New Blog link… Sexual Intelligence
by Stephen Kastner on 08/11/08 at 8:06 pm
Today I came across a thought-provoking letter from Dr. Marty Klein to President-elect Barack Obama. One thing led to another as I traced my way to the author and his ongoing campaign for Sexual Intelligence – a blog which examines the sexual implications of current events, politics, technology, popular culture and the media. It is now included in the “Blogroll of Honor” here at Quantum Sexuality Magazine.
Marty publishes a new article once a week and at the end of each month he e-mails them out to subscribers. His short letter to Barack Obama offers 10 suggestions on how to restore all that we have lost in the past 8 years and move our nation to adult status… one in which we have the rights to make individual choices rather than having them legislated upon us. Dr. Klein has written several books, his latest an award-winning title that I intend to review here in the coming months: America’s War On Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust, & Liberty.
Dr. Klein on Reason.tv
Dear President Obama:
For months, I’ve been predicting that when you win, nothing will change regarding sex. I’ve said you won’t stop the government’s War On Sex; you won’t demand respect for sexual rights as human rights; you won’t prevent religious fanatics from controlling non-believers’ sex lives.
You now have your big chance: prove me wrong. Here’s what you need to do:
- End funding for abstinence-only training in public schools.
- End the Department of Justice’s war on adult entertainment. Keep the war on child porn. Make it clear they’re two different things.
- Decriminalize all consensual sex that teens have with other teens. Decriminalize teens sharing photos of themselves having sex.
- Increase financial support for Planned Parenthood, an investment proven to reduce poverty and domestic violence.
- Take the moral leadership to decrease abortion – by funding contraception services and comprehensive sex education, not by criminalizing abortion.
- Require all sex education programs to be scientifically accurate. Isn’t that required by the policies of car manufacturers, meat-packing plants, and toothpaste makers?
- Require all municipalities that want to restrict commercial sexual expression (strip clubs, adult bookstores, swing clubs, etc.) to actually demonstrate a need to do so, rather than simply claim “effects like crime, disease, and blight are well-established.” Because they’re not.
- Require all federal judges to take a Continuing Education course about sexuality – healthy sexuality, not “sex addiction” or child molestation. Make this education mandatory for anyone aspiring to be a judge.
- Get the FCC out of the censorship business. Let Americans use the “off” and “change channel” buttons on their TV remotes whenever they want; it’s good practice for voting.
- Remove the blocking software from every federally – funded computer in America – libraries, universities, airports. Start with the computers in the White House and Congress.
I’ve said in dozens of lectures this year that you won’t make a difference in America’s War On Sex.
Please, prove me wrong.
America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty (Sex, Love, and Psychology)
Dr. Marty Klein is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex Therapist, and sociologist with a special interest in public policy and sexuality. He has written several books and white papers and hundreds of articles about sexuality. Each year he trains thousands of professionals in North America and abroad in clinical skills, human sexuality, and policy issues.
Marty sees men, women, and couples in his Palo Alto office for psychotherapy, couples counseling, and sex therapy. For an appointment, write Klein@SexEd.org or call 650.773.2425.
For an archive of his original articles, lots of Q/A about sexuality, and other material, see his blog: www.SexEd.org.
