To the Editor:
Midge Decter [“Homosexuality and the Schools,” March] pounced on the underlying incoherence of gay-rights propagandists with characteristic precision: “While people must do everything to avoid getting AIDS, no one already suffering from it is to be held responsible.” No honest man can urge his fellows to take responsibility for actions of life-and-death gravity, and at the same time pretend those are blameless who show homicidal recklessness regarding these same actions. Solicitude for those brought low by AIDS is praiseworthy; contempt for the impostures of the HIV-education scam is a sign of elementary moral sanity.
Paul V. Mankowski, S.J.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
_____________
To the Editor:
Implicit in the arguments favoring “safe sex” and condom-distribution programs in the schools are two misguided assumptions: (1) teen sex and pregnancies result from “ignorance”; and (2) it is the legitimate function of the schools to dispense contraceptives.
Regarding the first assumption, a study by Dr. Luella Klein of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that teen sex and pregnancies are less the result of “ignorance” than of loneliness, lack of self-esteem, peer and societal pressures, and lack of good character. For the most part, teenage girls become pregnant because they want someone to love and someone to love them in return.
Concerning the second assumption, it is the proper responsibility of parents and physicians—and not the schools—to provide children with medical information and medication; consequently, when schools supply children with contraceptives, they transcend their legitimate function, undermine parental rights, responsibility, and authority, and simply address the symptoms rather than the root cause of the problem, which is our popular sexual attitudes and practices. For too many, sex—instead of being the communion of life and love within the sacrament of marriage—is simply a tool of masturbatory and voyeuristic gratification. . . .
Haven Bradford Gow
Arlington Heights, Illinois