Here is a post about Teen Health Now's 2011 World AIDS Day event by Teen Health Now member Emilio Vicente:

Distributing Condoms at UNC!

Last week we passed out condoms at UNC. Needless to say it was very fun and informative. Seeing people’s expressions when they saw the condoms was hilarious! We had them in goodie bags, all of which included information about Teen Health Now, and how to be protective of their sexual health. We had met up the night before at our coordinator's house and prepared them all while catching up, making some delicious cookies, and listening to some good songs.

When passing out the condoms we let people know that it as World DIDS Day, which many people were unaware of. We had initially thought that we would be passing out the bags until 2pm but were happily surprised when we were out of bags by noon. The goodie bags were like hot chocolate, most of the times that we offered them people would take them. We were also helped by our coordinator's HUGE Great Dane, who was great at getting attention. Students would come over and ask to met him. He was a great way to get people to come over to us and talk to them.  Everyone was happy.

It was my first time passing out condoms at UNC and I can say that students were receptive to taking them. It was a fun experience and I can’t wait for next year. Until then Happy Holidays!

Check out photos of our event on our Facebook Page.

By Mary Martin Vance

Editor's Note: Mary coordinates Teen Health Now, the youth council of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina. A Denver transplant, she has several years of experience working with nonprofits that focus on pregnancy prevention, healthcare and immigration reform. Mary holds a bachelors degree in social work from Christopher Newport University and an MSW from the University of Denver. She lives in Raleigh with her social worker/professional chef husband, and is currently working on certification to become a doula.

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(Originally published on the APPCNC blog.)

It's so interesting when your professional life and your private life intersect! For the past 3 years, I've been working to make sure young people don't get pregnant before they're ready. Much of that time is spent talking about the drastic difference between a planned pregnancy and an unplanned one, especially when that unplanned pregnancy happens to a teenager. That difference has never been as clear to me as it is right now.

After finding out I'm pregnant (surprise!), I was talking with a coworker about the difficulties pregnant women often face in our society. Ever on message and focused on the job, she pointed out how much more difficult it is for teens to navigate a pregnancy. She suggested I blog alongside one of our youth council members Delsie Bailey, who had a child at age 17, to compare our experiences.

For the past two years, Delsie has been on our Teen Health Now youth council. She joined because she wanted to make sure that other young people never had to go through what she did as a teen mom. Now she's a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. I've always looked up to Delsie, and admired her for her journey, her perseverance, and her attitude. Now that I am pregnant, I'm seeing her story in a whole different way. I'm seeing her story through my story.

So, that's what Belly Bump is — a place where we can compare our experiences and shine a light on what it's really like to experience pregnancy as a young person in America.

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Delsie

Okay, where to start? Well, this one time at band camp… Alright, I know that was a bit cliché but to be honest it's really not that far off from how my story began. He was a band kid, I was a band kid…

Our relationship didn't start with love at first sight. Quite frankly, in the beginning we couldn't even stand each other. He was on the drum line, and filled with the arrogance and over-confidence that comes with that position. I was a delicate, well put together flute player. With him on the drum line in back field position and me up front in flute position, we rarely crossed paths on the marching field.

Delsie and Mr. Arrogant at a safe distance. At the end of the marching season, we traveled to Indianapolis for a band competition. Band trips can be pretty eventful, and this band trip wasn't any different. The highlight of this trip was the moment my path crossed with Mr. Arrogant's path. We got to know each other a little better and realized we liked each other more than we both initially thought.

A serious relationship developed as our band schedules became a little less hectic. We were inseparable. The L- word became a regular part of our conversations. One day after track practice (yes, I was a well-rounded student!), the topic of sex came up. It was a topic that I had always carefully tried to side-step. When he said “If you love me then you will do it'”, I felt like my back was against a wall. I did love him and I wanted him to know that, but sex was not the way that I wanted to express that love. But Mr. Arrogant was very convincing.

