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

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50947,00.html

   CDC Sex Site Has Some Eyes Sore
   By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
   
   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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