Choice Words

Teens and sex. Ten-thousand teenage girls were surveyed through an anonymous survey on TyraShow.com that focused on questions about sexuality, STDs, teen pregnancy, drinking, drugs and violence. And the results of the survey did more than shock Tyra, it even shocked me:

I graduated from high school in 2007, and guys who carried condoms with them were the ones we thought to be cool. This is very scary to me, especially because I have two teen sisters entering high school next year in a city where sex education is usually ignored, and teen pregnancy rates are pretty high.

Dr. Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of Answer, a teen sex education program based at Rutgers University, said the survey results sound plausible and are consistent with other research on teen sexuality.

“This so clearly points to the need for comprehensive sexual education for kids,” Schroeder said. “An adolescent … is supposed to be making poor decisions. Developmentally this is the way they’re supposed to be behaving. They need help ….

“Parents need help talking with their kids about sexuality, and schools need to be talking to kids about sexuality.”

I hope this survey can make parents become more open about the reality of sex, drugs, and violence; schools can only do so much. I hope this can teach us once and for all that abstinence-only education is not the solution. We have so much work to do in this country and hopefully with the new presidency underway, we can solve these issues with realistic solutions that will actually work. I don’t want my sisters to be victims of risky teen sex, nor any other teens.

Check out coverage of this survey on Go Left!

My partner, an avid follower of the Nobel Prize for Literature (who becomes less and less avid every time Philip Roth doesn’t get it) told me last night that the Prize for Medicine was awarded to the scientists who discovered the virus that causes AIDS and the virologist who identified human papilloma virus (HPV) as the cause of cervical cancer.

Joint winner of the prize is German HPV discoverer Harald zur Hausen. Nobel Prize committee member Jan Andersson of the Karolinska Institute said the joint award was “for the discovery of two viruses of great importance in diseases for humans.”

Read more about it here.

thanks adam

I Came across this post on RH Reality Check by Jessica at NLIRH yesterday about the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services newly revised vaccination requirements for immigrant women seeking to adjust their status to legal permanent residency. For you loyal readers of Choice Words you’ve seen many sides of this issue come across this blog here, here and here too.

There are those that see this vaccine as a victory for women’s health, there are those that mistrust the pharmaceutical industry and their rush to get it out on the market, there are those who worry about state and federal mandates, and there are those folks who are just plain anti any vaccination.

As Jessica points out in her post, this new requirement introduces the vaccine as a barrier for immigrants seeking residency:

“This is the only sex-specific vaccination requirement, putting particular burden on immigrant women applying for a visa or adjustment of status, further marginalizing a group that already has reduced access to health information and services that are affordable, accessible and culturally and linguistically competent.”

While I believe the development of the HPV vaccine is a milestone for women’s health, I can’t help but be suspicious when pharmaceutical companies and government agencies collaborate so enthusiastically in mandating it’s use with immigrant women and in some states with school age girls. When my parents immigrated here years ago they did everything and anything to get us permanent residency. The immigration process is so messy, difficult and expensive; it literally becomes about checking things off of a list no matter how long the list gets, by any means necessary. I say this to say that although there is and has always been a strong and inspiring grassroots movement for immigrant’s rights in this country, most immigrants are not in a position to advocate for themselves when they are in the midst of attaining legal residency, much less pay for a vaccination that costs $360. Immigrant women are constantly dealing with these kinds of barriers and impediments in everyday life, and it’s certainly not fair to put this burden on families who are already risking so much.

If you are interested in finding out more about issues facing immigrant communities take part today in a Night of a Thousand Conversations. If you are a DC resident find out more here, if you want to find a conversation in your area click here.

This is a little old but still hilarious. The video speaks for itself.

Happy Almost-Friday!

These two links speak for themselves:
Sex Is For Fags & Iron Hymen.

These websites are completely satirical look at abstinence-only education. What do you think?

Just this past week, California legislators successfully passed a bill requiring insurances to cover the vaccination Gardasil. This bill also will require insurance to cover cervical cancer treatment as well as annual cervical cancer testing. There also has been international efforts, like the United Kingdom, to pass similar laws to protect women from cervical cancer. This is a great victory for Californian women and girls since it has reported the most cases of cervical cancer in the country annually. Hopefully other states shall do the same and adopt California’s new bill.

Ok, this definitely caught my attention, “African American-Owned Condom Company Fears the Widening AIDS Epidemic.” I must say I had to read the title two and three times just make sure I understood. (LOL) I never heard of anything like this…

Apparently, an African-American male, Kirk Manuel from West Memphis, Arkansas has created Head Strong Condoms after hearing the devastating rates of HIV-positive people infecting others with the virus. Kirk Manuel’s condom, Head Strong, serves the purpose of preventing pregnancy and protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Head Strong Condoms don’t have all of the exciting features that are commonly found in other condoms. They don’t glow in the dark; don’t come in special colors, no fruity flavors, or any of those exhilarating things we seek. It’s just a CONDOM.

