Pride Guide 2005 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE A-17
You don't exist
Abstinence-only education completely ignores LGBT people in Ohio
by Earl Pike
"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids and I might even be said to posses a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."
---Ralph Ellison
The Invisible Man, 1947
The message to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from the nearly 40 Ohio programs now spending $8 million annually on abstinence-only education is simple: You don't exist.
That's not an oversight; it's by design. By law, programs receiving taxpayer money to carry out abstinence-only programming must "Teach that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity," and "Teach that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects."
These are exact quotes from the legislation. How does this play out in Ohio? A wide range of extremely conservative, inflexibly Christian organizations are now in schools across the state, teaching that all youth should refrain from all sexual activity until marriage. Do they provide information about condoms, or safer sex strategies? No. Do they discuss the needs of LGBT youth-who, after all, cannot marry? No. They are completely silent.
You don't exist. Not only that, but the LGBT community-through taxpayer dollars-is paying for programs that promote that invisibility.
Over the last decade the United States and state governments have spent nearly $1 billion on abstinence-only programs in Ohio, nearly $32 million.
Many of the programs have common features. They misrepresent the facts about sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and HIV risk; they characteristically dismiss the effectiveness of condoms in reducing HIV transmission; they often present stereotyped images of males and females; they overstate the risks of abortion; they promote specific, often extreme Christian perspectives on human sexuality; and they ignore LGBT sexuality and experience.
Here's an example: the Ridge Project, in the Dayton area, uses a curriculum developed by Lifeway Christian Services called True Love Waits. That curriculum recommends that youth take the following pledge: "Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, future mate, and my future children to a lifetime of purity including sexual abstinence until the day I enter into a biblical marriage relationship."
my
You don't exist—but you're paying for it. "Research and common sense tell us the best ways to avoid AIDS are: Remain a virgin until marriage. If you marry, marry a virgin. Remain faithful to your spouse. Avoid homosexual behavior."
Your taxes are paying for this stuff.
To date, advocates of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have been extremely effective in making their case before state and federal legislators, and the details about what is actually happening in classrooms--biased, inaccurate information accompanied by narrow Christian messages have been obscured.
The choice is clear: LGBT communities can continue to quietly support abstinenceonly-until-marriage programs through their tax dollars, or they can voice their opposition. There are two avenues for action.
In Ohio, nearly $500,000 of state taxpayer funds are being used to supplement federal abstinence funds through the Ohio Department of Health. But Ohio can elect not to provide that support. If you want the health department to discontinue its support of these programs, e-mail Nick Baird, M.D., Director,
Ohio
at
Department of Health, nbaird@odh.ohio.gov. Tell him that you, as a taxpayer, should not be forced to pay for messages that make LGBT people invisible, or that offer messages such as "Avoid homosexual behavior."
At the federal level, tell your elected representatives both in the Senate and the House what you think. They need to hear from "the rest of us": the broad, but hitherto silent majority that believes youth deserve the best information we can provide, and that all youth
The overwhelming evidence is that abstinence-only programs do little or
nothing to reduce STDs.
– including LGBT kids – deserve respectfully-presented facts that can actually help save lives.
Raise your voice: just because abstinenceonly-until-marriage programs want to silence gay identities and communities doesn't mean we have to help underwrite those attempts.
This spring over 40 organizations—from the AIDS Taskforce, Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center and Planned Parenthood in Cleveland to the YWCA in Dayton-issued a joint call to suspend funding for abstinence-only programs until research verifies their effectiveness in reducing STDs including HIV. That call was joined by Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell and the Cleveland Department of Public Health.
A May 21 Cleveland Plain Dealer story carefully documented problems with abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The paper followed that up with an editorial five days later calling for proof that such programs actually work.
Whether or not they actually reduce STDs among heterosexual kids-and the overwhelming evidence is that they have little or no effect one thing is already clear: Through continued silence on the needs and realities of LGBT and questioning youth, they are actually harming some kids. And the irony is, once again, that gay taxpayers are footing the bill for that silence and invisibility.
What can you do? There are two ways the LGBT community can respond.
At the state level, Ohio contributes to abstinence-only programming through nearly $500,000 allocated by the Ohio Department of Health. While some abstinence-only groups insist that the state contribution is required in order to "match" the federal funds, that is not true. The individual groups receiving abstinence-only money can be required to supply the match on their own, through their own fund-raising.
Members of the LGBT community who are concerned that state taxes are now subsidizing abstinence-only programs can write to the director of the Ohio Department of Health and urge him to discontinue the state subsidy of the programs.
At the federal level-which is where most of the money comes from our elected representatives need to hear from those who support inclusive, comprehensive sexuality education. They're hearing from the abstinenceonly folks, who are well organized and regularly visit or write to Washington to make their case. They need to hear from the rest of
us.
This is Pride month, but it's difficult to be proud when you've been rendered invisible.
♡
Earl Pike is the executive director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.
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