Ignorance Is Bliss, And Then You Get an STD
By Courtland Milloy
Washington Post
Wednesday, April 2, 2008;
Page B01
It seems like a lifetime ago, but spring used to be the perfect excuse for me to write lightheartedly about sex. From mating rituals on display at the National Zoo to cherry blossom courtships around the Tidal Basin, this was truly the season to be jolly.
Not so much anymore...
For today's teens, the instinctual quest for sex carries the risk of unspeakable pain. In the age of AIDS, the very act that gives life could end up being a death sentence...
 |
| During the Clinton administration, frank talk about teen sex and safe sex cost Joycelyn Elders her job as surgeon general of the United States. |
Back in 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed as his surgeon general an African American woman, Joycelyn Elders, who all but predicted the STD epidemic that teenagers now face. And her controversial remedies brought much-needed attention to an impending crisis.
Elders believed in capturing the attention of young people by making sex education fun while keeping it real. She wanted students to receive condoms from their schools (instead of trying to shoplift them from pharmacies, many of which keep them under lock and key).
She also suggested that schools teach the safest sex this side of abstinence -- masturbation. In the ensuing uproar, Clinton asked for her resignation. She left office in 1994.
And frank talk about sex left with her.
This page last updated April 8, 2008 18:54 .