Sunday, March 25, 2007

The 'Safe Sex' Lie

Let's talk about spreading misinformation and fear ("Christian Sex-Ed Lesson Criticized," Loudoun Extra, March 15).

Let's talk about why certain political groups crusade to censor a well-documented and researched hour on abstinence offered to (not forced on) students already receiving a week of comprehensive sex ed in public schools.

Let's talk about why The Post's reports focus on the red herring church-state issue. I respect public school/ACLU guidelines, so why the misinformation carried in your article's title? Why label me a "Christian comedian" while neglecting my qualifications as an award-winning middle school teacher, private family coach, academic team coach and author?

My message is driven by a simple agenda: that teens have individual value and should be taken seriously; that they should think for themselves and avoid exploiting others; and that they can rise above messages that teen sex is inevitable and harmless. It's an equal-opportunity message, based on no religion at all but on the simple conviction that during the teenage years -- when the emphasis should be on learning to respect one another and building your future through education -- sex can be a gigantic distraction with lifelong consequences for oneself and for others.

I've been presenting this material to kids for 14 years not for my sake but for theirs. Contrary to Mainstream Loudoun's charges, I have never tried to manipulate facts or issues to justify my positions but have relied on government research and data.

Comedy is simply the method I use to deliver medically accurate scientific facts and statistics about risk, outcomes, failure rates and sexually transmitted disease. And is there really anything wrong with comedy? Consider: In light of the fact that the average American teen watches 27.5 hours of sex- and violence-infused teen media a week, how could a monotone recitation of facts ever deliver a message they desperately need to hear? A history of notes and e-mails affirms that through interactive comedy I have a positive impact on their lives.

Telling teens the truth about condoms is not "fear-based" -- it is fact-based. Shouldn't teens learn that 30 percent of women whose partners always used condoms still became infected with HPV in only eight months of sexual intercourse ("Condom Use and the Risk of Genital Human Papillomavirus Infection in Young Women," New England Journal of Medicine, June 22, 2006)? And since condom use is promoted in public school sex ed, shouldn't students also learn that if used 100 percent of the time during vaginal sex, condoms reduce the risk of getting herpes by only about 50 percent and that there is no evidence that condoms reduce the risk of getting herpes during oral or anal sex (Medical Institute of Sexual Health, Fact Sheets, 2004, 2005)?

Is this information scary? Yes. But in a culture in which we urge kids to abstain from tobacco, drugs and alcohol -- and even fast food! -- because of the dangers they pose, why the uproar over teaching them the hard realities of teenage sexual activity?

Interestingly enough, Mainstream Loudoun boasts of receiving the Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award (for successfully suing to remove porn filters from Loudoun County public libraries) in 1999. And though the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States claims to seek the spread of accurate information and comprehensive education, it believes that teens don't deserve to hear the case for abstinence as one of their options.

The "safe sex" lie has been promoted by those who stand to profit from it financially and ideologically. Telling teens the truth about condom ineffectiveness is something we owe them. Teens have to make choices; they need all the facts, not "safe sex" propaganda. For more information, go to http://www.virginityrocks.com.

Keith Deltano

Julian, N.C.