Marching for what's right

I am really excited for tomorrow! There is going to be a march through Salt Lake City protesting abstinence only education and I am going to take part. This will be my very first protest, and I'm sad that more of my like-minded friends can't come. Oh well.

This is something I feel very strongly about. I think that abstinence only education is very flawed, and it relies on the fact that every kid who is taught is going to avoid sex until they're married. Well that's just ridiculous. Teenagers are going to have sex. They have always have and they always will. Always. All this program does is hide information from them that could really help them. There was a study done recently, and I don't have any of the info from it (I promise I'm not bullshitting), that showed that kids who swore to abstain from sex and follow what they were told explicitly, either said they wouldn't or didn't use a condom when they slipped and broke their oath. They're being taught that condoms are bad and ineffective. Condoms are very effective. And it's not only to avoid pregnancy that you use one. That's not even the biggest risk. Condoms are a wonderful protection against STD's, but these kids are being told otherwise. I believe that we need to start treating them like adults. We need to come right out and tell them everything. I know for a fact that when I have kids someday, that no matter what I or anyone else says, if they want to have sex, they'll have it. So I am going to literally tell them, "Listen, I'd rather you wait until you're ready. But I know that my word alone can't stop you. So just promise me that if you do have sex, that you'll use protection and be safe. That is all I ask. I love you, and I don't want to see your future get thrown away because you didn't know or weren't informed." Is that really so hard?