I thought asking him to use a condom would be a way out of the situation. I was positive that he would not have a condom with him, and we wouldn't be able to move forward. I was partially right. He did not have a condom with him. But he was persuasive, and he convinced me that he a PRO at withdrawal. (We didn't have real sex ed in school and my parents only ever told me to wait until marriage. I really wish I had gotten the lessons that I now know good sex ed includes about effective/ineffective contraception and negotiation skills!)

As you can probably tell by me writing this blog about how I became pregnant, PRO didn't stand for professional. In his case it was more along the lines of PRObably likely to get you pregnant.

I went into this situation wanting to prove my love for my boyfriend but came out of it anxious about my future.

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Forty-four members of the 120-member North Carolina House of Representatives have already sponsored or co-sponsored the so-called "Woman's Right to Know Act" (House Bill 854), a measure intended to devastate abortion rights in North Carolina.

The bill, introduced by GOP Representatives Ruth Samuelson and Pat McElraft, stipulates no fewer than 21 government-imposed obstacles that women, their families, and their doctors must confront before said women are considered "informed" enough to receive abortion care.

The obstacles include:

• Forcing women to review "medical" info about crisis pregnancy centers, which are known to spread outright lies (e.g., linking abortions to breast cancer) about abortion procedures.

• Forcing clinicians to perform obsteric ultrasounds on pregnant women — the cost of which can be added to their medical bill.

• Forcing women to read materials that (to use the bill's own language) "prominently display the following statement: 'The life of each each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique living human being.'" (Perversely and ridiculously, the provision that lays out this requirement indicates that the materials "shall be objective, nonjudgmental, and designed to convey scientific information about the unborn child" — as if equating innocent women with murderers and rubber-stamping sloppy theology as firm law were somehow "nonjudgmental" and "scientific," respectively speaking.)

And that's not all. Not by a long shot. For pregnant minors seeking abortion care, the North Carolina bill would require these young women and their parents to get a written consent form notarized. Notarized. Such a stipulation amounts to a flagrant "screw you" from North Carolina's politicians to women in need: these extremist representatives are shameless enough to transform an institution meant to validate estates, deeds, and renters' contracts into a court of public humiliation for young North Carolinians.

In her recent testimony to North Carolina's state legislature, Dr. Amy Bryant, a Leadership Training Fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, shared the stories of women that she has counseled:

"Dealing with HB 854 would have been very hard for my patient Laurie. A graduate student with bipolar disorder, Laurie recently stabilized on medication and became pregnant while using condoms. She was unsure about how pregnancy would affect her mental health and how her medication would affect her fetus. Laurie determined, with very careful thought, that abortion was the right decision. I can't imagine having to make her feel worse by having to place an ultrasound image in front of her and describe the features. Laurie would not be able to decline this; the bill says that Laurie could only avert her eyes."

As Bryant mentioned in her testimony, research shows that informed consent tactics have no effect on abortion rates. So, the fact that North Carolina's right-wing ideologues are so aggressively trying to operationalize their 21-step anti-choice program in clinics across the state reveals not only their cruelty, but also their total disregard of medical science and empirical proof.

But that shouldn't be too much of a surprise to anyone who has followed abortion politics this year. Because this is what social conservatism in the United States has become: a movement that doesn't really try to offer even a shadow of a shadow of real-life evidence anymore in order to attack women's rights.

Last Tuesday, the newly elected ultra-conservative NC State House voted on a new budget bill. Included in this budget were many ideological attempts to bring about a new era of social conservatism in the state; among them was the elimination of state funding for Planned Parenthood.

Unfortunately, the budget bill passed the house and efforts to restore the Planned Parenthood funding failed. With a Republican controlled State Senate, it is a real possibility that Planned Parenthood will lose its state funding. This is a shame for many reasons, but one clear reason is economic: Every $1 spent on family planning saves taxpayers almost $4.00. Supporting organizations that work to prevent teen pregnancies is not just the right thing to do but also good business.

Planned Parenthood is one of the most effective and important health organizations in the state. Through education programs, political advocacy, and their health clinics, they are an invaluable resource to youth. With the real possibility of the elimination of state funding, young people and our allies should be worried.

