Gordon Clay here. A few communities across the country have designated March 17-23 as Abstinence Awareness Week. And this administation spends millions of dollars to teach abstinence-only in our schools even though a long-awaited study mandated by Congress showed that students who participated in these programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not. There is no published study of an abstinence-only program that demonstrates that these programs help young people change their behavior.

While I totally support abstinence before marriage, let's get real. Research shows that over 88% of those signing an abstinence pledge do not make it to marriage before having sex, that 80% of all people have intercourse at least once by the age of 20, that roughly 60% of teens in the US are sexually active, that teens who break their pledge are one-third less likely than non-pledgers to use contraceptives leading to a higher rate of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and that the US leads all developed countries in teen birth rates.

Having information does no harm to people who aren't having sex and research shows that discussions about birth control does not cause teens to have sex but has proven to actually postpone intercourse.

Abstinence-only programs that fail to educate those who are sexually active as well as those who wait about how to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, place our county’s youth in jeopardy. All young people, both gay and straight, have a need for, and a right to, accurate, frank and positive information about sex. To do otherwise is simply morally wrong.