Funding, Ideologies, Consequences and Implications of Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs

In 2005, an article by Katy Kelly entitled, "Just Don't Do It!" was published in U.S. News & World Report. Only a year prior to this article, the United States government released its report on the Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs, prepared by the Committee on Government Reform for Rep. Henry A. Waxman.

Though Kelly's story was and still is much needed in the sense that it sheds a balanced light on a controversial yet important topic, it (along with the government's report) fails to contemplate the potentially devastating consequences (physically, psychologically, and socially) of such programs on lesbian, gay, and queer youth.

Even a brief examination of some of the underlying theories, agendas, and implications makes the topic of comprehensive sex education, which includes abstinence as one of many options, that much more critical to the health and safety of all of our children and teenagers, regardless of sexual preference.

Additionally, the social and economic problem relative to the inappropriate mix of federal money, religious-motivated understandings of morality and sexuality, and the lobbying of these ideas, is (according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) growing more extreme with time.[i]

It is the same old dichotomist good-versus-evil depiction of virginity-versus-sexuality that sends the United States in a dangerous backward spiral, which only leaves our children dys-educated about how to protect themselves if they decide they want to engage in sexual activity, which many do. Some reports suggest that virginity pledges delay first intercourse by only 8 months, and this is a liberal estimate.