Post a Comment On: Vigilance

George Mason University today is holding an event called "Sextravaganza," a campus-wide sex and health fair. Of course, certain holier-than-thou types are outraged ... we'll get to that.

From the campus newspaper, Broadside:
Sex is a subject that many college students avoid really talking about. Creating a dialogue about sex and the many issues that go along with it is a goal of Pro-Choice Patriots. Pro-Choice Patriots is a group often associated with abortion issues, but as Sextravaganza proves, the organization is about more than one issue.

Sextravaganza will be held on April 25 from 12-5 p.m. in Dewberry Hall. It is a day to raise awareness on the George Mason University campus about the many pleasures and pains that come along with sex.

Different groups from Mason and the metro area will have tables set up with information for students. Groups who will be involved from Mason are the PRIDE alliance and Sexual Assault Services. Groups from Fairfax and the surrounding area that are scheduled to be present are Men Can Stop Rape, D.C. Advocates for Youth, Falls Church Healthcare Clinic and the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Falls Church Healthcare Clinic will be offering private, 15-minute consultations with a resident medical student for free.

Other highlights of the event will be emergency contraception, which can be received on campus, sexuality jeopardy and free condoms. There will also be a table set up where students can sample aphrodisiacs and Northern Virginia Aids Ministry will be giving free oral AIDS tests.

Pro-Choice Patriots president Amanda Agan said, "What we're trying to do is show all different aspects of the issue." She believes that having groups such as Catholic Campus Ministry in Sextravaganza will "give these students an outlet and everyone can come to the event without being uncomfortable."

The ultimate purpose of Sextravaganza is to create a dialogue. For more information about the event, contact Amanda Agan at aagan@gmu.edu. Making Sex Fun, Making Sex Safe: A Dialogue
Now, you can see that this is sort of designed to upset a few people. But why not?

This may be off the topic, but here's what I wonder: how many of the people who advocate abstinence until marriage were actually abstinent until they were married?

I heard a Family Research Council guy saying that the other day, "We think sex outside of a lifelong committed marriage between a man and a woman is a bad thing to do as well." And I really wanted to ask him -- were you a virgin when you got married?

Somebody actually asked Ann Coulter that last week, when she was blabbing about abstinence. Somebody from the audience asked her (she is unmarried) if she is a virgin. She refused to answer.

Now, your first thought is, this is a personal question, and nobody should have to answer it. BBBBRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!! Wrong.

There are two answers to this question, when asked of a public figure who goes around promoting abstinence until marriage. The first answer is, "Yes, I was a virgin when I married, and I am very proud of that fact." The other answer is, "Mmm, I guess I ought to stop talking about this, shouldn't I?"

The answer you'd expect -- "That's a private matter and it's none of your business" -- should make you wonder why they can talk about other people's sex lives, but other people can't talk about theirs. Excuse me, your hypocrisy's showing.

So these students in Virginia are having their Sextravaganza today, on campus. The Post says:
"I'm absolutely disgusted that GMU would be permitting that kind of thing to go on," Del. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun) said of Monday's event. "They're going to ruin their reputation as a first-class university if they don't put a stop to this." Lawmaker Decries GMU Health Fair, 'Moral Depravity'
Well, who's surprised?

More from The Post:
Organizer Amanda Agan, 21, a global affairs major from Fairfax County, said groups from a variety of perspectives had been invited to participate, including the Feminist Majority Foundation and the campus's Catholic ministry.

"We're not trying to have a political agenda. We'll have all sides at this event, so everybody can feel comfortable coming," Agan said.

[State Sen. Ken] Cuccinelli disputed that.

"This whole thing is really just designed to push sex and sexual libertine behavior as far, fast and furiously as possible," he said.
Once again, the fear of Talking About It. The assumption that talking about sex is going to make everybody revert to their basest animal nature, rutting and orgying in the mud, as if orgy were a verb.

This event is going to have sessions on topics like date rape, contraception, abstinence, and sexual health. But these politicians want to paint it to be a licentious wild time. We've seen this here in Montgomery County, where the holier-than-thou crowd was unable to distinguish between a health class and porn. They have been a minor but persistent irritation here, and it looks like they also failed to stop Sextravaganza at George Mason University.