Your AIDS Advocacy Update
Vol. 9 No. 6 - March 7, 2003
*Take Action! Voice Your Opposition to Abstinence-Until Marriage Education
Bills
*Schools - The Next Line of Attack on GLBT Human Rights
*Abstinence-only-until-marriage Bills Start to Make the Rounds in the
Legislature
*A Better Way to Go: Sex Ed for Life "Abstinence-Plus" Bills Introduced
*Bills Introduced to Support HIV/STD Training Sites Statewide
*Reaching Employers, Employees and Families through Workplaces
*Family Council Attacks MAP for Distributing "Pornographic" Materials
*What About that Budget?
*Minors' Access to Health Services Threatened
*We have Archives, Too - Past Issues of the MAP Advocate
Take Action! Voice Your Opposition to Abstinence-Until-Marriage
Education Bills
Friendly legislators who are trying to fight back the
abstinence-only-until-marriage push tell us, "Don't call me, tell your
people to talk to their friends and send letters to their papers." OK.
Then let's do that. One way to talk to your friends is to email your MAP
Advocate to two or three or four or five people who you think should
know about what's going on at the State Capitol. Another, is to send in
that letter to the editor.
Never done it before? Well, now is the time. Whatever paper you read -
Fargo Forum, Pioneer Press, City Pages, The Eastsider, Brainerd Daily
Dispatch - they need to hear from you. Click here for some pointers, to
find an e-mail address for your local paper, or to read a great example
of a submitted letter to the editor that was published.
Read proposed abstinence-only-until-marriage legislation.
Get clicking!
Schools-The Next Line of Attack on GLBT Human Rights
The Governor and conservative legislators are backing away from the bill
to repeal human rights protections based on sexual orientation
(HF341/SF545) as fast as they can. The terrific turnout for Outfront's
Action Day on March 6 only helped quicken the retreat.
But, what the backers of this bill are telling us and the media now are
things like "we support human rights" and "that bill just goes way too
far." They are saying, "we're just concerned about pushing the
homosexual agenda and teaching homosexuality in the schools." Yup. The
line of attack on GLBT rights is shifting to the schools and the target
is to impose abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum mandates on all
schools.
Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Bills Start to Make the Rounds in the
Legislature
The first hearing on an abstinence-only-until-marriage bill (HF580) will
be in the House Education Committee on Tuesday, March 11. Rep. Sondra
Erickson (R-Princeton) wants to look like a "reasonable compromise."
After all, all it does is change the state law requiring school
districts to provide HIV/STD education by suggesting that in addition to
providing comprehensive, technically accurate information, schools
districts "must provide curriculum on and instruction in abstinence
until marriage premised on risk avoidance."
Never mind the fact that after over 20 years of federal funding for such
efforts, there is no credible, research-based evidence to show this
approach to sexual health education works. In a time when our public
dollars are precious and few, they are asking us to replace what works
with an ideology-based curriculum that does not. SF747 introduced by
Sen. Wergin (R-Princeton) does the same thing.
Click here to read the bill, to find out who else is involved with
introducing them, and to find out what you can do.
A Better Way to Go; Sex Ed for Life "Abstinence Plus" Bills Introduced
Rep. Jim Davnie (DFL-Mpls) introduced HF765 that reinstates
comprehensive sexual health education as the standard for HIV/STD
prevention curriculum in schools. It requires abstinence-plus or a
"comprehensive, technically accurate, and updated curriculum that
includes, but is not limited to, helping students to abstain from sexual
activity."
The bill has bi-partisan support and was introduced with 30 co-authors.
The companion bill will be introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mee Moua
(DFL-St Paul) on March 13. The Sex Ed for Life Coalition, co-convened by
MAP and MOAPPP (Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy
Prevention and Parenting), is backing the Davnie/Moua bill.
A copy of the bill and more is available by clicking here.
Bills Introduced to Support HIV/STD Training Sites Statewide
MAP will push again this year for continued funding for the statewide
network of regional training sites that help school districts implement
HIV/STD prevention policies, curriculum and programs.
The request for $350,000 over the next two years (HF715) was introduced
in the House by Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville) and will be
introduced in the Senate on March 13 by Sen. Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins).
