Virginity Movement on the Defensive, Scrambling to Rebrand

By Jessica Valenti, The Nation. Posted June 23, 2009.

In the article inside Palin says, "Girls need to imagine and picture their life with a screaming newborn baby and then think before they have sex.... If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex." Unless, of course, they were told how to protect themselves by using birth control.

The good news in all of this is President Obama's budget cutting most abstinence-only education funding and seeking to redirect the funds to "teen pregnancy prevention programs." The bad news is that 25 percent of the $164 million marked for teen pregnancy prevention would be open to abstinence-only programs, and the language in the budget doesn't make room for initiatives to curb sexually transmitted infections.

Joseph DiNorcia Jr., president of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, says, "This myopic approach does not represent the current state of the research or the desire of the American people for the federal government to invest in comprehensive sex education."

President Obama's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, at the Department of Health and Human Services, has already come under fire from political bloggers like Pam Spaulding for "rolling out the welcome mat" for virginity movement leaders like the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America to discuss reducing the abortion rate.

In addition to including organizations like these in discussions on abortion and sex education, President Obama in early June appointed Alexia Kelley, an antichoicer and executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, to head the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, says that while there are reasons to be optimistic, "there are also reasons to be vigilant.... It would be a mistake to assume that the election of Obama and a Democratic Congress means failed abstinence-only programs will be eliminated." Wagoner says that now is not the time to "sit back and put our feet up," and he notes that programs stemming from the virginity movement are not just about public health but about "very negative gender stereotypes, promoting homophobia and undermining rights to information and education."

So while the virginity movement re-evaluates its image and messaging, progressives have to be just as prepared to battle back with renewed energy, with an eye toward legislative and policy gains and toward assuring that these groups don't regain their cultural footing. As Wagoner points out, this is about a lot a more than bad-faith messages about condoms and pregnancy. It's about stopping a movement committed to the regression of women's rights, enforcing gender norms and teaching America's youth -- especially young women -- that sexuality is wrong, dirty and dangerous.

Now that there's a new administration in Washington, we need to ensure not only that we hold our leaders accountable but that we direct the national conversation about sex, gender and health.

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Jessica Valenti is the executive editor of Feministing.

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