Tomorrow night is Summer, Sex and Spirits a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood of New York City. It's from 7-10 pm at the Museum of Sex on 5th Avenue at 27th Street.
I should be there volunteering. Woo.
Showing posts with label sex ed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sex ed. Show all posts
Monday, July 28, 2008
Summer, Sex and Spirits
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Creepy Abstinence Wear, Now At Low Prices
K-Mart is selling abstinence sweat pants.
Only to girls, of course. Because it doesn't matter how much screwing teenage boys are doing as long as we keep those delicate young ladies chaste and pure. So bring on the brainwashing sweatpants.
Next up, Wal-Mart sells "condoms cause cancer" thong panties. "The pill kills" camisoles? No?
Can I at least point out the irony that they chose sweatpants to promote abstinence, since they are pretty much the easiest and fasted kind of pants to remove?
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
SEX! That Wasn't Just To Get Your Attention - This Post Really Is About Sex. Well, Sex Ed At Least
New York state's Healthy Teens Act got passed in Assembly and is headed over to the State Senate. This is where it needs some help, in part because last I heard the NYS Senate has a republican majority. Unless there was some shuffling with the whole Spitzer thing that changed the distribution, because it was only a one-seat majority. Anyhoo.
Basically, the bill establishes funding for New York schools to provide age-appropriate comprehensive sex ed. Right now there isn't a whole lot of money for sex ed in because Spitzer told the federal government to suck it when they offered funding - but only for abstinence programs (see? aside from that little hooker thing, he was actually pretty good), which as we all know, does more harm than good. You know, the idea that we're all dirty, used toothbrushes if we have sex (frayed bristles! fraaaaaaaaayed briiiiiiiistles!).
It's expensive to introduce a new sex ed program, especially a good one where the teachers are trained. So a lot of schools have nothing. This will offer schools the option to apply for funding to hire and train faculty and implement a program.
Family Planning Advocates of New York (whose conference I was at the day the Spitzer thing broke) issued a memo of support for the bill, and sent out forms to send to members of the State Senate in support of the bill.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Oh, You Dirty, Dirty Toothbrushes, How Dare You Put Your God-Stick Into My Shame-Cave
No matter how delightfully snarky and sarcastic I find myself to be (yes, I'm completely narcissistic, deal with it), Jon Stewert is always better. Maybe that's why he's on TV and have a piddly blog with about 5 readers.
Anyhoo, The Daily Show takes on abstinence-only sex ed:
Enjoy.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Where Spitzer Was SUPPOSED to be on Monday
So on Monday, I attended the 31st FPA Conference in Albany. FPA is the Family Planning Advocates of NYS. It was held at the Empire Plaza in Albany. I got to go because I'm a member of the Planned Parenthood of NYC Activist Council.
So I had to be at Planned Parenthood in Manhattan at 6:30 AM. Anyone who knows me can probably guess how much I enjoyed that. When we arrived in Albany we registered and went into a brunch, where there were several notable speakers scheduled. Future former Governor Eliot Spitzer was one of them (actually, the one I had been most looking forward to seeing) but he was, ahem, "called away." I did get to hear a speech from Governor-to-be David Paterson. He was a really good speaker, and thanks in part to that I'm confident in him as Governor.
Anyhoo, Paterson spoke, as did some other people whose names I have written down somewhere but am too lazy to go get, then they handed out the Margaret Sanger Award to Sen. Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava. Interestingly enough, Scozzafava is a republican. Who'da thunk it?
The keynote speaker was Amy Goodman from the Democracy Now radio show/podcast. She was excellent, and I bought one of her books, Static (and had it signed).
In the afternoon we had lobby appointments with our Senators. Mine is Martin Conner, who is very pro-choice and pro-reproductive health, so he was already in support of RHPPA and the Healthy Teens Act. Easy meeting.
We actually met with one of his aides, and that's where we were when the Spitzer story broke. In the middle of the meeting, the aide answered the phone and all we heard was "what? prostitution? I'm in a meeting, I'll have to call you back" then she sat down and said "there's something about Spitzer and prostitutes." And after the meeting everyone with an internet phone was glued to it (that is to say, NOT me, though if I pay $1 a day and hold my phone in just the right position I can get a text only version of CNN.com). Rumors were flying. One minute he was a john, the next he was the pimp, the next he had already resigned, etc. And the murmurs between government workers in the elevators was constant. It was a very interesting day to be in Albany.
We also watched a performance by the group The Capitol Steps. They were hilarious. They made fun of politicians. I would love to see them again once they've incorporated this Spitzer thing into their act.
So the main reason I was disappointed to hear about Spitzer was the fact that he has been such a friend and ally to the reproductive health movement. RHPPA is his bill. He initiated it in response to Gonzales v. Carhart, which as we all remember is the late-term abortion ban that doesn't take womens' health into account.
Tangent: "Partial birth" is a lie. It is a phrase made up by the radical anti-choice, anti-woman right to make late-term abortions sound icky and evil. Women who have late-term abortions generally have a very good reason for it.
Tangent 2: The actual procedure of having a surgical abortion takes three minutes.
Here's a picture I took of David Paterson:
Woot.
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