Pants on Fire

Conservative media just loves to get you riled up, even when they aren't necessarily telling the truth. A few weeks ago FoxNews ranted and raved over a UNESCO Public Health Report which suggested sexual education for children under the age of 10. According to the lunatics at Fox, the main point of the UNESCO report, which was geared toward reducing rates of HIV and STI transmissions worldwide, was that the U.N. was advocating to "Teach Masturbation to 5 Year Olds." And Life News brilliantly reported that the UNESCO guidelines "Call on Children to Promote Abortions." Wow. Way to miss the point, guys. Instead of focusing on the fact that UNESCO was attempting to reduce the number of children who engage in dangerous sexual activity at increasingly younger ages by providing educational guidelines that could be implemented by teachers worldwide, they fell back on their small-minded "beliefs" about what children that age "should" be learning.

In fact, what the guidelines suggest is actually a gradual exposure to issues of sexuality, starting at ages 5-8, when basic sexual topics are explored, and becoming increasingly detailed as children age, culminating with a curriculum for 12-15 year olds about contraception, abortion, and abortion alternatives, including the risks of improvised pregnancy terminations.

Considering that at the end of 2007, 30 million people worldwide were living with HIV, 2 million of those being children, it would seem as if any measure necessary to impede the spread of this deathly illness would be a positive measure. But in the skewed world of Christian extremism, voiced by the right-wing punditry, outdated morals and cultural elitism are more important than working to solve a global epidemic.

What is frightening is the power that these pundits have to coerce us into agreeing with them by using sensationalized, and even falsified information. It is absolutely misleading to report that UNESCO wants to teach masturbation to children. In fact, according to Time magazine, the 102 page UNESCO document mentions masturbation only five times, twice to explain to 5-8 year olds what the term actually means. So beware the lying pundits, because if they can stretch the truth on a matter as important as children's health, there's no telling what else they could do to try and sway our opinions. They insult our intelligence by thinking they can make up our minds on our behalf, but we are stronger than they think. We have the ability to make a distinction between right and wrong despite and without any zealous persuasion. We are stronger than they think.

Thought is free. Peace.