newjerseynewsroom.com

BY SUSIE WILSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

SEX MATTERS

I wanted to start out my first column of 2010 with something really positive to say about the state of sexuality and sex education in the U. S.; for a while I thought everything was coming up roses.

The good feelings started when I saw "It's Complicated," a romp of a movie about sex and relationships among folks 60 plus starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. Some of the sex scenes are pretty steamy, although not at all pornographic, at least in my estimation; there is some nudity (although the genitals are not shown) and a couple of explicit comments about the vagina which made people in the audience laugh, although some of the laughter was of the nervous variety.

However, I thought that the movie showed that we Americans are growing more accepting of ourselves as sexual beings over the course of our whole lives, and that's a good development.

It is the marijuana not the sex that troubled the censors. I applaud the censors, whoever they are, for letting the sexual parts of the film stand and not passing judgment on them. Anyway, older folks - starting with those who are 50 and beyond - should really like this movie and they can use it as an opportunity to discuss the present state and future desires for their own sexual lives and relationships.

For the PG set, there is something tamer, but valuable too in sparking discussions. For parents and young teens, I recommend the movie, "The Young Victoria," which details with beauty and charm the story of Queen Victoria's early years on the throne of England.

Central to the story is her romance with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to whom she was happily married for 12-years, before his untimely death from typhoid fever at age 42. This is a 19th century story and the romance is all very proper according to that age's rules for royal courtship and marriage.

There is something delightfully fresh and innocent in the relationship between Victoria and Albert. Obviously, the young Queen is a virgin on her wedding day, but the first night and two-day honeymoon the couple spend together are surprisingly passionate.

Parents who take their children to see this movie would find it gives them ample opportunity to discuss why some people refrain from having sex until marriage, the advantages of virginity for both males and females, why humans are passionate and how attitudes about sexual behavior have changed from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

An afterthought: we are told that Victoria and Albert have nine children in their 12-year marriage, so parents might want to use this as a trigger to discussing contraception and family planning.

Of course, young teens might have to be dragged kicking and screaming to see this movie, because it is as different from contemporary sexual attitudes and behaviors as night from day.  I did notice that most of the audience was made up of older folks in their 70s and 80s who remembered when virginity and abstinence-until-marriage were the order of the day.

Moving onward from current movies to federal sex education policy for the nation is a big leap, but at first blush it seemed there was wonderful news to report: the Omnibus Appropriations Bill passed by Congress in early December represents a major win for advocates who support comprehensive sex education and not abstinence-only-until marriage education programs in schools and community agencies.

According to James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth "the legislation ‘flips the switch' on $114 million in federal spending from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs to evidence-based comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention and sex education programs."

The Congress and the Obama administration removed all direct funding ($99.5 M) for the "ideological-based and harmful Community-Based Abstinence Education program," for which there is absolutely no evidence of success, and provided $114.5 million for more comprehensive, evidence-based teenage pregnancy prevention programs.

Further, the bill placed this sexual health initiative in the newly established Office of Adolescent Health within the office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Office of Adolescent Health will coordinate a "broad array of adolescent health issues including wellness, substance abuse, mental health, obesity as well as sexuality."

Wagoner recommends the adoption of four major principles for this new Office: involving youth leadership and partnership from the beginning; guaranteeing diversity to ensure programs that meet the individual needs of urban, African-American, Latino, heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) youth; ensuring programs that are evidence- and rights-based; and showing transparency about funding decisions and program implementation. 
These are good developments for sex educators who believe that young people need programs that are comprehensive in nature and offer balanced discussions about the merits of waiting to have sex and the efficacy of using reliable forms of contraception in order to prevent pregnancy and disease. To require well-crafted research that shows evidence of effectiveness is also an important element, because abstinence-only programs, by and large, have failed this test.

Just when I thought we were home free on national sex education funding, the roof fell in. Tucked into the Senate version of the health care reform bill that recently passed is a life preserver for failed abstinence programs in the guise of $50 million dollars. Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) authored this amendment and, somehow, enough Senators, probably afraid of the vehemence of conservative groups that champion this form of education, let it slip by.

Or, possibly, some Senators saw the amendment as a gift to conservatives for removing the ultra-strict language of the Stupak amendment from the health care bill. The federal budget, which was signed by President Obama, removed all funding for the failed programs. Yet, enough Senators ignored this provision in the budget and the lack of evidence of success after decades of funding and research to re-instate a lot of it.

Wagoner, again, bravely spoke out: "This is a last-ditch attempt by conservatives to resuscitate a program that has been proven to be ineffective."

Another fact that we should remember is that the federal government has spent $150 billion on these programs starting with the Clinton and extending through the Bush years.  Conservatives estimate that 130 programs around the country serving perhaps 1.5 million youth will lose funding by September, if the appropriation is stripped from the health care reform bill after reconciliation.

My hope is that these same youth will have a chance to receive evidence-based programs that will provide them with information that is based on science and not ideology.

As the hours of 2009 dwindle down to a precious few, my New Year's resolution is to continue to write about and fight for the need to educate our youth about sexuality honestly and completely. My hope is that the funding for abstinence-until-marriage will be removed from the final health care reform bill during the reconciliation process, so that young people in New Jersey and throughout the U.S. will have the benefit of the best possible education about their sexual and reproductive health.

Happy New Year.

Susie Wilson, former executive coordinator of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University's Center for Applied and Professional Psychology (now renamed Answer), is a national leader in the fight for effective sexuality and HIV/AIDS education and for prevention of adolescent pregnancy. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .