Tennessee Bans Discussing ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’

Every time I think I’ve seen the outer extremes of pseudo-Christian prudishness on the part of Republican-dominated legislatures, I am taken aback by the latest offering. From TPM’s David Taintor:

You’ve heard of gateway drugs — smoking marijuana supposedly leads to harder, more addictive substances. But what about “gateway sexual activity”: the hand-holding, lip-locking and light-grazes that can lead to … other things?

The Tennessee Legislature on Friday sent a bill to Gov. Bill Haslam’s desk that, according to the Tennessean, would require sex-ed classes to “exclusively and emphatically” promote abstinence and ban teachers and outside groups from promoting “gateway sexual activity.”

The bill defines “gateway sexual activity” as: “sexual conduct encouraging an individual to engage in a non-abstinent behavior.” The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Jim Gotto, said the bill wouldn’t address things as innocuous as holding hands, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. But critics of the legislation say the offending behavior is not clearly defined. Gotto did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.

According to the News Sentinel, groups like Planned Parenthood and others who provide sex education information in schools could face a $500 fine. …

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Gateway Sexual Activity
Brandenburg Gate

I’d say the Tennessee legislature is involved in more than a gateway sexual activity: they’re fucking nuts!

Laws like this should be anathema to a free society. Many of us think that kids should freely discuss sex: they’re going to discuss it anyway; what possible purpose is served by banning it? And they may as well learn something from the discussions, and from people who actually know something, such as teachers, counselors and yes, Planned Parenthood advisers. The “appropriate” limits of sexual expression are none of the legislature’s goddamned business. Parents should teach their kids according to their own lights. I, for example, would teach my kids every biological fact about sex, every social reality of bearing a child when the couple is unable to care for it, and yes, every means of contraception and every alternative to actually fucking. And I would also mention gay sex, on the outside chance that they were born gay, unbeknownst to me. They should know. Your kids will learn it, from you or from other kids or from radical fundamentalist nut‑jobs: the choice of source is yours, but they will, with certainty, learn it. Do your duty. Teach your kids age-appropriate sex-related facts and social context: it’s the human thing to do.

And tell your state legislature to fuck off!

MoveOn Ad: ‘The GOP War On Women’

This is hard-hitting:

It’s about time we put a (metaphorical) sharp stick in the eye of the GOP. This is a good start.

Dammit, Barry, Couldn’t You At Least Stand Behind Your Own Health Care Law?

Peterr on FDL:

The Obama administration continues its caving to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, and seeks input on ways in which to continue its spelunking in the future. From the National Catholic Reporter:

Coming after a month of continued opposition from the U.S. bishops to the mandate, which was first revised in early February to exempt certain religious organizations, today’s announced changes from the Department of Health and Human Services make a number of concessions, including allowing religious organizations that self-insure to be made exempt.

Also raised is the possibility that the definition given for religious employers in the original mandate could be changed.

HHS did not announce final rules, but put forward a 32 page proposal for comment [pdf] on religious organizations and their obligation (or lack thereof) to provide coverage for “certain preventive services.”

That “self insurance” loophole is a huge exemption. Look for any Roman Catholic institutions that aren’t self-insured already to set themselves up that way in short order.

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Dog damn it (so to speak), First Amendment religious freedom does NOT mean freedom to impose your religion’s phobias on society at large through government regulations. Obama has no business compromising on this… none whatsoever. It’s just another aspect of his noncombatant status when it comes to fighting against the Republican War on Women.

“Compromising a little bit” on significant women’s issues is a bit like being “a little bit pregnant.” If Obama cannot be depended upon to face down the Catholic bishops over this (which is really, despite Rush’s rants, not about government money for contraception; it’s about insurance companies’ money for contraception), then what on Dog’s decreasingly green earth can one depend on him for?

Look. Most American Catholic women use contraceptives, the Pope be fucked (you do the job, not me). Those Catholic women who instead choose to have fifteen children are free to do so; their freedom of religion guarantees that they can drop babies until they’re bloodless wraiths, if they want to. That’s religious freedom. Catholic Bishops essentially writing administration regs on health care coverage… that’s not religious freedom; that’s an outright merger of church and state. Obama should fight that religious invasion tooth and nail. But noooo…

Arizona: Land Of Insanity About Birth Control

The hits just keep coming. A new bill introduced into the Arizona House does two things: it contains Blunt-amendment-like language allowing employers to deny a woman coverage for contraceptives absent a prescription specifying their use for non-contraceptive purposes, and (this astonishes me) it would allow an employer to fire a woman if she sought contraceptives even if not through the employer-sponsored insurance plan. The latter is to be accomplished by removing the following protection from existing law:

“A religious employer shall not discriminate against an employee who independently chooses to obtain insurance coverage or prescriptions for contraceptives from another source.”

The Arizona ACLU is on the case; here’s Public Policy Director Anjali Abraham:

“I think this just goes to what we’ve been saying about the bill,” she said. “It isn’t really about guaranteeing an individual’s religious liberty but ultimately is about eliminating access as much as possible to basic health services for women.”

I can’t imagine this proposed law does not violate the 14^th Amendment’s equal protection clause. But this is Arizona we’re talking about, and they seem ready to try it: the bill has already passed the state House and a Senate committee.

What sort of person would introduce such a bill? Well, first of all, it’s a woman, House Majority Whip Debbie Lesko (R-Glendale), and second, this is an assertion of her vast knowledge on the subject:

“I believe we live in America. We don’t live in the  Soviet Union,” Lesko said. “So, government should not be telling the organizations or mom and pop employers to do something against their moral beliefs.”

Um… who’s going to be the one to tell Rep. Lesko that no one lives in the Soviet Union anymore?

(H/T TPM.)

Contraception A First Amendment Issue? Here’s How Much The GOP Believes In The First Amendment

This is the kind of thing that is so absurd it would make one laugh… if it weren’t so deadly, relentlessly, terrifyingly serious:

House Republicans have refused to televise a Democratic-led hearing on birth control that features the testimony of a female witness the GOP spurned in a recent hearing, says House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). And Pelosi wants you to know it.

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“In an apparent effort to again silence women on the topic of women’s health,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammil said in a statement Tuesday, “the Committee on House Administration, chaired by Dan Lungren, has apparently reversed existing policy and denied a request from the Democratic leadership for the House Recording Studio to cover this event and provide video publicly so all Americans can finally hear Ms. Fluke.”

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A GOP aide said it has not been the committee’s policy to accept all such requests, noting that it has at times denied both Democratic and Republican efforts to televise hearings. The aide said granting it to some members necessitates granting it to all members, and there aren’t enough resources for that.

But granting it to one major political party but not the other major party is just peachy-keen with them. And permitting dour Catholic priests to speak and denying speech to a young woman student… who, unlike the priests, might actually be affected… is “jes’ doin’ my duty” to Chair-Nazi Issa.

I do sometimes wish I believed in a Hell. Some people really, really deserve to be there, and Issa is one of them. But I don’t. Damn, so to speak!