It is, and I just want to point out why it is an issue.
In 2004, one out of 12 teenage girls in the city of Philadelphia had Chlamydia. The result was a massive outbreak in our cities high school of multiple STD outbreaks. Despite this, there is still a lack of overall good sexual education in our public high schools and the availability of free condoms to promote safe sexual health is lacking.
Despite the fact that there are 10 clinics run by the Philadelphia Health Care Center, only 2 of them offer STD testing.
There is no federal website informing citizens of STD rates in Philadelphia, or just what STD's are around. If there is, they've made it incredibly difficult to find!
In my platform, and when I'm elected, I plan on reforming this and making sure that Philadelphia becomes a national leader in safe sexual health! To simply ignore our most basic instinct and to hope it works itself out is not going to work.
1. In order to help stop the spread of STD's in the Philadelphia among not only our youth but also our adults, I will start by funding OPERATION: SAFE SEX. Free condoms will be given out at high schools, colleges, all government buildings, and will be given to any business requesting them. And business willing to hand out the free condoms will be given a small tax break.
2. There are 10 clinics run by the Philadelphia Health Care Center, and only 2 of them offer STD testing. When elected, we will make sure that all clinics have specialized treatment in STD testing and treatment. This will encourage more people to be screened and tested!
3. The City of Philadelphia will have a mandatory Sex Education course in all Philadelphia High Schools, with no one being allowed to miss it. All students will be taught the basics of human sexuality, encouraged to practice abstinence, and taught about both proper use of condoms and other contraceptives, as well as STD's that can result of unprotected sex. This will give teenagers a fair and balanced look at sex and allow them to make what they consider to be the proper choices in their lives regarding their own personal sexuality. In addition to that, all students will be given mandatory classes on how to properly raise a child.
4. Currently, the Philadelphia does not have much in terms of information about STD's in the City of Philadelphia, and very little to help educate citizens of STD's. We need a web site that has information and reports about reported STD's in both high schools, colleges, and the overall health of Philadelphia.
All of these measures are NOT to encourage sex out of wedlock, and they are NOT here to encourage people to have sex. Myself? I am not afraid to admit that, yes, I am a virgin. I went to Catholic School for 13 years, and I never received what I consider a proper education in terms of sexual health. It is because of this that I want to educate all high school students on proper sexual health.
We can not always rely on parents to do this job. Sex is one of the most difficult topics to discuss, but it is essentially a basic human function. We need to encourage those in this city who are most at risk and most likely to have unprotected sex to learn ways to protect themselves, their partners, and everyone else.
Without a doubt, what I want is controversial; not everyone is comfortable with having condoms in high schools, let alone a mandatory class in Sexual Health. I am the man who fights against the government telling us how to live, and that they are here to be a safety net. In essence, that is exactly what this is. The education is to teach everyone what sexual reproduction is and what it means. It is to educate teenagers of the risks involved in sex, and to encourage them to practice abstinence, but to ensure that they learn proper sexual health in the case they fall.
My policy is here to help, not legislate, sexual health in the City of Philadelphia.
This is a platform developed by talking to educators, parents, high school students, college students, and countless members of the community. I believe this is the best way tackle this issue, and I sincerely hope you will all join me in this.
I thank you very much for your time, and I sincerely hope you have a wonderful and productive day!
-Larry West
sex out of wedlock
i am going to be having sex out of wedlock for my whole life. damn straights. which brings me to my point: what are you gonna do for LGBT kids? Very specific needs for sex ed there...
Hey Ray!
Mmm... I'm not 100% sure what you mean. Could you please expand a bit more on it? I would love to know what it is and what I can do to help!
red flags
for me, it's a red flag when people talk about "sexual reproduction," and "out of wedlock sex" that they are comning from a heteronormative world view. meaning you assume people are straight until they tell you they are gay. i was in many a sex ed class in the School District of Philadelphia and i always felt left out. Gay men and lesbians have different sex than straights and if you want to talk safe sex to them, you need to know what's different and what is the same.
and what do you mean you are gonna teach abstinence?
Let me explain it more than...
My policy is not meant to discriminate, and I'm sorry for the mistake in phrasing.
I'm in favor of teaching people to abstain from sex before marriage, but still teaching normal sexual education with a focus on proper usage of contraceptives. In terms of same-sex and bi-sexual relationship education, I'm still working on a full policy for it. Most likely, that would be an optional portion of the class since not all students would fall into that category.
But I can understand the difference in opinion and facts between heterosexual students and homosexual and bisexual students. I want to stress the fact that my platform does call for a legalization of same-sex marriage (not just civil unions) in the City of Philadelphia, if not the state. The call to wait mainly stands in the grounds of just waiting for someone you really love and care about. That is all I mean, and I do apologize for not clarifying that earlier.
In essence, I just want teenagers to make the right informed choices on what they do in their sexual lives and make sure they stay sexually healthy and wise.
I do thank you for pointing that out for me! It was an error on my part. If you have any other ideas, anything else you would like to point out, or any other mistakes that I need to correct, please feel free to comment and let me know!
Are you going to be on the
Are you going to be on the ballot this year Larry just curious because when I have seen the sample ballots I haven't seen your name?
No
Unfortunately, no, I won't be on the ballot. You can still write me in, though!
Sex Education and LGBTQ issues
Having attended many primary campaign events last winter and spring, these were issues that did arise in very niche groups. At the Free Library, one teen girl asked the candidates what they would do about men who had sex with early teen girls and what they would do about teen pregnancies. The first question was carefully danced around but Mr. Nutter had a decent response to the latter: If there is a teen pregnancy, then there is a teen boy in the picture too. My own experience is that there is a lot of mis-information about what constitutes healthy sexuality. Much of that stems from children having children and the rest comes from a wide variety of values paraded on TV, the radio, and movies. Heterosexism/homophobia is also a prevalent message our children are getting.
The first question, however, is my area of expertise. No, I'm not Herbert the Pervert from Family Guy, but I work with teens with sexual behavior problems. Not knowing the age laws in PA is probably one of the biggest gaps in our children's education. Next comes having accurate information about what defines consent and sexual abuse and what do you do when it happens (both as a parent and as a teen). A recent poll by STOP IT NOW! Phildalelphia , an agency whose mission it is to teach adults and parents what sexual abuse is and how to intervene, determined that 24% of the adult population were the victims of sexual abuse (both hands on/hands off) as minors. When I tried to engage a few candidates on this issue, I was politely thanked and they went to the next handshake.
If people want to make a difference, this needs to be a grassroots activity. When you hear people using objectifying and unkind language about someone, please correct them and explain why calling someone a "b***h", "fa**ot", "shorty", or "jawn" is not appropriate (I'll assume since we're all educated, we know why - if not send me a message). If we watch or listen to adult-oriented media, we are doing so without our teens and younger children present. If we are watching a show with our kids and there is sexual content, discussing what they know and don't know about such matters and conveying your values. I'll never forget the look on the 10-year-old's face in the movies when the penis went through the guys head in "Scary Movie." I wanted to reach over and smack his adult!!!
My PSA: if anyone suspects child sexual abuse or observes inappropriate boundaries/sexual behaviors, contact STOP IT NOW! at 1-888 PREVENT (773-8368).