Friday, October 9, 2009

Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » In Defense of Obama’s Safe School Czar (Sort Of) – or I Was A Teenage ‘Lolito’


Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » In Defense of Obama’s Safe School Czar (Sort Of) – or I Was A Teenage ‘Lolito’:

"Which brings me to the fracas over Obama czar number five hundred and… well, who’s counting. The conservative blogosphere has been in an uproar because Kevin Jennings – the (deep breath) Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, or “Safe School Czar” - failed, in 1988, while still a mere teacher, to advise a 15-year-old boy (according to some reports, he might have been older) to stop having sex with adult men (in particular one man the teenager had met in a public restroom). Instead, Jennings reminded the boy to “play safe,” and use condoms.

To be honest, I don’t see what the big deal is. Based on his own experience, Jennings probably figured it was no use trying to convince the boy to stop seeing the man – take it from me, that would have had the exact opposite effect – so the more practical tack was to urge the kid to at least protect himself, ASAP, as Jennings did. Let’s not forget the high suicide rate among gay youth; twenty years ago, that teenager surely needed somebody to talk to."