{"id":187180,"date":"2013-05-25T19:43:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T00:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/05\/25\/illinois-is-not-the-place-where-i-expect-an-outbreak-of-sanity\/"},"modified":"2013-05-25T19:43:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T00:43:00","slug":"illinois-is-not-the-place-where-i-expect-an-outbreak-of-sanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/05\/25\/illinois-is-not-the-place-where-i-expect-an-outbreak-of-sanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois is not the Place where I Expect an Outbreak of Sanity\u2026\u2026\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>But the vote <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/health\/2013\/05\/24\/2058601\/illinois-bans-abstinence-sex-ed\/\">banning abstinence only sex education in public schools can only be called an outbreak of sanity<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Illinois public schools will be required to include medically accurate information about birth control in their sex ed classes under a measure that the state legislature passed this week. HB 2675, which Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is expected to sign into law, will prohibit health classes from teaching abstinence-only curricula.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Illinois\u2019 current law requires sex ed classes to emphasize abstinence as \u201cthe expected norm,\u201d and stipulates that \u201ccourse material and instruction shall stress that pupils should abstain from sexual intercourse until they are ready for marriage.\u201d Public schools can choose between teaching abstinence-only education, using a mix of stressing abstinence while providing comprehensive information about birth control and condoms, or simply declining to provide any sex ed instruction. Under HB 2675, schools won\u2019t be able to choose the abstinence-only option anymore \u2014 they\u2019ll need to either offer comprehensive information about prevention methods, or decide not to offer any sex ed courses whatsoever.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">State Sen. Linda Holmes (D) spearheaded the measure because she doesn\u2019t believe that abstinence-only curricula adequately equips teens with the resources they need to safeguard their sexual health. \u201cIn fantasy land, we teach our kids abstinence \u2014 and they listen. But we know they don\u2019t necessarily follow that advice,\u201d Holmes explained. \u201cThey are going to be confronted with the issue of sex before they\u2019re 21 years old, or 25, or whenever they decide to get married.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Abstinence-only education is a toxic mix of lying and slut shaming.<\/p>\n<p>Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart noted that <a href=\"http:\/\/gawker.com\/elizabeth-smart-abstinence-only-education-kept-me-from-493645144\">her abstinence only education made her feel worthless, and that it kept her from trying to escape<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Abstinence only education is a gift to potential rapists and child abusers, because it creates <b>even more<\/b> shame and hopelessness in victims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But the vote banning abstinence only sex education in public schools can only be called an outbreak of sanity: Illinois public schools will be required to include medically accurate information about birth control in their sex ed classes under a measure that the state legislature passed this week. HB 2675, which Gov. Pat Quinn (D) &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[968,1020,1075],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-legislation","category-sex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}