Gateway sex
by digby
Yeah, this should work:
The Tennessee Legislature on Friday sent a bill to Gov. Bill Haslam’s desk that, according to the Tennessean, would require sex-ed classes to “exclusively and emphatically” promote abstinence and ban teachers and outside groups from promoting “gateway sexual activity.”
The bill defines “gateway sexual activity” as: “sexual conduct encouraging an individual to engage in a non-abstinent behavior.” The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Jim Gotto, said the bill wouldn’t address things as innocuous as holding hands, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. But critics of the legislation say the offending behavior is not clearly defined. Gotto did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
It sounds to me as if somebody watched Footloose and walked out before the rave up ending.
I think these people seriously believe that if kids aren’t told about all this dirty stuff, they won’t think of doing it. Because teenagers never fool around with sex on their own.
Somebody needs to remind people that sex education wasn’t conceived as an instructional program. The kids never needed that — they were already dong it. It was the discussion of consequences and how to prevent them that was required. “Just don’t touch each other” wasn’t working.
But hey, lots more teen pregnancy and STDs have never been as problematic for some people as the idea that their little girls and boys might be doing what comes naturally so that’s just the price their kids have to pay for their parents’ delicate sensibilities.
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