Lies they told us about comprehensive sex ed

   

“Sexually active teens are more likely to be depressed and to attempt suicide”

            Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, Wave II (1996); the Heritage Foundation claims that teen sexual activity is correlated to “declines in mental health” (The Heritage Foundation, 2013).  Using manipulated data from this study, the Heritage Foundation claim that “sexually active teen girls are three times more likely to be depressed, three times more likely to attempt suicide than girls who are not active; and sexually active teen boys are more than twice as likely to be depressed and are almost ten times more likely to attempt suicide than boys who are not active” (The Heritage Foundation, 2013).

The manipulated and misrepresented statistics come from a study conducted by Lehrer, Shier, Gortmaker & Buka (2006), which investigated whether symptoms of depression might be linked to sexual risk taking.  What the Heritage Foundation fail to mention was that data from the National Longitudinal Survey found that boys and girls who scored higher on the depressive symptoms scale, were more likely to report that they had not used condoms or other birth control the last time they had sex, and were more likely they were to report use of alcohol or other drugs the last time they had sex (Lehrer, Shier, Gortmaker & Buka, 2006).   The report did not factor whether the type of sexuality education (if any) impacted the findings.   Data from this study found that teens who engaged in ‘risky’ sex were more likely to be depressed or attempt suicide.  The actual findings of this study correlated youth who are both emotionally distressed and socially isolated as more likely to seek or be successfully pressured into sexual activity (Lehrer et al., 2006).  Lehrer et al., (2006) also found that teens may use sex as a coping method for their depression.  While the findings from this study substantiates necessary efforts to promote mental health and to treat depressive disorders among adolescents, it does not support The Heritage Foundation’s claim that adolescents engaging in sexual activity puts teens at a higher risk of being depressed or attempting suicide.

Nelson Mandela

” As you see whitewashed images of a post-prison, unarmed, grandfatherly Mandela, please remember that he was someone who had the pride and courage to take up arms against his oppressor. Mandela fought in a guerrilla war against white supremacy in South Africa, as did many others all across the world. Our own CIA alerted the SA authorities to Mandela’s location, which is what led to his 27 years behind bars and the medical condition which felled him today. Our government was responsible for that crime, and still holds our own anti-apartheid militants behind bars. So when you see Obama crying his crocodile tears later today remember that he would imprison a modern Mandela, that he arms the apartheid government of Israel, that he refuses to pardon those who fought against the corporations propping up the South African government here in the US, and that he has done everything he can to crush the kind of dissent that Mandela stood for” – lana Alazzeh