National Condom Week

From Planned Parenthood:

While a lot of us are enjoying Valentine's Day with loved ones this weekend, there's another annual event taking place that you might have missed: this week is National Condom Week!

Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest provider of contraceptive services, so we're pretty big fans of National Condom Week. It's a time to talk about important issues like contraceptive access and education, not to mention prevention of sexually transmitted infections. But mostly, it's a time to celebrate that simple, effective, wonderful invention known as the latex condom.

So we've pulled together a few of our favorite condom-related videos and put them all in one playlist. Want to see condoms used in high fashion? Or maybe it's time for a brief refresher on properly using a condom? And then there's my favorite, the Golden Girls shopping at the pharmacy, with Bea Arthur yelling, "Condoms, Rose! Condoms!"

Click here to watch our playlist. While you're there, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel — it's the best way to stay up-to-date on the sometimes fun, sometimes serious, but always engaging videos from Planned Parenthood.

From all of us at Planned Parenthood, Happy National Condom Week!

Click here to find out more about National Condom Week. Click here to learn about the amazing OWL program that many UU Churches offer. I was a chaperone for an overnight and the kids are really funny and engaged...they learned all about lovemaking (gay and straight) last night and will find out everything they need to know about contraception, abortion, family planning, the importance of making good decisions, etc. today. Can't wait for my children to be old enough to go through the program.

Church and Sex Ed?

You betcha!

From the Unitarian Universalist Association:

In a press conference held in St. Paul, site of the Republican National Convention, a panel of clergy, youth and family advocates, and educators came together on September 4 to call on elected officials at the state and federal levels to stop funding for abstinence-only programs and protect adolescent health by supporting comprehensive sexuality education.

and,

Although $1.5 billion dollars in taxpayer money has been spent on abstinence-only programs since 1996, they said, abstinence-only programs are not effective. According to recent statistics, one in four teenage girls has a sexually-transmitted infection, and of the 750,000 teen pregnancies that occur each year, 82% are unintended.

The religious leaders and educators pointed out that the best way to protect America’s young people from unintended pregnancies, and from sexually-transmitted diseases and infections, is by providing comprehensive sexuality education in our public schools.

Really? You don't say? Hmmmm....did you get that soon-to-be Grandma Palin?

What to do? Click here to urge your Congressional delegation to stop funding abstinence-only education. Click here to find out about an annual training program that teaches youth, young adults and adult allies how to be effective, faith-based advocates for comprehensive sexuality education. Oh, and as always, vote for Barack Obama on November 4th.