With Head Strong Condoms, Manuel wants to spread the “power of hope.” I commend Kirk Manuel on his efforts. Manuel’s goal is for his product to be sold in poor and rural communities by focusing on mom-and-pop retailers, Family Dollar stores and Dollar Generals. On average, condoms cost about $4-6 a box and sometimes more depending on the size of the box. By having Head Strong Condoms sold in dollar stores or mom-and-pop retailers, I can image some of the STI and HIV rates change within low-income and rural communities. Another exciting element to Head Strong Condoms is that Kirk Manuel will have condoms donated, so there’s no excuse NOT to use them.

A few questions about Head Strong Condoms: Who has tried this condom? Are existing companies like Trojan, Durex, Lifestyles, and other brands willing to help push Kirk Manuel’s product?

Check out the Head Strong Condoms website.

Disclaimer: I am going to change the names of the people mentioned in this:

So here’s the situation, I am online chatting with someone close to me, and he sends me a link to his blog (sorry, I can’t put the link up because I don’t want to reveal his identity).

But this is what his blog post says:

I was reading in the news today that half of the new cases of HIV are with black people and that if black Americans made their own country their percentage of people with HIV would be higher than African countries like Ethiopia. Thats ridiculous. I don’t know about you, but those statistics make me not want to mess with black girls anymore…especially the ones I don’t know well. While I know that statistics can be taken out of proportion, I think that all people need to be aware. Comment and tell me how you feel about this.
But first go to this website and look at the statistics.

I was completely horrified with his comment of not wanting “to mess with black girls…anymore”. Yes, he is smart with his following comment of not wanting to mess with “ones [he] [doesn’t] know well,” but what he is mistaken about is that all the blame should not be put on the shoulders of Black women.

So our IM chat continued like this:

Me: ur blog is horrible

Me: “you don’t want to hook up with black girls anymore”….that is so wrong. You need to be careful with EVERYONE, not just black girls
Me: so make sure you get tested, and make sure your partner gets tested as well…
Him: true but they have 20x the hiv risk
Me: because of BLACK MEN being on the downlow
Me: and not being real with their partners
Him: thats true
Him: but that risk is ridiculous
Me: thats why you shouldn’t have sex, oral or vaginal or anal without getting tested
Me: so why don’t you do somethign and not complain? why not join a committee or something?
Me: why not register people to get aids testing?
Him: i should i dont have time like that tho
Me: you have the time to educate yourself, your teammates, and others. Print out these statistics, hang them in your room, your changing room, pass out condoms, test your friends and see if they actually KNOW how to put on a condom correctly
Him: fine ill do some of that stuff

He is a private school educated, currently Ivy-League enrolled undergraduate Black male. He is not ignorant, but he is being ignorant with his comments. At least he is willing to take action to lower the rates, but he feels trapped like most feel trapped….they don’t have enough time and feel like they can’t make any real change. Well like you’ve read in my conversation with him, there are easy actions that everyone can take to lower the AIDS rates.

Here are some links for activism:

Free Condoms (in the NYC area): http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/condoms/condoms.shtml

Free Confidential AIDS testing (NYC area):
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/std/std2.shtml

Last night (7/23/2008) on CNN, Soledad O’Brien hosted a segment called Black in America. Part One addressed Black women and the family and tonight, 7/24/2008, Part Two will address Black men. Several issues were presented during this 2 hour presentation and at moments I was in tears. The portion of the presentation addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the Black community was most intriguing to me. Some may say HIV/AIDS have become “a Black disease.” Certainly we all know that HIV/AIDS doesn’t have a color, but for some reason Blacks outnumber many other races when discussing this disease.

Often times the Black community looks to Black churches to help untangle the horrifying studies of HIV/AIDS cases. People want to know what they can do to help people who are directly affected. Many leaders within the church will establish programs to help educate young people about sex. Some programs aren’t favored within the churches. People have mentioned that talking about sex in the church is dismissing abstinence before marriage policy or encouraging young people to have sex. But the reality is we need comprehensive sex education.

Growing up within the Washington, DC-Metropolitan area, I’ve listened to the way preachers overlook or circle around HIV/AIDS. Last night on Black in America, Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas mentioned the struggles pastors face when discussing secular issues within the church. According to scripture, abstinence-only education is favored, but the reality is people are still engaging in sex, especially unprotected sex. I valued the opinion of Bishop Jakes, he mentioned (and I paraphrase) “the Bible teachings are ideal, but we also must teach reality.”

In essence, I long for the day when more pastors, ministers, bishops, apostles, or people of the clergy are not afraid to address issues directly affecting the Black community. Black churches are an avenue of influence within the Black community. There are some Black people that tithe (10% of income given to the church) because they were told God said it. So, when will more Black churches address the HIV/AIDS epidemic? Or better yet, when will more Black churches address sexuality?

Click here to watch a small portion from the CNN Special, Black in America (please watch the video “Genes may increase HIV risk,” for more info).

I wondered how long it’d be until we heard reports of Gardasil being unsafe. Til now, I guess.

There’ve been reports of the vaccination causing nausea, paralysis, and even death. Two girls are currently in court testifying that they became sick after receiving the vaccine.

This is possible, of course. I’m happy I got the vaccine (because HELLO - I don’t want HPV), but at the same time I knew there were risks involved. There always are when a new medicine or vaccine or what-have-you is introduced, because we’re without significant long term data on aftereffects. So, we’ll see how this plays out in the months to come - I know I’m interested.