Stay in School

Abstinence education should, in my opinion, consist of teaching teenagers the meaning of the word abstinence, and then move on to more important topics like contraception.

Does that seem harsh? Well I went to catholic high school and I was exposed to three years of it. Three years of watching videos in religion class, three years of reading right wing articles about the invalidity of gay love, and the scorn of god toward users of birth control.

Did your school hand out condoms? Did they show you how to put them on? If yes, that means you received your education above the Mason Dixon line or in a public school that doesn't hang crucifixes everywhere.

I spent one year outside of the Canadian Catholic School board and in that one single year I learnt all the different kinds of birth control, from the pill to the rhythm method. I was instructed about the percentage of success of each and it all happened in a few weeks of gym class.

We also were shown slides of the consequences. Every major STI was featured, we even had to do a presentation to the class about our favourite.

I think I did genital warts.

It was a little gross, incredibly awkward, and occasionally arousing, but totally necessary for the proper socialization of any North American teenager.

If you don't believe me just refer to a 2006 study done by the University of Columbia   which showed that statistically any decline in pregnacy rates is in states that offer the "safe-sex" education program, while a brand new study released about two weeks ago show that the USA's more religious states, or "the south," as its know to the rest of the world, have a higher rate of teenage pregnancy.

I'm not supposing that religion causes increased fertility, or contraceptive stupidity, I've sinned with some very religious people, in the biblical sense, and (mostly) always used protection. The mystery  cause of the spike in the teen birth flow chart is easily solved.

LACK OF EDUCATION!

I don't know anything about physics or biology, because I wasn't taught about it. I didn't take those classes, and young people aren't going to know their ass from someone else's hole in the ground if it isn't explained to them in really simple terms.

Put this there, or that in there, always wrap it, and depending what your doing to whom, use lube. The end.

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On a lighter note, I'm taking a short break from my writing work, so sorry to everyone who's emailed me about it. I'm using the time to expand the page, and am  currently shopping for a web designer. I hope everyone likes the new layout and logo. There WILL be a Freaky Friday post tomorrow, I promise.

LGBTAQI&F: No my keyboard isn't broken

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered, LGBT, its short, its simple and I'd say most of North America understands the meaning of the words that make up that acronym. After time there was even a lonely "Q" added to encompass the wider range and diversity of the LGBTQ community, but it seems lately that more letters of the alphabet are being thrown on board as well.


So what are all these emerging forms of sexuality? We're still working on getting conservatives to admit plain old dick in ass, clitoral mashing, vanilla, homosexual sex isn't the by-product of some mental illness, let alone indoctrinating the masses to a whole new series of delightful human physicality.


A lot of them aren't new, but run through the list just this once.


Earlier today I heard someone talking about the asexual community. Which would logically expand the title to LGBTQA. This is the best group to start with due to their increasing visibility. They fly the fiery flag of plain dark blue, and now march in most major gay parades. From a scientific standpoint the word asexual would mean a creature that reproduces without the aid of a mate, but when applied to the only people wearing pants at the pride parade, it implies a total lack of lust, attraction, or want of sex toward anyone, or anything.


The main group spearheading their movement seems to be the AVEN, or the Asexual Visibility and Education Network.


It does seem though that there is a key difference to the plight of the asexual. With the exception of the members of the queer community who don't feel that the "A" belongs alongside them, no one is discriminating against them. Its more of a movement of acknowledgment.


Well here at THE DIRTY WORD, we believe in you, way more then Peter Pan, and believe that if the definition of queer is anything outside of the heteronormal, then you my unaroused friends get an "A+."


The next word floating around this boggle match is "I" for intersex. According to the ISNA (dear god we're in acronym hell right now), or the Intersex Society of North America anywhere from 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 people are born and classified medically as intersexual, or some simply, a person that possesses mixed sex anatomy. Sometimes its internal, other times its not. Its a complicated classification mainly due to the fact that there are so many things that could technically cause a person to fall in this category.


The Intersex Initiative says it the best, "There is no single "intersex body"; it encompasses a wide variety of conditions that do not have anything in common except that they are deemed "abnormal" by the society. What makes intersex people similar is their experiences of medicalization, not biology."


It also brings is up to LGBTQAI.


It might look like a bad draw in scrabble, but we're not done yet. There's one more left, and this one goes out to all those boring heterosexuals out there. The last letter is "F." Standing only for friends. The queer community, and all its extensions, have blown up in recent years. Television, radio, film, music and all forms of media now showcase a barrage of gay images, good and bad.


Its refreshing to some who lived with literally nothing openly and positively reflective of themselves in popular culture for so long, and its insulting and deviant to those who would have things remain the way they once were.


The North American LGBTAQI civil rights movement has evolved from of a riot outside of a hotel called "Stonewall" into a massive political force, but do not forget strait people, that this movement, larger then ever, is still a minority and needs its friends. It needs them voting, supporting, and even marching alongside it.