Sex and the Safely Satisfied, with Jaclyn Friedman (Valentine’s Day Special) (Point of Inquiry)

Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, speaker, and sex education activist, challenging misconceptions about what it means to have consenting, satisfying sex. She’s the author of What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex & Safety, and she joins us on this special Valentine’s Day episode to bring some freethought to love and sex.

In addition to having written extensively on the topic of healthy sexuality and the myriad hang-ups and myths surrounding sex and pleasure, she’s also in the process of producing a new multimedia project, including a podcast about female sexual power and freedom.
Interview:
http://www.pointofinquiry.org/sex_and_the_safely_satisfied_with_jaclyn_friedman_valentines_day_special/

Can Pornography Actually Help Our Relationships?

Take the shame or secretiveness away from porn and it can be one of a couple's most powerful tools.
http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/can-pornography-actually-help-our-relationships

The American State of Teenage Sex, in 3 Charts

In fact, no studies have found evidence that teaching abstinence works to prevent teenage pregnancies. And yet this year, the federal government will fund abstinence-only education to the tune of $85 million...
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/02/state-of-teen-sex-america-chart-abstinence

President’s Budget Supports Adolescent Sexual Health Promotion Programs and Calls for End to “Abstinence Education”

Choosing instead to focus on investing in programs that support youth access to the information and education they need to lead sexually healthy lives, the president’s FY 2017 budget request proposes increased investment in the Office of Adolescent Health’s (OAH) Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP) and maintains current funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH)...
http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Feature.showFeature&FeatureID=2438

Kansas lawmakers push bill to enable prosecution of teachers

• Supporters: Measure needed to safeguard children from sexual material
• Opponents: Teachers could be prosecuted for lessons on controversial art, literature
• Spokesman for American Family Association blasts moral decay of cultur

http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article58038548.html

Can family planning help the world? Lessons from Indonesia.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, cut its fertility rate in half over a 30-year period. Now its program faces pushback from conservatives, mirroring global trends in family planning...
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2016/0124/Can-family-planning-help-the-world-Lessons-from-Indonesia

Intersex and Identity (Dr. Sharon Preves) (repost)

Interview:

Part 1

Dr. Sharon Preves, sociologist and professor, discussed her research of intersex individuals. Sharon first defined terms, such as "intersex," "hermaphrodite," and "transgender," then explained how and why she became involved in this research. Sharon next explained the cause for negative stigma against intersex individuals, including the religious views of people who do not fit easily into the male/female binary. Sharon noted the strong drive that society has to pigeonhole everyone - even fetuses - into one of two genders. She discussed the evolution of outlying conditions in Western civilization: from sin, to crime, to medicalization. Sharon then explained the excessive intrusion of the medical world and its treatment of intersexuality as an emergency requiring "correction."

Info: https://gpodder.net/podcast/atheist-talk-audio/23925e874503a4f857fb9a7609f948b2
Listen: http://www.mnatheists.org/media/podcast/2013_05_04%20-%20Intersex%20and%20Identity%20Part%201.mp3

Part 2

Sharon Preves, professor at Hamline University, further detailed the medicalization of conditions that do not, normally, require medical intervention, including intersex infants and childbirth itself. Sharon compared the unnecessary interventions into intersexed individuals bodies with circumcision, and she then discussed the emotional ramifications on the patients. Many felt guilt, shame, and even fear. Some grew up convinced they had been born with a disease so terrible that no one - not even their parents or doctors - would discuss it openly. Sharon next cited recent gains in the rights of those born intersexed, and listed off ways they have found healing, such as through support groups. Sharon also provided the example of an intersex teenager who was instructed to pray that she become fully female.

Info: https://gpodder.net/podcast/atheist-talk-audio/23925e874503a4f857fb9a7609f95631
Listen:  http://www.mnatheists.org/media/podcast/2013_05_04%20-%20Intersex%20and%20Identity%20Part%202.mp3

5 maps that show how sex education in the US is failing

This has consequences: While teenagers are having a lot less sex than they were in the 1980s, teenage sexual behavior is getting riskier. Students in 2013 were less likely to say they used a condom the last time they had sex than students were in 2003...
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/10/10738766/sex-ed-states-maps

Conservative Christians Are on a Mission in Public Schools

Religious groups keen on getting their messages to teenagers have found an effective way to do it at public expense. They come into public schools under the banner of substance abuse programs, character education, anti-bullying education, or sex education. Then they set aside the education and get down to the business of promoting a religious message, sometimes along with a partisan political agenda...
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/01/conservatives_are_on_a_mission_in_public_schools.html

America left behind: Many US communities fall short of UN goals

https://youtu.be/LPgxrXKyzZ4

Teen Birthrate In The U.S. Falls To Historic Lows

Teen girls in the U.S. are giving birth at record lows, continuing a more than two-decade trend of falling birthrates among 15- to 19-year-olds...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teen-birthrate_567ae6c4e4b06fa6887fb4f9

Alabama’s Abstinence-Only Sex Education Classes Are Hurting Students Across the State

Half of Alabama’s high school students have had sex, half of those sexually active students didn’t use a condom. The STD rate is also very high, with Montgomery, the state capitol, ranking highest in the nation. The state’s teen birthrate (34.3 births per 1,000 people) is higher than the national average (26.5).
Oh. And they teach abstinence-only sex education there. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence…
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/12/21/alabamas-abstinence-only-sex-education-classes-are-hurting-students-across-the-state/

Shocking Maps Show How Bad U.S. Sex Ed Is | ThinkProgress

In general, the CDC found that less than half of U.S. high schools and a fifth of middle schools adequate cover the CDC’s recommended sexual health education topics. In no state did more than half of middle schools meet the CDC’s guidelines for “essential components of sexual health education.”
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/12/10/3730534/cdc-sex-education-2014/

A Pastoral Response to Pornography

Here is what the U.S. Bishops think is a major concern -- more than climate change, poverty, income inequality, gun control, the refugee crisis, immigration, education -- masturbation and pornography. Do you agree?
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/pornography/upload/Create-in-Me-a-Clean-Heart-Statement-on-Pornography.pdf

Send a Message: Action Alert! Urge Your Members of Congress Not to Cut the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

Congress is currently deliberating over final fiscal year (FY) 2016 federal funding. One of the programs that would be drastically cut under these spending bills is the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP).

The TPPP provides age appropriate, medically accurate, and effective sex education, while abstinence-only education has been proven time and time again to be inaccurate, ineffective, and harmful. Sex education policy should be based
http://action.secular.org/secular/app/write-a-letter?0&engagementId=112833

Chlamydia rampant at Texas abstinence-only high school

Federal health officials call it an epidemic
Read more

How This Amateur Porn Festival Is Changing The Way Americans Approach Sex

Dan Savage's HUMP! amateur porn film festival shines a new light on a long-shamed topic. ... Read more

Richard Dawkins Visits Anti-Masturbation Conference

Dawkins visits a Christian conference for men who struggle with the "sin of masturbation and pornography." Clip from the new Channel 4 (UK) series, "Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life."
http://youtu.be/bYr48dvZ5As

Is Masturbation Good For You?

https://youtu.be/GU3JqoUDkjA

Should Sex Ed Be Mandatory?

...Some parents and educators are challenging the policy but the Ministry of Education is holding firm. Said spokesperson Pascal Ouellet: “Sexual education is planned for all Quebec students.” The ministry claims that the program, which may be adopted province-wide by 2017, will help prevent sexual violence, reduce unwanted pregnancies, and protect children from sexually transmitted infections (STIs)...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/03/should-sex-ed-be-mandatory.html