Well, thankfully a group of behavioral genetics experts at UVA didn’t fall for it and decided to run a study of their own. By studying more than 500 pairs of twins in order to rule out false cause-and-effect relationships, they studied the youth groups in their appropriate socioeconomic, educational, and racial cohorts and found that there was actually no positive link between age of first sex and "delinquency." So, to conservative dismay, youth who had sex at younger ages were actually less likely to be "delinquent" than those who had sex later. Shameful effort.

But endless studies and stats aside, why the hell we are associating sex with “delinquency”? Are we actually considering (or even scarier, already funding?) programs preaching abstinence in hope it will deter criminal behavior? When did we become so scared of sex?

As researcher Harden says, his new study questions the "usefulness of abstinence education for preventing behavior problems and questions the bigger underlying assumption that adolescent sex is always bad." We are in a place where we must consider the deeper implications of framing sex as “The Enemy.” We will never reduce the insane numbers of unintended pregnancies and STIs (yes, it’s STIs, not STDs) until we address the sexual politics we live in. Sexual conservative notions are deeply rooted in ideas that sex (at any age) is dirty, sinful, inappropriate and always yields negative consequences outside the context of marriage (and even then, it’s never for pleasure!). It all seems pretty contradictory considering messages in our sex obsessed media, but that’s for another blog. It would be positive to start viewing sexuality as life-giving AND life-fulfilling. It is not always negative, and has many positive aspects when (not to sound preachy) done safely and responsibly. But unfortunately conservatives sex-hating has gotten so crazy that we're now dealing with an administration that has successfully legislated against sex and sex education.

The conservative agenda for abstinence (which has been proven to be a BIG fat enormous failure…) isn’t keeping us “safe,” it is hypocrisy and disrespect at its worst. How can we be expected to make responsible decisions if we are not armed with the education and tools to make those decisions? It’s our job to make sure that they stop appointing officials from anti-sex and anti-family planning backgrounds to legislate our sexual “health” with their skewed morals and bogus studies. We’re being kept in the dark under the assumption that ignorance is bliss when it comes to sex. But we all know this is a joke. Abstinence only education ruins lives, takes away the right to know our bodies, and denies men and women access to family planning. It has real consequences. So I am just trying to figure out why we are still standing for it.