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April 6, 2005
The Bush Administration pays abstinence-only programs to lie to kids... Now they're using the internet to lie to parents
Demand an end to lies and discrimination on the 4parents.gov website
Contact HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and tell him "take down the site till you have honest information to support all kinds of healthy families, including families with members living with HIV."
Call: 202- 690-7000, 202-619-0257 or 877-696-6775
E-mail: www.familiesaretalking.org/HHS_letter.htm
Letter: 200 Independence Ave. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201
Download 1-page flyer version of this alert.
Sounds like a great idea, right? Use the power of the internet to help parents talk to their kids about staying safe and healthy. Time and again, parents say that they want their kids to have information to protect themselves -- including risk-reduction and comprehensive sexuality education as well as abstinence-promoting messages -- and want to learn how to have better communication with their teens.
But the new 4parents.gov website -- launched by Bush's Department of Health and Human Services -- is actually encouraging parents to pass on incorrect, misleading and stigmatizing information to their kids.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH 4PARENTS.GOV?
1) It says that condoms don't work, while overlooking the flaws of abstinence-promotion programs: Throughout the site, there are remarks that are critical of condoms and that emphasize the worst-case scenario failure rates rather than success rates. Meanwhile, they include no data from studies that show that the vast majority of youth who take abstinence pledges become sexually active before marriage and are less likely to protect themselves compared to non-pledging peers.
2) It encourages young people to shun people living with HIV: The site says that only way to avoid STDs is to wait until marriage to an "uninfected partner." There is no information on the site for parents or young people who are living with HIV -- it is as if they only exist as threats to "real" young people and must be shunned. "Want to stay safe?" the site seems to ask. "Then stay away from people with HIV."
3) It has no information for LGBT kids or families: If your kid comes out as gay, take them to a therapist, says the site. And there's no hope in "abstinence only until marriage" programs for those who can't get married.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?
The website was created by the Bush Administration and the National Physicians Center for Family Resources (NPC). NPC is pushing abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that give tax money to fundamentalist churches, and is tied to hate-mongering fundamentalist groups like Focus on the Family and slanted medical associations and docs like the Alabama Physician Resource Council and Dr. Laura Schlesinger.
SO WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW? WE NEED YOU TO TAKE ACTION!
1) This website must come down immediately.
2) It must be re-written with factual and unbiased information that does not discriminate against people, spread HIV stigma, or disregard the effectiveness of condoms.
3) The Inspector General of Health and Human Services must hold an investigation into how the website was allowed online with such inaccurate information, and that those responsible are held accountable.
Contact HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and tell him "take down the site till you have honest information to support all kinds of healthy families, including families with members living with HIV."
Call: 202- 690-7000, 202-619-0257 or 877-696-6775
E-mail: www.familiesaretalking.org/HHS_letter.htm
Letter: 200 Independence Ave. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201
Download 1-page flyer version of this alert.