FC: Conservatives complain CDC.gov links to a healthy-sex site

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Sun Mar 10 2002 - 10:18:38 PST

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    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50947,00.html
    
       CDC Sex Site Has Some Eyes Sore
       By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
       
       2:00 a.m. March 9, 2002 PST
       WASHINGTON -- The staid folks at the Centers for Disease Control and
       Prevention have been caught in a political flap after they linked to a
       -- gasp! -- site that advocates a "positive attitude towards
       sexuality."
       
       That was enough to spur a conservative physicians group to complain to
       the CDC and some Republican politicos to tell The Washington Times
       that "this message conflicts with the message that millions of parents
       try to reinforce in their children each day."
       
       CDC said it is reviewing the link and may remove it.
       
       The site in question is Positive.org, which gives frank,
       straightforward advice about sex phrased in language that teens can
       understand. It's run by the Coalition for Positive Sexuality, a
       not-for-profit group.
       
       The letter came from the Physicians Consortium, which joined with
       Focus on the Family's James Dobson last summer to complain that the
       CDC was giving advice about safe sex rather than only promoting
       abstinence from sex.
    
    ---
    
    http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020307-80699755.htm
    
       CDC links to 'pro-sex' teen site [blackline-small.gif]
       By Robert Stacy McCain
       THE WASHINGTON TIMES
       
            A federal Web site features a link to the Internet pages of
       "pro-sex" activists who provide teen-agers with explicit advice about
       homosexuality, sodomy and masturbation.
                                                                             
            Listings for "youth" resources on a Centers for Disease Control
       and Prevention (CDC) site, includes a link to the Coalition for
       Positive Sexuality (CPS), a self-described "guerrilla sex education"
       group.
            "If you think you might be queer, relax!" the CPS site urges
       teens, and offers this suggestion: "If you think you are queer, try to
       find a lesbian/bisexual/gay/transgender community center near you,
       where you can meet other queers your age."
            The CDC site's "youth" links include the Advocates for Youth
       site, which promotes activism to overturn federal abstinence education
       policies.
            A Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said yesterday the
       department would remove a link to CPS from one of its Web sites. That
       site, www.cyfernet.org, includes "postive youth development" links to
       the sex advice site Go Ask Alice and to Planned Parenthood's Teenwire
       site.
            "We are in the process of taking down the link [to CPS]," public
       affairs specialist Maria Bynum said yesterday afternoon. "And we will
       work with the [Cyfernet] program office and the university partners to
       review the [other] sites and determine what the next steps are."
            The federal Internet links have come under fire from the
       Physicians Consortium, a Pennsylvania-based public policy group.
    
       [...]
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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