5/25/06 - Abstaining from Compassion or Intelligence

"Abstaining from sex until marriage" is the mantra of the fundalmentalist right-wing when it comes to fighting the world-wide HV/AIDS pandemic. Their solution to the most serious plague known to mankind is simple...control your sexual urges, wait until marriage, then be monogamous. And that is it. There are no other choices in their plan. It is obviously a presciption for death for millions. Twenty-five million deaths so far since 1981.

While abstaining from sex will prevent HIV transmission from sexual intercourse, it certainly doesnt help the people who get infections from needle-sharing, blood to blood contact, or blood transfusions, or through pregnancy or birth.

A monogamous marriage does not protect a husband or wife if their spouse is ALREADY infected...and their are 40 million people infected right now with HIV.

We must also question their motives when it comes to same sex relationships. How does abstinance before marriage protect gay men? Since gay men in most countries CAN'T get married, are the moral guardians of chastity suggesting that gay men never have sex? Or are they going to support gay marriage?

I suspect they just don't care. Since gay men have born the brunt of dying in this country over the past 25 years, maybe the crusaders of the Christian right would be happy if gay men continued to do so.

To honestly believe that all young people, teens, and adults will abstain from sex until marriage is beyond foolish. It is beyond denial. It is taking a political position on a life or death issue that should be left to experts and those who have compassion for their follow human being.

The average age for marriage in the U.S. is now 25 to 26. Very few people are able to resist the basic and compelling need for physical intimacy that human beings are wired for.

The truth is that the fundamentalist religious conservatives in this country hate sex. They oppose gay sex, pre-marital sex, condoms, oral sex, masturbation, birth control, anal intercourse, abortion, and just about anything else to do with the subject. They want to impose their own pathetic fears and dysfunctions on the rest of us.

Finally, they usually claim incorrectly that condoms do not prevent AIDS , and fail to protect folks from HIV infection. If they were honest, they would also admit that abstainence fails far more often.