NYT: Experts in Sex Field Say Conservatives Interfere w/Health, Research

[DeepModem Mom]

Experts in Sex Field Say Conservatives Interfere With Health and Research
By MIREYA NAVARRO

Published: July 11, 2004


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.

A result, these professionals say, has been reduced financing for some programs and an overall chilling effect on the field, with college professors avoiding certain topics in their human sexuality classes and researchers steering clear of terms like sex workers in the title of grant applications for fear of drawing attention to themselves....


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

[Laughing Mirror]

1. A pitiful 1.5 million bucks the "Traditional Values Coalition"

would pinch from NIH sexuality research on the grounds that it's a frivolous waste of taxpayer money. Such research doesn't pass the Coalition's Andrea Lafferty's "straight-face test."

A thousand times that sum is spent every day of the year bombing and killing people around the world and imprisoning them into submission. What does Lafferty have to say about that? Does this pass her straight-face test? Sounds like a huge waste too me. Not frivolous at all.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Another area to add to outrage overload --

Aside from the raw abuses of political power, and a senseless war, we have these outrages in the areas of science, health, the environment. It's an endless assault on our country, and, in fact, the rest of the world.