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Lucylastic -> Utah Gov Vetoes AO bill (3/18/2012 6:57:34 PM)
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Every now and then, the unthinkable happens: a Republican stands on principle and rejects the party line. On Friday, Republican Utah Governor Gary Herbert vetoed a stunningly brazen bill banning all discussions on human sexuality in schools. Except for abstinence, of course. The bill would have been the first of its kind.
HB 363 has cleared both the state Senate and House, both dominated by the GOP, and was expected to be signed into law, condemning students in Utah to years of ignorance but Gov. Herbert toward a hard turn towards reality. Via Reuters:
“If HB 363 were to become law, parents would no longer have the option the overwhelming majority is currently choosing for their children. I am unwilling to conclude that the state knows better than Utah’s parents as to what is best for their children,” he said.
“In order for parents to take on more responsibility, they need more information, more involvement, and more choice—not less. I cannot sign a bill that deprives parents of their choice,” he added.
In other words, even in Utah, parents have decided that only telling their kids “Just Say No” is a terrible idea. Those that support abstinence only education do so for ideological and religious reasons that have little bearing on the real world. It has been shown, in study after study, that AO training does nothing to reduce teen pregnancy or the transmission of STDs and, in fact, exacerbate the problem. There is a slight delay in the age when AO teens begin to have sex but a sharp increase in the number of them that engage in unprotected sex when they do.
I’m all for encouraging teens to wait until they’re ready but withholding the information required to have sex safely is the height of irresponsibility. It denotes a worldview that is incompatible with the real world. Teens have sex. They always have, they always will. Abstinence only “education” is simply an attempt to force an arbitrary religious moral code onto other people’s children and then punish them (specifically the girls) with disease and pregnancy for not “obeying god’s will.”
The bill also contained the usual right-wing dose of homophobia as it also sought to restrict any mention of homosexuality as if pretending it doesn’t exist will magically make it disappear. Once again, the GOP proves its love for the Constitution by attempting to completely ignore it.
Kudos to Mr Herbert....yes, im congratulating a REPUBLICAN
GASP!!!!
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