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Te 3.» on Condoms Is
a War on Sex

If we don 't like something in
America, we declare war on it.
The War on Poverty, The War on
Drugs, The War on Cancer; The
War on AIDS. — George Carlin

e War on AIDS: I don’t
recall signing any sort of
cease-fire, did you? It seems

that many of our elected officials,
including the President, have
signed such a treaty on our behalf.
While that sounds bad enough,
what they’veidone is worse —
they’re handing our prisoners of

‘ war over to the enemy to die.

It started insidiously
enough, when George Bush
appointed Representative Tom
Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) to the
Presidential Advisory Council on
HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Dr. Coburn
has ties with such conservative
organizations as the religiously
based Focus on the Family and the
Family Research Council. Both
organizations are outspokenly
anti-homosexual and strongly
against extra~martial sex. Dr.
Coburn has always maintained a
pro-abstinence stance and is an
opponent of government—funded
family planning programs.

In 2001, Dr.‘ Coburn read
an analysis report that apparently
shocked him. He found out that
condoms are not 100 percent
effective at preventing sexually
transmitted, diseases (STDS).~ One
has to wonder on what planet he
earned his M.D., as any physician
will point out that few methods of
disease prevention work 100 per-
cent of the time. Of all STDs
included in the study,.condom use
ranked superior for the prevention
of diseases such as AIDS and gon-
orrhea, but not so well for other
STDs. Of course, many other
STDS such as-chlamydia, genital
warts and genital ‘herpes are often‘
present on the skin, making skin-
to-skin contact problematic.

«Armed with this informa-
tion, Dr. Coburn declared, “This
report means that when condom
use is discussed, it is no longer
medically accurate or legal for the

A CDC to refer to sex as ‘safe’ or

"protected.’” Then he called for
the resignation of former Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) direc-
tor Jeffrey Koplan, M.D.

Dr. Coburn succeeded in
attaching an amendment to the
House version of the Breast and
Cervical Cancer Treatment Act
mandating that condom packages

V carry a warning that condoms

offer “little or no protection”
against an extremely common
STD, human papillomavirus
(HPV), some strains of which
cause cervical cancer. Although
this amendment was removed
before the bill was enacted,
Coburn was able to secure a
requirement that the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) reex-
amine condom labels to determine
whether they are medically accu-

 

rate with respect to condoms’
“effectiveness or lack of effective-
ness” in STD prevention.

There have been asser-

tions that condom information is
being pulled from the CDC web-
site. A fact sheet on the CDC web
site used to say studies showed
that education about condom use
did not lead to earlier or increased
sexual activity. That statement,
which contradicts the view of
“abstinence only" advocates, has
been omitted from a revised ver-
sion of the page. Fortunately, the
page still mentions that latex eon-
doms, used correctly. are highly
effective as a protection against
HIV/AIDS.

So, how do you use _con-
doms correctly?

Here’s where we run into
a problem. That information is not
on the website -— the entire section
called “Programs that Work" has
been deleted from the site. You
want to be truly safe and learn
how to protect yourself from get-
ting AIDS? Then listen to the wis-
dom of the Centers for Disease»
Control:

“The surest way to avoid
transmission of sexually transmit-
ted diseases is to abstain from sex-
ual intercourse, or to be in a long-
term mutually monogamous rela-
tionship with a partner who has
been tested and you know is unin-
fected.”

Sadly,‘this is becoming a
religious issue. The religious right
doesn’t like homosexuality as we
have all been made painfully
aware over the course of our lives,
and are trying their best to margin-
alize the homosexual community
as much as possible.

' The most glaring exam-
ple of this is “abstinence only” sex
education. Our federal tax dollars
go to programs that encourage
youth to abstain from sex until
monogamous marriage. Since this
same group is completely against
gay marriage in any way, shape or
form, homosexual youth are left
harassed, ignorant of self—protec-
tion, at significant health risk, and
encouraged to feel like criminals
for a simple act of love.

Claims of a poor econo-

‘ my and the need for budget cuts

have been the excuses given by
the Bush Administration for cut-
ting such programs as the Ryan
White Care Act and the AIDS
Drug Assistance Program, which
is aimed at providing AIDS drugs

’ to the poor. However, a careful

study of Bush’s budget will show
millions of dollars being poured
into abstinence-only programs
aimed at populations where the ,
AIDS rate is already soaring.
Organizations for AIDS
research and prevention are not
only facing budget cuts, but
harassment in the form of audits.
The San Francisco-based Stop
‘AIDS group and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention,
among others, have faced audits
for their use of federal money. In
addition, an audit conducted by
Department of Health Inspector
General Janet Rehnquist conclud-
ed that Stop AIDS materials could
be construed as “obscene" and
promoting sexual activity, in vio-
lation of federal gUId6Il!1LfS.
Websites are now required to post
a warning when discussirg AIDS-
related material that people “nrziy
be offended” by the information

A careful study
of Bush’s budget
shows millions
of dollars being
poured into
abstinence-only
programs aimed
at populations
where the AIDS

rate is already '

soaring.

presented.

No auditsseem to be in
the works for those who travel
overseas, such as Tommy
Thompson traveling last fall to the
AIDS conference in Barcelona.

Yes, the US is moving its
anti-sex campaign from its own
shores and now is forcing it on
other people, still in the fonn of
health education and funding. The
President recently signed a $15
millionibill to fight AIDS in
Africa. An amendment to the bill,
sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-'
PA) required that a third of the
money allocated for education
must be spent on abstinence based
information.

“I am confident that were
it not for the leadership of groups
like FRC, Focus on the Family,
Prison Fellowship, and, in particu-
lar, FRC’s Government Affairs
division led by Vice President
Connie Mackey, the AIDS bill the
Senate passed last month would
have been a complete
disaster. Our groups