Experts in sex field say conservatives interfere with health and research

[JoFerret]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/politics/11sex.html?8br

For years, Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based organization devoted to adolescent sexual health, says, it received government grants without much trouble. Then last year it was subjected to three federal reviews.

James Wagoner, the president of Advocates for Youth, said the reviews were prompted by concerns among some members of Congress that his group was using public funds to lobby against programs that promoted sexual abstinence before marriage. Although that was not the case, Mr. Wagoner said, the government officials made their point.

"For 20 years, it was about health and science, and now we have a political ideological approach," he said. "Never have we experienced a climate of intimidation and censorship as we have today."

Mr. Wagoner is among the professionals in sex-related fields who have started speaking out against what they say is growing interference from conservatives in and out of government with their work in research, education and disease prevention.

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[izzie]

1. Back to the Dark Ages or the Flat world people I guess.

Odd that it seems people who push this junk science seems to come out of the same place that has the lower rating in their schools. I always found is odd that Holland who teach birth control as an open subject have no un-wed mother's and un-wanted children. Or so I read. I guess it is all thinking that the more you know the more evil you are or some such silly thing. I have run into people like this all my life and have never figured out how to handle it but to just turn my back which is wrong as it feeds it even more.

[xchrom]

2. our corporate masters want a population

who can't think -- that's the role of the superstitious religous right.
they've become an army -- and their weapon of choice is moral superiority based on emotional/personality control.
it's ok to graduate the masses with mba's but it's a no-no to have to many people with degrees in the humanities, liberal arts, and advanced sciences.

[JoFerret]

4. ...from the article

(the Republicans live in an ideological bubble. The universe and community be damned.)

"Over 40 percent of 15-year-olds are sexually active and they're not getting information on how to protect themselves from pregnancy and diseases," Barnaby B. Barratt, the association's president, said in an interview.

....

"We were amazed that there would be an interference with critical science that's trying to save people's lives," said Cynthia A. Gomez, a co-director of the center.

[Ilsa]

3. Discover Magazine ran a nice piece

this last month on attempts to stop federal funding for "nasty" or "porn" research, i.e., research involving studying sexual activities of truck drivers, etc. They then explained what kind of information they can learn from this and how it is applied more generally. People just don't get how important it is study a microcosm unless you give them the link to the general population.

[killbotfactory]

5. Facts and science are just fancy words for "devil worship"

If we don't stop these people now, are school will just turn into one non-stop orgy! Satan will sodomize the hearts of our children if we back down now!

[Beetwasher]

6. I Have Experienced This First Hand

I work for an organization that does research in the field of Reproductive Health and we are under much more scrutiny and have had federal funding cut.

There is an unseen war happening on science being waged by the ideological religious zealots that now run the country and it's only just starting.