This attack on Planned Parenthood mirrors a nationwide trend of eliminating funding for teen pregnancy prevention:

“In North Carolina, the proposed state budget includes a ban on state contracts with Planned Parenthood for teen pregnancy prevention and family planning. In Texas, the Republican-controlled House stripped more than $60 million from the state budget for family planning services, shifting some of the money to anti-abortion programs and crisis pregnancy centers. Last year, New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, cut $7.5 million from the state budget for 58 clinics specializing in women's reproductive health.” (News and Observer)

However, there are some excellent legislators who made a bold stand last week trying to protect the funding. Check out some excerpts from the debate on the floor:



The North Carolina Planned Parenthood has created a web center to learn more about the budget proposals and the site includes ways to get involved.

The past week has been an exciting time for me: college decisions were released! Having gotten into several of my top choice schools (Duke, Tufts, GW) I can stop worrying about the college admission process and start getting excited about going to college next year.

My excitement for the beginning of college, and the anticipation of expansive, fun, life changing experiences is tampered by the fact that sexual assault and rape on college campuses is all to prevalent. At least 1 in 4 college-age women will be victims of sexual assault, and while the rates are lower men can be victims as well.

To me, thinking about college next year, 1 in 4 is a staggering number. What does this say about the respect young people have for each other on campus? I want college to be a profoundly empowering experience, both for myself and for my peers. The disempowerment that can accompany sexual assault is heartbreaking.

The NPR news investigation, Seeking Justice For Campus Rapes, found some startling findings. Among them, they found “that colleges almost never expel men who are found responsible for sexual assault and that often, as a result, it is the victim who drops out of school.”

Check out the full report:





Today, the Obama administration is calling on colleges and universities to take concrete steps to address sexual assault on campus:

— Schools should use a "preponderance of evidence" standard to determine whether another student is responsible for an assault. That means that if it's more than likely that sexual violence occurred, there should be punishment. Some schools have used a much higher standard, including the "clear and convincing evidence" standard used in criminal court proceedings.

— When a woman brings a complaint that she was a victim of assault, a school cannot punish her for using alcohol or drugs. Some women have complained that when they went to school administrators to say they'd been sexually assaulted, they ended up getting punished for breaking school rules on drinking or using drugs.

— Even if a student is said to have assaulted another student in off-campus housing, the school must investigate.

— Schools must investigate in a timely manner. Some schools told women they could not get involved until after local police completed a criminal investigation. That often left a woman on campus — and even in the same dormitory or classrooms — with the man she said had assaulted her.

— The guidelines apply to public high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools. Federal officials say they are concerned by growing complaints of sexual violence, especially in high schools and middle schools.
(NPR)

I am eager to see all colleges and universities implement these practices, and soon. Over the next four years of my college experience, I am sure I will have many challenges. Experiencing the horrors of rape and sexual violence either first hand, or comforting a friend who has been assaulted, should not be one of them.

Yesterday news broke that Ke$ha has landed a deal to have her face put on 10-15k condoms, which she will distribute for free at her concerts. While some criticize her for her party girl image, Ke$ha also has a responsible side. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed nation with 750,000 teen girls becoming pregnant every year. Condoms will be shot out of cannons at gigs on her upcoming tour, a robust and creative strategy for promoting safe sex. When a famous pop star with a massive fan base of young people sends the message that condoms are not only important but cool by putting her face on them, she is doing much to counter beliefs that condoms are uncomfortable, not necessary, etc. In fact, I can imagine that receiving a custom condom at a Ke$ha concert would help some young people currently not practicing safe sex begin to do so.

To show appreciation for her promotion of safe sex, some friends and I created a video to her latest song, "Blow." Please check it out, we spend a lot of time on it and hope it is entertaining!



With such high teen pregnancy rates in the US, people from all domains of society - the media, schools, musicians, politicians, even religious leaders- need to find creative solutions for promoting safe sex. Kudos to Ke$ha for doing just that.

As I mentioned yesterday, Elizabeth Hundley Finley from the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina and I will be live blogging tonight's episode of Glee, in which the New Directions get a sex education lesson from guest star Gwyneth Paltrow.

While Elizabeth and I are both big fans of Glee, we're also intrigued to see how the show treats a very important issue.

