Abstinence education promotes risky sex

Let’s face it: Abstinence is never going to happen. Campaigns for abstinence are socially irresponsible and destructive. By promoting abstinence, political figures (including President George W. Bush) and self-proclaimed moral leaders of this country flatter themselves into thinking they can have even more control over what we are going to do with our bodies. That they and many others choose to ignore the enormous issue of risky sex taking place today is offensive and disheartening. We need to address all sexually active communities — heterosexual and homosexual — with medically accurate and helpful information.

Public high schools in the United States should make a push for safe sex, not abstinence. The message often comes across as, “don’t have sex until you’re married, but if you do, use protection.” Not only does this confuse some students, but it is also downright disrespectful. It strips the person being educated of his right to choose, and offers information on condoms and dental dams only as a means of managing a mistake. Students should be informed about the potential gravity — emotional and physical — of the decision to engage in a sexual relationship, but should not be actively discouraged from so choosing.

Sex is happening, and because we are not doing a good job of educating the public, too much risky sex is happening. The results are frightening. Three weeks ago, health experts in New York City announced the discovery of a rare strain of HIV that resists three of the four classes of anti-retroviral drugs currently used to treat the infection. The strain also progresses rapidly into AIDS in a matter of months, defying the average of 10 years. Is this the super virus doctors have been predicting? Probably not. But it reminds us of the grim truth that what people don’t know could kill them.

The patient diagnosed with the rare strain is a gay man in his 40s with a history of crystal methamphetamine use. He is suspected to have slept with hundreds of men in the past few months. For this reason, many will try to turn this into an exclusively “gay issue,” citing promiscuity and rampant drug use in gay circles in New York City and elsewhere. Such experiences may be a reality for some, but the patient is hardly representative of every gay man in this country.

Now is not a time to blame or ostracize the entire gay community for the actions of some, but a time to rally to this man and others’ aid. I do not intend to free him from all responsibility for his actions; he made poor decisions regarding his health and the health of his partners. But my overarching concern is that our society failed to properly educate him and many others — gay and straight — on sexual behavior and the risk of STDs, HIV infection and AIDS.

In years past, the gruesome, heartbreaking deaths of longtime AIDS sufferers did the teaching for us. People were stunned and scared, and thus they were hesitant. Now we have slipped into an age of complacency. Drugs are keeping people alive and well and helping us forget the devastating effects of the infection. Crystal meth, reportedly on the rise in certain gay circles, lowers sexual inhibitions, and Internet personals sites make it increasingly easy to “PNP” (party and play). It is our social obligation first to understand and then to infiltrate the way of thinking that allows, or even fosters, such behavior.

Some think New York health experts issued the warning regarding this man’s situation just to scare the public into abstinence. I doubt it — this strain of HIV has the potential to intensify an already devastating pandemic, and the medical community fulfilled its obligation to make new information known.

But if these experts do get it in their heads to push abstinence based on this case, they should shelve those plans immediately. The answer is not to eliminate sexual encounters by way of abstinence campaigns, but to respect people — gay, adolescent or other — enough to educate them and provide free services and products.

Searcy Milam is a Wiess College junior.

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