(crossposted at Amplify)
Three weeks ago, we first introduced you to Derek Dye the Abstinence Clown. Dye goes to middle schools in Ohio and juggles in between telling kids that any type of pre-marital sex will destroy your life’s dreams and is just like juggling machetes. And the best part? He is just one beneficiary of the $1.5 billion in federal funding that has goes towards the failure that is abstinence-only until marriage sex education.
Within a week, Derek Dye was a blogosphere and YouTube star, getting linked at tons of blogs and getting almost 20,000 views on YouTube. But what happened next takes the cake...
One would think that having such invaluable free advertising would please Mr. Dye (viewing this unedited promo video on YouTube), but it appears that his act was for "friendly eyes" only. Derek petitioned YouTube to take down the video, citing "copyright violations". Apparently, Derek was spooked that the American public was actually seeing, first hand, the fraud that our tax dollars are going to.
Following the video’s removal from YouTube, I decided to directly embed this video into our site at Amplify, as the American public certainly has the right to see what kind of ridiculous shenanigans our tax dollars fund. The next day, we received an email from Kevin Freckman of the Elizabeth’s New Life Center, the abstinence-only organization that received a $800,000 federal grant in 2007, and employs Derek Dye. Freckman demanded that we take down the video, and not use any images of Derek Dye on our site.
Holy purity ring, Batman!
Looks like somebody’s really ashamed of the work they are doing with our tax dollars, doesn’t it? Why the paranoia?
With a new president who has stated his committed to comprehensive sex education, plus a strong Democratic majority in Congress, groups like Elizabeth’s New Life Center are scared to death that their government funding is going to vanish. And they know that videos like this, when viewed outside of the abstinence-only crowd, will shine a light on all of the crazy stuff that they’ve been doing with our tax dollars. To date, groups like the Elizabeth’s New Life Center have received $1.5 billion in tax dollars, despite study after study showing what an absolute failure they have been.
Right after I wrote the first post about Derek the Abstinence Clown, I decided to attend the National Abstinence Education Association conference, a gathering of all of the different groups that have fleeced the government and endangered the sexual health of countless American youth over the last decade. I figured I might learn about some other things they keep behind closed doors. Maybe Derek would be there juggling! Two weeks after registering and submitting my $150, I received this email from Rachel Turner at the NAEA:
Joe,
Thanks for your interest, but I don’t think our organization is a good fit. All members must demonstrate support for abstinence until marriage education and it’s evident that you’d have trouble with our mission.
Below this message was a link to Pam’s House Blend, where she cites my post about Derek the Abstinence Clown.
Oh well. If they don’t want my $150, that’s fine. But considering the fact that they might not have the government teat to feed off of very, very soon, maybe they should take whatever money they can get... they’ll need it.
But here’s the critical part for you, dear reader: we must make sure that abstinence-only until marriage sex education funding is zeroed out in this year’s budget.
Even if Barack Obama’s zeroes out their funding in his budget, there is always the chance that Congress will try to sneak the funding back in through appropriations. Democrats in Congress have caved on this before, even trying to add more abstinence-only funding, so we need to pressure them to make sure they do the right thing:
WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON AND TELL THEM TO END ABSTINENCE ONLY FUNDING.
It’s time to send out the clowns!
(crossposted at Amplify)