We'll be cross posting at this post on amplify and on the APPCNC blog. I hope you'll join the conversation by posting in the comment section here. Also Liz and I are big twitter fans, you can find us at @leestorrow and @lizziefin.

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Update, we'll be joined by Mary Martin Vance and Melinda DeJongh.

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9.13.pm

Melinda

I did love the scenes with Kurt and his dad, and it’s interesting that they’ve chosen to make Santana’s feelings for Brittany so strong, which is a shift from earlier episodes.  I’m eager to see how that plays out.

9.13.pm

Elizabeth

The Good:

The Kurt/Kurt’s dad relationship: That was perhaps the best parent-child sex talk I’ve ever seen on TV.

The LGBT inclusiveness and the pointing out of how often sex ed excludes LGBT youth. I’ll point out again that not all kids who engage in same sex sexual behavior identify themselves as LGBT, so it’s important to cover same sex behavior even in a class that seems all straight. (Hello, Britney!)

The Bad:

The cruddy portrayal of sex educators. Good sex educators are very professional and go through lots of training. The idea of the “sexy substitute” teaching sex ed is just insulting.

All the hating on abstinence/celibacy was uncool. Rachel finally resolved things with her statement about how teens who are abstinent will need info later in life. But portraying abstinence as the wrong, uncool, or frumpy choice wasn’t so good.

And finally, one Fleetwood Mac song is one too many.

9.08.pm

Melinda

I think the in-school “sex ed” scenes did end up leaning more towards trying to be outrageous rather than factual, which goes back to Lee’s early point about how much responsibility TV has to address social issues.  In the end, #Glee shouldn’t be shouldering the burden of teaching kids responsible sexual behavior.

9.06.pm

Lee

So final thoughts on the episode?

I appreciated we got some good messages thrown in now and then (condoms protect from HIV which can lead to AIDS) but I’ll agree with others who have commented that she was an AWFUL sex education teacher.

However, let’s give snaps for how the show dealt with LGBTQ issues this episode. Kurt’s dad is fantastic, I’ll agree that he reinforced some traditional norms about masculinity, but he tried so hard. I’m sure he wished that his son got comprehensive, gay-inclusive sex education in school.

It will also be interesting to see where the Santan story line goes. Good to see some lesbian/bi representation on the show.

9.01.pm

Melinda

I think Will and Holly make sense, actually.

9.00.pm

Lee

I kind of like Will and Holly as a couple. But I’m assuming others might disagree?

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I've written about pop culture and Glee on this blog before, but nothing peaked my interest like the announcement that this Tuesday's episode of Glee will feature Gwyneth Paltrow returning to show as substitute teach Holly Holiday, while teaching sex education to the students of New Directions.

I loved Paltrow's performance last time, however I'm somewhat hesitant about this return performance. Glee is a fun show, and shouldn't be taken too seriously, however pop culture is political, and representation of social issues on film impacts our opinions- and as a new friend mentioned on Twitter, you need qualifications to teach sex education.

Elizabeth Hundley Finley, Director of Strategic Communications for the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign, and I will be live-blogging the episode tomorrow night. I hope you will join us for the conversation! Out convo will be cross posted here and at the APPCNC Blog.

Brigham Young University basketball starting player Brandon Davies committed a terrible offense: pre-marital sex with his girlfriend. BYU's honor code forbids students from having premarital sex and instructs them to "live a chaste and virtuous life." This move by the university this highlights the negative attitude towards sexuality harbored by many conservative religious traditions, especially Mormonism. At a university so conservative on their views about sex, I am concerned about the student’s sexual health and safety. Surely at a University that does not “allow” pre-marital sex, students still are in need of sexual health services. Doesn't a university that prides itself on being a moral institution have a moral obligation to the health and well being of its students?

*Update* Jon Stewart covered this on his show last night, very funny :)
(last half of the video clip:)



There is the opinion that a Mormon university can do whatever it likes, and it’s none of our business. Davies signed a contract saying he wouldn’t have pre-marital sex, he did, so it would follow that the appropriate response is to kick him off the team. CFS Sports columnist Ray Rattor says,

The honor code might be archaic, but it's archaic to you. It works for other folks. You don't like it, go somewhere else.
And so it is Mormonism as well. It might not be your cut of meat, but it doesn't have to be. If you find its capacity for forgiveness to be insufficient for your needs, desires or opinions, then find the church that works for you.

