Don'tcha just love the Religious Hypocrites?
When I was in Sixth Form, and the equivalent of a Prefect, I was asked by the Deputy Head, Mrs Q to remove my CND badge, as it was against school rules. It was. I replied that I would remove it only when some of my classmates removed their SPUC* 'feet' badges, which were surely equally against school rules. I wore my CND badge for the remainder of my school career.
Fast forward seven years, when Doctor Little Brother was merely Head Boy Little Brother, and he chose to wear a Red Ribbon on World AIDS Day. He was reprimanded by his Opus Dei headmaster, on the basis of it being disgusting and of no relevance to 'any of our pupils'. Head Boy Golden Balls retorted that he was in the process of applying for Medical School and expected that during his career he would treat patients with HIV/AIDS (he has actually practised in Africa, although I am not sure whether HIV/AIDS figured largely in a region where cholera was the big challenge).
Mother was furious, reflecting that Deputy Head was, in his spare time, quietly nursing a former pupil dying of AIDS-related illness.
Silver Ring Thing is critical of contraception, suggesting it is dangerously fallible - which critics say only encourages teenagers who do break their pledges to have unprotected sex.
A few years ago I backed away from a discussion between two neighbours. One works for an NGO which promotes "natural contraception". In fairness, she is trying to get a programme in schools to make teenagers more aware of their bodies, which I think is a good thing, but she has strange and squeamish ideas about sex, even recoiling in embarrassment when she saw Hamish and Anita in a vaguely compromising position. The other neighbour, now moved away, is a doctor at one of the big London hospitals, specialising in Sexual Health, particularly HIV/AIDS, and is passionate about the need for full and frank information about sexuality. (I recounted this conversation to the gynae-specialist at my GP's practice; she was doubled-up laughing).
The issue of teenage sexuality is a complex one, but a lot of these religious extremists seem to want to deny that teenagers have, and are entitled to, sexual feelings, and that sexuality in general is a natural (and morally neutral) thing. I personally think that PHSE programmes that stress issues such as personal autonomy, resisting peer pressure, building self-confidence, relating as people, and being active in leisure activities are far more useful than the posturing of the Jesus Brigade.
* Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, quasi-fascist anti-abortion/contraception movement
