Volunteer state passes new sex education bill
By Brent Daggett
Contributing writer for End the Lie
Telling horny teenagers they have to abstain from sex is like telling our federal government not to fuel war profiteering and engage in imperialistic practices.
While abstinence-only education may seem well intentioned at first, at least in the bureaucratic sense, the results usually don’t produce happy endings.
In May, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed an abstinence-only bill into law, which was approved by the House a month earlier with 68 votes for and 23 against, after clearing the Senate at 29 votes to one.
While the contents of the legislation are far too long to reproduce, here are some snippets of what the family life education curriculum cannot do: “promote any gateway sexual activity or health message that encourages students to experiment with non-coital sexual activity” and “provide or distribute materials on school grounds that condone, encourage or promote student sexual activity among unmarried students.”
And to top it all off, any outside instructor or organization who discusses gateway sexual behavior in a sex education class, can be fined $500.
The rationale behind the bill can be summed up by Tennessee State Rep. John DeBerry (D-Memphis) testimony:
“Everybody in this room knows what gateway sexual activity is. Everybody knows there are certain buttons when you push them, certain switches when you turn them on, there’s no stopping, especially for undisciplined, untrained, untaught and unraised children who just want to feel affection from somebody or anybody.”
Maybe another reason for the passage of the bill is the fact that politicians are so sexually repressed that they might actually think that if they are not getting laid, no one should get laid.
According to various reports on this story a re-occurring theme is that hugging or holding hands would fall into the realm of “gateway” activity which could lead to coital activity, since the bill is so vague.
The bill does not specifically say hugging or holding hands could be deemed “gateway sexual activity” but, I would not put it past the politicians and school boards to interpret the definition so broadly, given the fact schools throughout the states and overseas have either banned hugging or limited the duration of hugs.
Some of these schools include schools in Oak Park, IL, Prattville, AL, Mascoutah, IL, Mesa, AZ, Vienna, VA, Milford, CT, Hillsdale, N.J., Fort Worth, TX, Portland, OR (West Sylvan Middle School), and Australia (Largs Bay Primary School).
While the various administrations will argue these measures need to be put into place in order to avoid getting sued for sexually harassment, I have a solution.
In regards to the behavior of hugging, punishing all students is illogical. To me, this may increase the probability of students going overboard when protesting in an attempt to have hugging reinstated.
If this scenario were to occur then more issues will develop then what have already previously existed.
As to the policy in Tennessee, abstinence-only programs do not work.
The Guttmacher Institute, which has been advancing sexual health and reproductive rights worldwide for four decades, reveals these statistics:
“-Approximately 750,000 young women in the United States become pregnant each year and nearly one in three becomes pregnant before she reaches the age of 20.
-Eighty-two percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned and nearly a third end in abortion.
-The overall teen-pregnancy rate increased three percent between 2005 and 2006 – the first increase since 1990.
- Teen mothers are less likely to complete school, less likely go to college, more likely to have large families, and more likely to stay single – increasing the likelihood that their children will live in poverty.
-In addition to other consequences for young women and their children, teen childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers at least $11 billion annually.
-A sexually active teen that does not use contraceptives has a 90-percent chance of becoming pregnant.”
If all one needs is love, it’s pretty disturbing that in the age of what may appear to be endless wars the morality police are exerting authoritarian and puritanical policies in order to erode what is, in most cases, innocent behavior.
Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region stated, “Tennessee students need more information about puberty, their own bodies and proven methods that prevent pregnancy and the spread of disease. Denying them this prevention information in order to exclusively promote abstinence until marriage does our students a serious disservice.”
Edited by Madison Ruppert
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Madison Ruppert is a Los Angeles-based independent journalist and researcher as well as the founder, owner, administrator and editor of EndtheLie.com. He has no affiliations with any government agencies, political parties, non-governmental organizations, or economic schools. He is available for freelance writing assignments and appearances or interviews in any format. He can be reached by emailing
Seriously, this line could easily have been left out.. and more dignity gone to the author’s reputation!
Maybe another reason for the passage of the bill is the fact that politicians are so sexually repressed that they might actually think that if they are not getting laid, no one should get laid.
Trying to insinuate anything about ‘our legislatures’ does not give justice to delivery of the news!
On the premise of this writing, it sounds to me as though you think ‘Teenage Sexuality’ should be ‘spurred’ or as a liberal allowance that should be ‘Glorified’, rather than admonished as ‘sinful’ (wrong).
Sure, ‘protection’ should be taught based upon your childs sexual growth and consensual relationships with others. Parents should teach this, not schools! Parents that have problems with this need to turn to Christ Jesus, or to a Priest, if they need a more direct ‘backboard’ to hear from, in their lives.
I was 13 and seduced by a 19 year old who had my baby.. so I have a perspective on this subject. I couldn’t put my name on the birth certificate, because she would have gone to jail.. which.. maybe she should had.. having broken the law… and then maybe if I hadn’t protected her.. I could have grown up actually knowing my child.. as it is.. she married.. I don’t know her last name.. and she allowed her new husband to adopt.
So.. yes.. teaching would have probably saved me from the error. But I still believe parents need to be the teacher, not some strange health teacher at school who don’t even know the parents!
namaste.
As the wife of one of those “strange health teachers” I’d like to say that my husband knew far more about reproduction than most of the parents whose children he taught. One of his students, a high school girl, became pregnant because her parents never taught her one thing about how pregnancy happens. She was too scared to go to her parents so she went to my husband, who taught human physiology, which also included some sex education. The state he taught in was required to teach abstinence only; therefore, this young girl never learned how she got pregnant, never mind how to prevent pregnancy. This is what happens when it’s left to the parents to teach. I will also add, Keshet Israel, that your prescription of turning to Jesus Christ doesn’t fit alot of people, because they aren’t Christian and shouldn’t have to be. I believe in teaching my children sex education and I also believe that an educated science/biology etc teacher knows the latest info on reproduction and can teach it in an objective way. There are alot of parents who don’t teach their kids about sex ed or teach erroneous things. Abstinence only has also been proven to be completely ineffective at preventing teen pregnancy and if you read the article, you’ll see that teen pregnancies have skyrocketed since abstinence only sex ed has been taught. Sorry, but you aren’t going to get the facts of life from Jesus. I was taught that God gave us a brain and we are supposed to use it. Unfortunately, legislators all too often don’t use their brains.