Came across this little waste of tax money: Derek the Abstinence Clown. Yes...you read that right. Derek Dye was paid as part of the Abstinence Only program to promote abstinence. Here is a video of Derek at work:

Now, this guy is just awful. And on many blogs he gets a lot of crap for how bad he is. But I am cutting him some slack. His performance (no pun intended) isn't what I am going to rant about. I don't even know if he writes his own material. It sounds like something written by a committee. He may just be a well-meaning schlamiel trying to make a buck and probably sincerely trying to do right by kids. Probably this was the best he could do with what is pretty much lousy material.  read more »

I want to thank Liz Kruger for her recent post on the Healthy Teens Act (S.1342) which (to quote Senator Kruger):

...will create a system for providing grants to schools for the purpose of developing age appropriate, medically accurate sex education. The legislation also stresses that curricula be developed that encourages communication about sexuality issues between parents and their children.

This bill is one I have highlighted before and I want to back Senator Kruger on this one. My own State Senator, Velmanette Montogomery, has been pushing for this one for some time and has even hosted a program on BCAT on the issue.

And I got this some time back from NARAL via email:

New studies show that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection (STI). In New York, 40,000 teens will become pregnant this year.

Our young New Yorkers deserve better.  read more »