A group that has received more than $16 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the past 15 years maintains Web sites that advise young people on how to decide if they are gay, how to come out to their parents and getting active in causes ranging from abortion to "comprehensive" sex education.
-- From "Federally Funded Group Advises Teens on How to Decide if They Are Gay" by Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer CNSNews.com 4/7/09
Advocates for Youth is a non-profit group that describes itself as an “organization dedicated to creating programs that help young people ages 13 to 24 years old to make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health.”
Its main Web site contains many pages of advice and information about sexuality. The Web site also includes “tool kits” and “lesson plans” for “youth, parents, professionals and press and policymakers,” including a “heterosexual questionnaire” to give “straight people an opportunity to experience the types of questions that are often asked of gay, lesbian, and/or bisexual people.”
“Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?” one question asks. “If you have never slept with a member of your own sex, is it possible that you might be gay if you tried it?” another asks.
Advocates for Youth hosts several other Web sites for what it calls ongoing “projects,” including http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/ for teens, http://www.youthresource.com/, for “gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth,” and http://www.mysistahs.org/ for “young women of color.”
Under “abortion,” the Web site says: “The Roe decision legalized abortion nationwide over 35 years ago. But state to state, far right conservative politicians and activists have continued to chip away at the right to choose, especially where young women are concerned. You may never experience an unwanted pregnancy. But no young woman, anywhere, should be forced to seek out an illegal, dangerous procedure or carry a pregnancy she didn’t want to term. We can fight back against conservative attacks on the right to choose.”
Under “condoms” it says: “Social conservatives continue to wage war on condoms, limiting their availability and compromising public confidence in their effectiveness. They have censored information on condoms on government Web sites. They have severely restricted funds for condom information and access in developing countries. And they have spent $1.5 billion on failed abstinence-only programs which discuss condoms only in terms of failure rates. But it’s not just politics – as a culture we sometimes stigmatize condoms. … And some youth don’t carry condoms because they think it shows they intend to have sex or are promiscuous.”
The Web site says that abstinence-only programs “often encourage stereotypical gender roles, use scare tactics, blur religion and science, and contain factual errors, like saying that HIV can be spread through sweat and tears.” It asks: “Why do so many conservative politicians feel that without our consent or input, young people should be subjected to moral judgments, inaccurate information, and censorship?”
The Web site features a downloadable brochure entitled: “I Think I Might Be Gay, Now What Do I Do? A Brochure by and For Young Men” The brochure reassures male teens that homosexuality is “normal,” refers them to the “Young Adult” section of public libraries to learn more about homosexuality, and suggests they can call “a gay hotline” from a “phone booth” to get more information.
The group’s youthresource.com Web site, includes a “Faith and Spirituality” section that provides links to pro-homosexual “religious” Web sites. The section features an essay by a young woman, which says in part, “But we live in a country where religious groups have dominated the discussion about what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ). Now that I am working in communities of faith that are open to my sexual orientation, I feel that it is my duty to spread awareness that accepting communities exist.”
A spokesperson for Advocates for Youth told CNSNews.com that the federal funding the organization receives is not used for any of its Web sites, but she did not respond to repeated e-mails and phone requests over a period of more than one week seeking more specific information about what the federal funds the group receives are used for.
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