July 27, 2015 4:59 AM

Today on "Why Republicans Shouldn't Be Allowed To Govern"

MY NEW HERO

Louisiana State Rep. Wesley Bishop

How’s this for a surprise? Louisiana, where abstinence-only sex ed is mandatory and schools are actually forbidden by law from teaching about contraception and STDs, has the cities with the highest and second-highest STD infection rates in this great nation of ours. Cosmopolitan New Orleans is actually #2 in that competition, with the top prize going to Baton Rouge, which is of course French for “Pustulent Crimson Infected Stick.”

Not surprisingly, there are consequences that flow from living in a fantasy world. If you honestly believe that not teaching children about sex, sexuality, and STDs is the best and ONLY way to ensure a child’s sexual and moral health, you’re wedded to a degree of stupid that’s going to be difficult for mere mortals to comprehend. Truth doesn’t follow closely behind ignorance and denial, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Baton Rouge and New Orleans have the highest and second-highest rates of STD infections in the country. It’s a problem that could easily be addressed with sex education. Teaching children healthy attitudes regarding sex and sexuality (along with teaching them about safe sex practices) would go a long way toward reducing infection rates. STDs are preventable, as are unwanted pregnancies, but the inflexible Social Conservatives in the Louisiana Legislature can’t be bothered to remove their anteriors from their posterior. This willful ignorance and denial of reality may serve their ultra-Conservative, uber-Jesus-y agenda well, but it does nothing to protect children.

“Since I figured it wouldn’t pass statewide, I thought we had a better chance to do it just in the city of New Orleans,” Bishop told ThinkProgress from his office at Southern University New Orleans, where he is associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. “We have a lot of exceptions in Louisiana law just for the city of New Orleans.”….

Bishop’s bill had a lot of support from sane, rational people and groups like the New Orleans City Council and School Board, and Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, not to mention all the empirical evidence that abstinence-only sex ed leads to higher teen pregnancy and STD rates. So of course it failed, because didn’t you see what state we’re talking about here? Even so, Bishop plans to keep trying,[.]

Rep. Bishop is at least trying to drag New Orleans (since he seems about ready to give up on the state of Lousiana) kicking and screaming into the 21st century. He’s tried valiantly to pass a comprehensive sex education bill in the statehouse…to no avail. It seems Louisiana legislators LIKE their young ‘uns barefoot, pregnant…and fighting gonorrhea and/or syphilis. They probably figure they won’t have to worry about the young ‘uns voting Democratic when they come of age…because when you teach children to think for themselves, it’s far more difficult to keep ‘em scared and stupid. If you don’t teach children to make sound decisions and protect themselves, they’re not likely to pose much of a threat to the established order…because each generation will grow up to be as stupid as the one before.

Sane, rational people- even in Louisiana- understand that children must be prepared and equipped to face the world they’re actually going to live in, not the one Social Conservatives and the Louisiana chapter of the American Taliban wish them to come of age in. Not teaching children about sex and sexuality has been proven time and again- this time in Louisiana- to result in higher rates of STDs and unwanted pregnancies in teenagers. Arming children with knowledge can only help them escape unwanted and unpleasant consequences…but Louisiana legislators seem convinced that teaching children about sex will turn them into uncontrollable sacks of raging hormones. Better to deal with the fallout from STDs and unwanted pregnancies than to corrupt the minds of your precious snowflakes with knowledge, eh?

Stupid is as stupid governs. It’s What Jesus Would Do, don’tchaknow??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 27, 2015 4:59 AM.

Redefining "White Wedding" was the previous entry in this blog.

Did you know that before vaccines, children never died? is the next entry in this blog.

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