What's next, "gay cancer?"

Dear LifeLuber - True or false? "AIDS can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact" Abstinence-only education: instilling baseless fear in young people across America. Take action today. Pop quiz: What do these statements have in common? a. "AIDS can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact" b. "As condom usage has increased, so have rates of STDs" c. "People with AIDS are now suffering because of the choices they made" Answer: They're all misleading, baseless, fear-mongering. And they're all real quotes from textbooks for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs paid for with our tax dollars! These programs are taking us so far back in time, they'll be calling AIDS the "gay cancer" again before long! Some of the misstatements, especially regarding STDs, are potentially dangerous to young people who should be learning the facts about their health. Instead they're being spoon-fed socially conservative ideology. Can you believe our Democratic Congress is actually going to increase funding to these regressive, anti-gay programs? Send a message to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: don't play politics with kids' lives. Since 1981, before we came to know it as AIDS, Gay Men's Health Crisis has been working to end bigoted, dangerous notions about this disease - and to make its prevention, treatment, and cure a national priority. We're working to ensure Congress knows abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are: Outdated – and just plain wrong. These programs make ignorance into public policy by throwing away all the medical facts we've learned about AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). Discriminatory. Abstinence-only-until-marriage ignores, isolates, and endangers lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, who are largely unable to marry in this country, and promotes biases and misinformation about gender and homosexuality. Ineffective. There is not a shred of evidence that these programs reduce the spread of STDs or delay intercourse. And they're going to increase funding for these sham programs? Please help us end this assault on our young people's health. If we can get 2,500 messages to Speaker Pelosi, she won't be able to ignore us. Help us send 2,500 messages to Speaker Nancy Pelosi - send yours today! For 25 years, Gay Men's Health Crisis has been working tirelessly to replace ignorance and bigotry with knowledge and life. But we can't do it alone. Thank you for taking action. Warmly, Sean Cahill, Ph.D. Managing Director, Public Policy, Research and Community Health Gay Men's Health Crisis