Point well taken. Tolerance, even for things we find archaic and personally distasteful, is still very important. However, I simply can’t get in line with the honor code’s prohibition on sexual activity. Let’s put aside the argument that being “virtuous” by abstaining from sex is an ideological method of control over the others, especially women, and that in fact there is nothing inherently virtuous about abstaining versus being sexually active. Also, let’s set aside BYU’s other crazy honor code rules. It not only prohibits premarital sex but also plagiarism, alcohol, and visiting opposite-sex dorms too late at night as well as "sleeveless, strapless, backless, or revealing" clothing for women; coffee; tea; and beards.

Regardless of all this, while the school has a right to enforce rules that stem from the Mormon tradition, they also have a responsibility to their students. If they are suspending a player for pre-marital sex, it is not a large leap to say that there is a dearth of sexual health services available to students. And this case clearly shows that while the school doesn't want to admit it, even Mormon students are having sex. People of any faith have a right to accesses contraception, confidential testing, and accurate health advice. Slate reports, “A 1954 internal study (cited in a 1985 book about the university) estimated that 14 percent of students had sex before marriage.” However, I wouldn’t be surprised if that number was a lot higher. Plus, sexual assault surely is not unheard of on BYU’s campus.

In Utah, STD rates (particularly for Chlamydia) are painfully high. Sexually active youth in the state face enormous difficulties getting the health information and services they need. Schools are required to stress abstinence in sex ed classes, Utah continues to accept federal Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage funding, and there are fewer than 20 Title X family planning clinics in the entire state.

Ultimately, this negative attitude towards sexuality –- an external force to be grappled with as opposed to a healthy and natural part of being human—is not good for students.  While I respect BYU’s right to create whatever rules they want, I believe that their stance on this issue leads to unhealthy sexual behavior, as well as high unplanned pregnancy rates and STD rates. At a religious university that prides itself on being moral, they have a duty to protect the sexual health of their students.

A few weeks ago, the DREAM Act was narrowly defeated in Congress. Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina was one of the few Democrats who voted "no" on the bill. Below is a letter I wrote to her in response. I hope this letter motivates her to next time vote in favor of the young people of our country and our state, but more than that, I hope it motivates allies of undocumented young people to be louder, and take a stand on these issues in the future.

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Dear Senator Hagan,

First off, let’s face it. You will never read this letter. But one of your staffers will. To you staffer, please read this whole letter. I know this is belated, but this is important to me, and more so, it is important to my friends.

I’m struggling with our relationship Senator Hagan. I have to be honest. I moved to North Carolina two years ago, and immediately admired you. You do so much good for North Carolina, especially in the area of reproductive health, the field that I work in. I’ve met with your staff several times, and they have always been supportive of us in our work, and so have you. For that I am grateful.

However, your vote on the DREAM Act was unforgivable. Our relationship will never be the same because I just can’t move past that vote. Let me tell you why.

Before I worked in reproductive rights, I worked in immigrant rights. (Not that the two fields are mutually exclusive, but more on that later). I did immigrant rights organizing and worked at a health clinic that served undocumented immigrants for three years in Denver. While I was there, I made a lot of friends, many of them undocumented immigrants. Good people. Hard working people. Kind, honest, wonderful people. I learned a lot from them, about life in general, but also about the effects of immigration on the children of immigrants.

One of these people was a young man named Jaime. You never would have known he was undocumented, at least he didn’t fit the “stereotype”. He came here when he was young, maybe 7 or 8, with his relatives. He went to school here, spoke perfect English, had a great job and a nice car. He was about 25 by the time I met him. Jaime loved this country. He wanted to make our country a better place. He stood up for others and fought for undocumented folks (all 12 million of them) to have a voice. He worked hard at his job, and volunteered constantly outside of work. He loved his family and friends.

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