Brooks and Hughes attack on Sex Educators

This is a courtesy Repost of information forwarded by Maymay, a well known Sexual Freedom Advocate, Blogger, and Activst, and the founder of Kink for All. 

The Kink for All program has been aimed heavily at promoting awareness among teens and adults of the alt-sex community.  I’m just going to say up front that I know people who have very hard lives in terms of dealing with their sexuality whose lives would be richer, more positive and generally better if they had been exposed to a positive, accepting, environment to learn more about alternative sexuality, including kink, when they were much younger. 

The original article is here: http://maybemaimed.com/2011/02/07/margaret-brooks-demonstrates-how-opportunism-trumps-facts-in-anti-sex-campaigns/


The same folks who all but flat-out accused of me being a sexual predator, Margaret Brooks & Donna M. Hughes, are at it again. This time they’re claiming that my friends, sexuality educators certified by AASECT, are to blame for increasing HIV/AIDS rates on campus. Their logic? The educators were talking about sex. No, really, that’s the argument. (See links, below.)

Please help by blogging/forwarding/tweeting/facebooking the below links any which way you can. There’s a press release, also available on the web, at the end of this mailing, and it would be especially helpful if you can forward it along with the other listed links to other well-connected individuals or folks with some publishing muscle.

PRESS RELEASE (copied, below):

http://brownsheec.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/for-immediate-release-sexuality-educators-set-the-record-straight-talking-about-sexuality-does-not-increase-sexually-transmitted-infections”-despite-what-non-experts-report/

Dr. Charlie Glickman’s great dissection:
http://www.charlieglickman.com/2011/02/margaret-brooks-attacks-sex-ed-again/

Shanna Katz’s response:
http://shannakatz.com/2011/02/07/sex-education-does-not-lead-to-increased-sti-transmission/

My own slightly zoomed-out commentary:
http://maybemaimed.com/2011/02/07/margaret-brooks-demonstrates-how-opportunism-trumps-facts-in-anti-sex-campaigns/

Thanks for helping defend quality sex education from baseless smear campaigns like this.

Cheers,
-maymay
Blog: http://maybemaimed.com
Talk show: http://KinkOnTap.com
Community: http://KinkForAll.org

EXTERNAL REFERENCES:

[0] http://groups.google.com/group/kinkforall/browse_thread/thread/4020d397e88241ed/d129d5809c3a34d5
[1] http://maybemaimed.com/2010/03/24/the-salvation-army-incites-personal-attacks-against-me-a-blog-reply/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sexuality educators set the record straight: “Talking about sexuality does not increase sexually transmitted infections” despite what non-experts report.

Contact:
Megan Andelloux
HiOhMegan@gmail.com
401-345-8685

Contact: Aida Manduley
Aida_manduley@brown.edu
787-233-0025

In yet another attempt to shut down access to quality sex education, South-Eastern New England conservative advocates hit the sex panic button in a multi-state, email and phone campaign to colleges all over New England last week.

On February 3rd and 4th , certified sexuality educator and sexologist Megan Andelloux (AASECT, ACS) received word that numerous colleges and university faculty received a document stating that colleges who brought sex educators such as Ms. Andelloux onto their campuses were linked to the increasing rate of transmission of HIV in RI. Furthermore, among other misleading “facts” that were “cited,” the author of this bulletin claimed that Brown University was facing an HIV crisis, which is false.

Citizens Against Trafficking, the face behind the fear-mongering, spammed numerous local institutions from a University of Rhode Island account with its latest malicious missive that targeted specific individuals as well as Brown University. The author of the letter, Margaret Brooks, an Economics Professor at Bridgewater State, suggested that colleges and universities that host sexuality speakers, including those who are professionally accredited, are partly to blame for the four new cases of HIV which have been diagnosed amongst RI college students this year.

Ms. Andelloux states: “My heart goes out to those students who have recently tested positive for HIV. However, there is no evidence of any link between campus presentations on sexual issues and the spike in HIV cases. Rather, I would suggest that this demonstrates a need for more high-quality sex education to college students.“ It is unclear why people at URI or Citizens Against Trafficking, a coalition to combat all forms of human trafficking, is attempting to stop adults from accessing sexual information from qualified, trained educators. What is certain however, is that this Professor of Economics miscalculated her suggestion that a correlation exists between increased HIV rates in Rhode Island and the type of sex education these speakers provided at Brown University: one that emphasized accurate information, risk-reduction, pleasure, and health.

Barrier methods have been shown by the CDC to reduce the transmission of HIV and other STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections). Research has shown that when individuals have access to medically accurate information, are aware of sexual risk reduction methods, and have access to learn about sexual health, the number of infections and transmission of STIs decreases, pain during sex decreases, and condom use increases. The CAT circulated bulletin is blatantly misleading about many issues, and often omits information that is crucial to understanding the full picture of sex education at Brown and in Rhode Island.

When individuals who do not hold any background in sexuality education speak out in opposition because of their fear or prejudice, society becomes rooted in outdated beliefs and pseudo-science that do injustice to people everywhere. Furthermore, when those individuals personally and publicly attack those devoted to providing sex education with false and misinformed accusations, it not only hurts those who are defamed, but also the community at large.

We ask for an immediate retraction of the vilifying and inaccurate statements made by Ms. Margaret Brooks and Citizens Against Trafficking in their latest newsletter. We also ask that esteemed local universities such as URI and Bridgewater State continue to hold their employees to ethical standards of normal scientific inquiry and require that their faculty hold some modicum of expertise in a field of education before raising the public level of panic over it.

Megan Andelloux is available to answer any questions the press, Margaret Brooks, University of Rhode Island or Citizens Against Trafficking holds. Aida Manduley, the Chair of Brown University’s Sexual Health Education and Empowerment Council and Brown University’s is available to discuss the upcoming Sex Week and sexuality workshops held at Brown University.

Signed,
Megan Andelloux
Shanna Katz
Reid Mihalko
Aida Manduley

click analytics

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.