The regional training sites are located in Brainerd, Grand Rapids, Park
Rapids, Winona and Hopkins. They offer training and assistance to
surrounding school districts and have become integral partners in
providing HIV/STD general awareness and prevention services throughout
the state.
A copy of the bill and more is available by clicking here.
Reaching Employers, Employees and Families through Workplaces
Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Mpls) and Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls) introduced
bills (HF728 / SF690) to continue funding for HIV workplace education.
Started at the end of 2001, the bill will continue funding through the
Department of Economic Security (DES) at the level of $75,000 for two
more years. DES contracted with Minnesota AIDS Project to provide the
service.
MAP also secured assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and will be launching the new Wise @ Work service in April.
The service aims to reduce workplace discrimination and disruptions in
productive, and to reach families with general information about HIV
prevention and care.
Contact Doug Flateau, MAP workplace services representative for more
information at [log in to unmask], 612-341-2060 or
800-248-2437.
A copy of the bill and more is available by clicking here.
Family Council Attacks MAP for Distributing "Pornographic" Materials
The Minnesota Family Council has made it a legislative priority to get
state funding for the Minnesota AIDS Project eliminated. This past
week, the group circulated a flyer to legislators charging MAP with
distributing a pornographic brochure that did not provide accurate
information about condoms or STDs.
The brochure is one of over three-dozen produced by ETR Associates -
one of the nation's most respected providers of health promotion
materials, and distributed by request to MAP's clients and through the
MAP AIDSLine. The brochure in question is called "5 Smart Steps to
Condoms." It is distributed to sexually active adults and specifically
addresses strategies for incorporating condom use into sexual patterns.
It doesn't address everything about HIV, STDs, abstinence, safer sex or
condom use that is part of the Family Council's basis for complaint. We
have other brochures to do that. This brochure addresses one thing and
only for certain people-those who are sexually active adults.
All materials distributed through services funded by the Minnesota
Department of Health, and the MAP AIDSLine is one of those services,
must be submitted to the state to be reviewed for accuracy and
appropriateness for the intended audience. This brochure went through
that process.
Cutting to the chase, the Family Council's attack is yet another
example of misrepresenting the facts in an effort to replace what works
- scientific and research-based public health, with ideology-based
public health that has never been proven to work.
What About that Budget?
Deborah Locke from the Pioneer Press has a take on the budget battle
that's worth looking at. Her opinion piece is called "Pawlenty Budget
Cuts Would Inflict Real Pain." Check it out.
Minors' Access to Health Services Threatened
Rep. Tim Wilken [R-Eagan] and Sen. Sean Nienow [R-Princeton] are
sponsors of the bill to eliminate minors access to confidential health
services.
HF352 and SF570 would essentially require frightened teens who might
want screening for HIV or STDs or have questions about pregnancy or
substance abuse to show up with a permission slip from their parents
before they can receive health care services. The bill prohibits
schools from providing any such services - i.e., no condoms available
through school-based health services - and repeals the state's minors'
consent law.
It also prohibits minors who are mothers from consenting to health
services for themselves or their child without asking their parents -
unless they are married. According to the American Medical Association
(AMA), confidential health services for adolescents have become
increasingly important as the severity and prevalence of adolescent
health problems have increased over the past two decades.
The good news is, according to AMA's Council on Scientific Affairs,
most adolescents (55 percent) discuss their use of reproductive health
services with their parents, and a greater number of adolescents
involve their parents in the event of an unplanned pregnancy. The bad
news: AMA reported 25 percent of teens would not seek medical care if
it meant their parents finding out they are sexually active.
Click here to learn more and to read these bills.
We Have Archives, Too - Past Issues of the MAP Advocate
Check the MAP Advocate archives for information about what happened
during the first two months of the 2003 legislative session. Click here
to get there!
MAP Advocate is published by the Minnesota AIDS Project every two weeks
while the Minnesota Legislature is in session, and monthly during the
rest of the year. It is available through the MAP Web site and through
e-mail list service. If you wish to order the MAP Advocate, visit our
Join the Action Network page, or contact MAP Public Policy by phone or
e-mail.
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list service, please contact MAP Public Policy by phone or e-mail.
MAP Public Policy
Minnesota AIDS Project
1400 Park Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612-341-2060
800-373-2437
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