Posted on 09/16/2005 12:37:16 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Bill wants it taught as preferred practice)
When Denisse Guadalupe was 14, a friend confided that she was having oral sex with her boyfriend, but not sexual intercourse.
The friend called herself a virgin.
Guadalupe didn't know any better.
One day Guadalupe noticed her friend, then 15, had sores on her lips. Neither girl had a clue what they were, but Guadalupe suggested that her friend see a doctor.
The tests came back positive for herpes.
Guadalupe testified Thursday before the Senate Education Committee against a proposal that would elevate the teaching of abstinence in public school sex education courses.
She said her friend's plight could have been avoided had there been any sex education classes at the schools they attended in Chicago.
"The only thing I knew of abstinence was not to have sex until you got married," Guadalupe said in an interview. "I didn't know what sex really meant."
Now 18 and in high school in Milwaukee, Guadalupe told committee members she feels good about her work with Planned Parenthood, counseling teenagers on comprehensive sex education - which includes information about different expressions of sexuality, birth control and sexually transmitted diseases.
"I'm giving them the opportunity to make healthier decisions in their lives," Guadalupe said.
Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, introduced a bill earlier this month that would require school districts that offer human growth and development curriculum to "present abstinence from sexual activity as the preferred choice of behavior in relationship to all sexual activity for unmarried pupils."
(School districts are not mandated by state law to offer sex education.)
The bill would also require school districts to devote more attention to abstinence from sexual activity than to any other activity and emphasize that abstinence before marriage is the best way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
During the hearing, committee members and people testifying on both sides of the issue expressed concern that the language in the bill was vague.
Sen. Luther S. Olsen, R-Ripon, committee chairman, wondered how school districts would determine just how much time to devote to abstinence teachings.
And Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, worried that "sexual activity" wasn't defined in the bill.
The main supporters of the bill are the Wisconsin Abstinence Coalition and the Family Research Council.
Cleo Phippen, executive director of the Wisconsin Abstinence Coalition, said she has been working with Lazich on this legislation since her group formed in 1997.
She said the bill was not introduced before now because former state Sen. Chuck Chvala, a Madison Democrat and majority leader, would have opposed it.
Now that Chvala is out and Republicans control both houses of the Legislature, the timing is right, Phippen said.
With a myriad of bills already proposed dealing with abortion, birth control, gay marriage and stem cell research, abstinence is one of the last of the hot-button social issues left for conservative lawmakers to advance in the state.
Phippen said Lazich's bill was necessary because the state law on human growth and development curriculum was poorly worded.
Phippen's colleague, Sally Ladky, said the legislation would merely set a "a standard of behavior that will keep children safe."
But when pressed by Olsen, Phippen and Ladky conceded that they think the bill would force wholesale changes in how sex education is taught in Wisconsin.
Olsen said that gave him pause.
Julaine Appling, executive director of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin, said she supports the bill as a good first step but stated in written testimony she hoped to soon see "even stronger abstinence-only education language in our state laws."
NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin testified against the bill.
Kelda Helen Roys, executive director of NARAL, charged that abstinence programs are ineffective and have been for the most part discredited - a charge denied by supporters of the bill.
Molly Lancelot, a school-based educator with Planned Parenthood, argued that making abstinence the "preferred choice" of behavior amounts to a value judgment that would likely drive away youth who are already sexually active.
"I'm convinced we're trying to reinvent a wheel we know is flat," Lancelot said.
The committee took no action on the bill.
"The only thing I knew of abstinence was not to have sex until you got married," Guadalupe said in an interview. "I didn't know what sex really meant."
Thanks again, President Clinton. Your legacy lives on.
Hear here!
So if I understand this article, a slut went out and got herself herpes, and now believes that kids should not be told to behave themselves. That about it?
That's about it, LOL!
Yep, ignorant as they come.
And I suppose she wouldn't have contracted genital herpes doing the nasty as taught by Planned Parenthood?
What she really needs to learn is what "purity" and "abstinence" mean.
A cold sore is caused by herpes simplex 1 virus.
Genital variety is herpes simplex 2.
Never kiss on the lips?
Brain surgeon.
Hey! She was still a virgin. It wasn't sex.
Thanks BJ(C).
Not that there's a whole lot of different between the two strains. And 80-90% of people have been exposed to one or the other (which they then harbor for the rest of their life, periodically shedding viral particles whether there are visible sores or not).
Of all the STDs, it's pretty innocuous. Not that it's a good thing, of course...
HPV is another VERY common STD.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
"Guadalupe told committee members she feels good about her work with Planned Parenthood"
Enough said. As soon as I read that Big Abortion was pushing this story, I knew it was a put-on.
"It has all the hallmarks of a "composite" story. It's just too pat."
I would assume that too, if I didn't know Judith Davidoff's writing. She's been around the area a long time, and while she writes for a leftist rag, she's pretty consistent.
I differences aren't that significant, they aren't choosy about where they infect a person, and it takes tests to figure out if a cold sore or genital infection is really one strain or the other. For example, see here.
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