Bryan Fischer
Let's stop subsidizing fornication
By Bryan Fischer
City officials in our nation's capital have meekly yielded to complaints from its randy high schoolers and agreed to hand out, at taxpayer expense, the condoms of the students' choice.
Apparently the teens were insulted that the city was offering an inferior brand of protection — Durex — rather than the coveted Trojan variety. The appeal of the Trojan brand? Their condoms have a "bling quality" since they come in a glittery gold package.
And students were also ticked that they actually had to go to the school nurse to get them. One student, T. Squalls, said that, "If people get what they don't want, they are going to trash them. So why not spend a few extra dollars and get what people want?" The money being spent here, of course, is not Mr. Squalls' own, so it's quite easy for him to demand that other people spend more money on his sexual pleasure.
Now students will be able to get condoms from any cool teacher who completes a half-hour online training course called "WrapMC" — for "Master of Condoms."
"We thought making condoms available was a good thing, but we never asked the kids what they wanted," said D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), chairman of the health committee. That's because, Mr. Catania, you know what they want — unlimited, hassle-free sex with somebody else picking up the tab for the cesspool of STDs that inevitably result.
City officials are offering condoms for free online and at barbershops (!), liquor stores and youth centers.
Apparently there is a stigma attached to condom use, and officials are trying to "destigmatize" it. Well, if you're trying to destigmatize something, why not destigmatize abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards? It still works every time it's tried.
The model D.C. is following is New York, which has been dishing out 40 million condoms every year, starting back in 1971. D.C. and New York are the only two cities in America with condom give-away programs.
So how is New York's model program working out? A headline in the New York Times says it all, "City's Genital Herpes Rate Is Above National Average."
It turns out that 26 percent of New Yorkers, compared to the national average of 19 percent, are infected with genital herpes, which facilitates the spread of H.I.V., can infect the lining of the brain and can be transmitted to newborns.
Not only that, New York's rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis are above the national average. This despite the fact that "[condom] usage has soared," according to the ever-hopeful Times.
Well, that's certainly a model we want to reduplicate everywhere.
The reality is we cannot stop people from having sex outside of marriage. What we can stop doing is encouraging it and paying for it as a matter of public policy. By handing out free condoms to young single adults, we're simply subsidizing immoral, unhealthy and even potentially life-threatening behavior. One of life's intractable realities is that you always get more of what you subsidize, so we'll soon see D.C. running neck and neck with New York as the STD capital of the world. We shouldn't expect anything less.
D.C. to begin using more-expensive Trojan condoms in HIV prevention program — The Washington Post
City's Genital Herpes Rate Is Above National Average — New York Times
© Bryan Fischer
May 25, 2010
City officials in our nation's capital have meekly yielded to complaints from its randy high schoolers and agreed to hand out, at taxpayer expense, the condoms of the students' choice.
Apparently the teens were insulted that the city was offering an inferior brand of protection — Durex — rather than the coveted Trojan variety. The appeal of the Trojan brand? Their condoms have a "bling quality" since they come in a glittery gold package.
And students were also ticked that they actually had to go to the school nurse to get them. One student, T. Squalls, said that, "If people get what they don't want, they are going to trash them. So why not spend a few extra dollars and get what people want?" The money being spent here, of course, is not Mr. Squalls' own, so it's quite easy for him to demand that other people spend more money on his sexual pleasure.
Now students will be able to get condoms from any cool teacher who completes a half-hour online training course called "WrapMC" — for "Master of Condoms."
"We thought making condoms available was a good thing, but we never asked the kids what they wanted," said D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), chairman of the health committee. That's because, Mr. Catania, you know what they want — unlimited, hassle-free sex with somebody else picking up the tab for the cesspool of STDs that inevitably result.
City officials are offering condoms for free online and at barbershops (!), liquor stores and youth centers.
Apparently there is a stigma attached to condom use, and officials are trying to "destigmatize" it. Well, if you're trying to destigmatize something, why not destigmatize abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards? It still works every time it's tried.
The model D.C. is following is New York, which has been dishing out 40 million condoms every year, starting back in 1971. D.C. and New York are the only two cities in America with condom give-away programs.
So how is New York's model program working out? A headline in the New York Times says it all, "City's Genital Herpes Rate Is Above National Average."
It turns out that 26 percent of New Yorkers, compared to the national average of 19 percent, are infected with genital herpes, which facilitates the spread of H.I.V., can infect the lining of the brain and can be transmitted to newborns.
Not only that, New York's rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis are above the national average. This despite the fact that "[condom] usage has soared," according to the ever-hopeful Times.
Well, that's certainly a model we want to reduplicate everywhere.
The reality is we cannot stop people from having sex outside of marriage. What we can stop doing is encouraging it and paying for it as a matter of public policy. By handing out free condoms to young single adults, we're simply subsidizing immoral, unhealthy and even potentially life-threatening behavior. One of life's intractable realities is that you always get more of what you subsidize, so we'll soon see D.C. running neck and neck with New York as the STD capital of the world. We shouldn't expect anything less.
D.C. to begin using more-expensive Trojan condoms in HIV prevention program — The Washington Post
City's Genital Herpes Rate Is Above National Average — New York Times
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
