The Epidemic in our Backyard
March 19, 2009
Social Action
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by Jill Zimmerman
(First posted on the RACblog)
Jill Zimmerman is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
A new report released Monday by D.C. health officials says that at least 3% of residents in our nation's capital are living with HIV or AIDS, a 22% increase from the nearly 12,500 reported in 2006. And since research indicates that one-third to one-half of infected people are unaware, the real number is almost certainly higher.
That makes the D.C. AIDS epidemic worse than West Africa's.
According to the report, every mode of transmission is on the rise, and it's affecting every race and sex across the population and neighborhoods. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to increase testing, and to introduce a marketing campaign emphasizing the use of condoms and clean needles and other forms of prevention.
Mayor Fenty seems to have the right idea. While the AIDS epidemic is particularly frightening in D.C., this is certainly not the only city facing a crisis. And the best way to stop it is through comprehensive, medically accurate education about sex and contraception.
On Tuesday, Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a bill called the Responsible Education about Life (REAL) Act, which would create the first ever federal funding stream for comprehensive sex education in public schools that includes information about both abstinence and contraception. Comprehensive sex education is effective not only in preventing teen pregnancy, but also in preventing sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS. Given the economic crisis and current budget constraints in many school districts, we cannot afford to continue spending over 50 million dollars a year on ineffective abstinence-only programs that discuss only the failure rates of contraceptive methods.
This weekend, the RAC--along with Advocates for Youth, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the United Church of Christ--is hosting an interfaith Sexuality Education Advocacy Training. Over 35 young adults from across the country are coming to the capital to learn how to be advocates in their communities for comprehensive sex education in their schools. Look forward to a blog next week about the training from Cara Fisher, RAC conference planner extraordinaire!
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