A Letter from the Field:

Last week at the National STD Prevention conference, hosted by the CDC, a panel on sex education was disrupted by Congressman Mark Souder, R-Indiana. Two panelists were removed and two panelists added specifically to represent abstinence-only programs. Studies show that abstinence-only programs are not effective and may even put youth at greater risk by withholding essential HIV/STD prevention information.  Government tampering with the peer-review process should not be tolerated in public health decision-making.

Here at STOP AIDS Project, we are only too familiar with this kind of abuse of Congressional power, having been unfairly targeted for multiple politically-motivated audits in recent years.  It’s time for the gay community to recognize the effect of these repeated assaults on the integrity of the scientific process and on our lives.

We can take action: Even the abstinence-only speaker intimated that she would consider exchanging her “abstinence-only-until-marriage” view for an “abstinence-only-until-long-term-relationship” stance. Her curriculum, funded through federal dollars earmarked for abstinence-only education, effectively shuts gay youth out of sex education.  Contact Dr. Sulak (info@worththewait.org) and demand that all youth be recognized.  Support California’s STD/HIV Training Center (www.stdhivtraining.org), which informs teachers about inclusive sex education curricula.  Applaud Representative Henry Waxman for his report on the reprehensible state of abstinence-only curricula.  If we don’t act, an entire generation of gay youth will lack basic information needed to protect them from HIV.

Jennifer Hecht, MPH

May 16, 2006