I posted this on the ACLU website on March 17 2006. It's to a blog by Adrienne Verrilli, the director of communications at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S.
I just turned 18 on Monday and I'm still a virgin. I had a boyfriend who wanted to have sex with me when I was 14, but I didn't.
The reason I haven't had sex is because I want to wait and share my body with somebody I'm in love with. But that's my personal choice not the government's.
I'm Wiccan so I believe "if it harms none do as you will." Having unprotected sex could harm yourself and someone else. You could get a sexually transmitted disease or have an unwanted pregnancy. Everybody knows that. Except for some of the young teenagers and even preteens who are being told lies by the government and nothing by their parents.
Anybody who thinks that if you lie to young people or keep them ignorant, if you don't tell them all their options, that they won't have sex is just being foolish.
On of my best friends was raised extremely strictly. Her father wouldn't let her have email because he thought the Internet was a bad influence. She couldn't even use it at school. He spied on her, searched her bedroom, called to check on her wherever she went, and wouldn't let her go to parties unless it was all girls or there were a lot of adults there.
One day when she was 14, school was cancelled because of a teacher's conference. She didn't tell her parents school was closed that day. She left just like she always did. But she met her secret boyfriend near her school, then he took her somewhere and they had sex. All her father's spying and trying to protect her meant nothing.
If you want a child and a teenager to be prepared, you have to prepare them for life. You can't do that by protecting them from the truth.