Virginity Pledges Ineffective....a story at MSNBC.

[Stuart G]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28415602/

By Rob Stein
updated 3 minutes ago
Washington post.com/MSNBC

Youths who promise abstinence are also less likely to use protection

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers


Here is big news. Evidently teenagers do not keep these pledges. You know, the kind you hear about at those churches. Now how can that be? An interesting sidelight to the violence in the day to day existence.

[lunatica]

1. What a shocking surprise!

:sarcasm:

[GoesTo11]

2. Odd. My pledge to get laid was ineffective.

Guess I made the wrong pledge.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "D'oh." - Teenagers of Every Century of Human Existence

"Only a hypocritical Repubulicon Homelander Wide-Stance, Diaper-Clad, Christo-Taleban, Pretend-Holy Proto-Prude could possibly imagine that Enforced Virginity was going anywhere other than the back seat of a car.

"As far as we Human Beings are concerned, the fascist-freak republicon homelander hypocrites can go wank themselves in the back of the closet. As usual."

- Teenagers of Every Century of Human Existence

[MineralMan]

4. Virginity is just a passing phase...

Put two adolescents together for extended periods and their parts will find their places. If it were not so, we would be extinct.

[DemoTex]

5. How's that "Virginity Pledge" working out for Bristol Palin?

Oops .. I forgot!

:rofl:

[Maestro]

10. Beat me to it!

:rofl:

[pipi_k]

6. It's not the virgins' fault....

it's the fault of certain politicians, actors and actresses, MTV, clothing companies, video games, rap music, and all the other trappings of modern society.

Or so say a few of my more Conservative friends.

They really believe that virginity was sacred up until the mid 1990s or so.


Oh, and Bill Clinton...they've (quite vehemently) insisted that he's personally responsible for eight year old kids giving each other BJs in the stairwells at school.

[Horse with no Name]

9. But Reagan was President when I used to make out in the locker room

Be back after I can figure out how to blame Clinton.

[pipi_k]

11. And Nixon was Prez when I lost my own virginity

I don't remember too much, but I'm sure I must have been fantasizing about being ravished by that irresistible man-hunk

[Horse with no Name]

7. What really pisses me off

is the millions of taxpayer dollars that went to fund these programs, ie, to give someone a salary to say "Don't fuck until you're married" instead of using REAL money for birth control and education.
It is one of the BIGGEST boondoggles that has gotten away without ANY scrutiny.

[pipi_k]

12. That's a real sore spot for me also

because when I've been trusting stupid enough to tell people a bit about my past, some of them have been pretty judgmental.

You know all the names people give to girls who have premarital sex.

I was a child...I grew up in a very dysfunctional family where we kids weren't taught much of anything, let alone given adequate sex education. For me, it was never really about the sex anyway...it was about wanting to feel admired or "valued" by someone...even though that's not what happened. It's pretty sad when a young girl is willing to be used by someone else in order to get something (attention) in return. And girls who do that aren't necessarily "bad" like a lot of people want to believe they are.

Education...affirmation about my worth as a human being...

those things would have changed my life...


I can only imagine how many others have gone the same route because nobody took the time to tell them that having sex isn't the way to gather worth as a human being...

[Horse with no Name]

17. You are absolutely correct

:hug:
I'm sorry you went through that.

[BOSSHOG]

8. Christian Conservative Nirvana

Children ignorant of life and the consequences thereof.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

13. BREAKING NEWS UPDATE ON MY PC...

no shit...

i think being a virgin until marriage is a fine thing (if that is something you might be inclined to do). however, if you are going to break the seal, then protection is a must...i just don't get why you cannot teach abstinence + protection ...

sP

[Stuart G]

15. Why? because those that are fanatic on this are...nuts....nt

[ProdigalJunkMail]

16. sorry...you are more than correct...

i was simply thinking someone might inject some common sense into the whole thing, but with the people at the helm on this ship, i can see no turns in the future...never mind the big-ass iceberg in their path.

my daughters will learn that the only 100% effective method of birth control is abstinence, but to be prepared for hormones to overwhelm them and have protection...

sP

[liberalhistorian]

14. They needed a fucking study

to figure that out (pun intended)? I'm always amazed at people who are amazed at things like this, like they've never met or interacted with teenagers or never been one themselves.

[firedupdem]

18. Purity Balls...

disgusting dance all dressed up with Dad not working huh? ICK!

[Pale Blue Dot]

19. Gee, really?

You mean I shouldn't try to suppress my natural urges just because the invisible, all-knowing sky god in a 2000+-year-old book says to? Color me shocked.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

20. Alaska students demand sex education in schools

From Truthout:

"We were not informed," 20-year-old says.

Amber Sawyer remembers her classmates, young and giggly and still riding a euphoric teenage high, cutting class and sneaking off with boyfriends to the nearby running trails. In the winter, when the Alaska cold was too much to bear, the same couples, passing on algebra class, would rendezvous at a local theater.

Some girls ended up pregnant. She doesn't know who ended up with a sexually transmitted infection.

"I know exactly how bad the sex ed was, because I sat through it too," says the 20-year-old Palmer Colony High graduate. "We were not informed."

Now Sawyer, a junior at the University of Alaska Anchorage, wants to do something about it. She, with other politically minded Anchorage college students and even some local high schoolers, are banding together to reform the way sex education is taught around the state. They're reversing roles and telling their parents and school administrators that kids need more safety talk, not less. Their goal: mandatory comprehensive sex ed in high school.


Complete article:
http://www.truthout.org/100308HA

Good for them! I'm glad they are standing up to the abstinence-only folks who are doing the kids a great disservice.