 2008 hearing, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, on the efficacy of abstinence programs...

And

It remains the policy of the American government to treat youth sexuality as in itself bad, including holding young people to different standards than adults and assuming we’re unable to make responsible decisions about sex when our elected officials can’t manage the task. Almost unbelievably, funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs still remains under President Obama, slipped into health care reform. As long as the administration continues to view sex education as a method of avoiding a public health crisis – instead of an opportunity to teach young people the skills to be healthy sexual beings throughout their lives – the rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections will continue to rise

More here.

As for the rank hypocrisy displayed by Souder...well...these family values assholes are self-destructing so quickly these days, I'm almost getting tired of mentioning it. But that doesn't matter. It is extraordinarily important to call these people out for their self-righteous bullshit, not as some sort of fun "gotcha" exercise, even though it is fun, but because these Nazi sex-cops push a Puritanical sexual ideology that, in addition to simply oppressing people, causes real life physical and psychological damage.

Anti-abortion rhetoric causes the women who are drowning it no end of anguish when they suddenly find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy--some of them may eventually decide to get an abortion, but much too late for it to be a simple procedure, forced by their social setting, usually in the Bible Belt, to wait until all that's available to them is invasive surgery, and all the potential complications that come with it. Abstinence-based "sex ed," and I use quotes because such an ideological monstrosity isn't really sex education, is supposed to prevent such unwanted pregnancies, but doesn't because, you know, abstinence-based "sex ed" is so much stupid ass wishful thinking. And all the anti-gay shit? At best it results in self-loathing and risky sexual behavior; at worst it encourages violent homophobes to commit murder.

The worst thing of all is that the Puritanical Movement's leaders increasingly appear to not believe their own assertions. I mean, if not the "moral" leaders, who really does believe this shit? Suckers, that's who, and because the Puritans drape themselves in the American flag and pages from the Bible, politicians line up to suck their dicks. In the men's room at the airport, of course, where they won't be caught.

Fuck these people. They're trash. Time to throw them in the dumpster with the puke and soiled diapers. That's where they belong.

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