I, for lack of a better word, enjoy reading the online reactions to the end of funding for abstinence-only education.  There is a lot about socialism and big government, and about how Obama will eventually take all of our children as soon as they are born, instead of waiting until they are old enough to be in school.  There are the expected tales of depravity, that children are learning to "spit or swallow", that Democrats are perverse, disgusting, deviant.  All this I expect.  

But there is another reaction, popular and a bit different.  It has a quiet type of exasperation, a subtle "common-sensibility" to it.  This reaction focuses ostensibly on the general failings of compulsory education.  Comprehensive sex education opponents are worried about spending more time and energy teaching about sexuality, when kids in the US are lagging behind other countries in their performance of the conceived fundamentals of knowledge: reading, writing, and math.

Furthermore, schools which do not meet contrived standards in these most "rigorous" of areas are accused of losing...

Kudos to President Obama for walking the walk. His 2010 budget, released yesterday, makes good on his promise to re-assert the role of science and evidence in policy, by zeroing out all Title V abstinence only funding. As study after study has shown (including our own Sexuality Research and Social Policy issue dedicated to the topic), abstinence only education policies are at best a dismal failure, and at worst dangerous for the healthy sexuality of teens. Even better, the proposed budget includes renewed funding--173 million--for more comprehensive sexuality education. Here's a clip from p. 491 of the budget:

We will be interested to see how this part of the budget plays out in Congress--or if legislators will finally acknowledge that it is time to move beyond moral agendas, and back to what evidence and research shows. We couldn't have wished for a better beginning to a re-invigorated conversation about supporting healthy sexuality. We also hope that as the President moves forward, his efforts don't focus narrowly on teen pregnancy prevention, but look at all the factors that influence, inform and shape whether or not teens are sexually healthy--a

Obma Administration to Support UN declaration decriminalizing homosexuality. 

Today, news was released that the United States would join 66 other countries in signing a United Nations declaration to decriminalize homosexuality.  This declaration goes further to endorse support for human rights protections along the lines of sexual orientation and gender identity. 

This declaration was proposed in December 2008, but, at that time we were still under the Bush Administration.  Not surprisingly, the US withheld its endorsement of this declaration; Bush indicated that he opposes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but felt that the declaration would interfere with states laws.  Oddly enough, Obama fully endorsed the declaration, noting that this policy would not actually change any laws in the US.  (Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 already overturned sodomy laws in the United States.) 

I am very enthusiastic about this move and see this as a sign of genuineness of Obama’s promises to support and protect human and civil rights for all.  But, I am concerned about the number of counties that refuse to sign on – using excuses...