In 2006 my book America’s War On Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust, & Liberty was published. With a foreword by ACLU President Nadine Strossen, it documented how the Bush Administration, the Religious Right, Fox News, and “decency” groups were using the issue of sexual regulation to undermine secular democracy.
In the book I discussed, among other things,
* How the city of Phoenix destroyed its once-vibrant swinger community with an “emergency ordinance” that claimed health hazards which didn’t exist;
* How Morality in Media was responsible for successfully pressuring the FCC to punish TV networks for momentary nudity and sexual slang;
* How Concerned Women For America and the Family Research Council successfully pressured Congress to limit childhood vaccinations with the life-saving drug Gardasil, because it addressed HPV, a sexually transmitted infection;
* How George W. Bush poured government money into programs run by evangelical Christian groups—which then helped him get elected and reelected;
* How state legislatures across America successfully limited or eliminated nudity in strip clubs;
* How abstinence-only sex “education” was not only massively expensive and dangerous, it was a proven waste of taxpayer money and a training program for religious organizations;
…and much more.
The book got some notice (The Journal of Sex Research, some progressive political groups like Americans United for the Separation of Church & State), recognition as Book of the Year from AASECT (American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, & Therapists), and enough sales that it was soon published as a paperback.
Five years later I was asked to update it, which I did in 2011. And today it was republished in a Second Edition.
There’s plenty of updated material, including:
* The still-ongoing legal battle over Janet Jackson’s nipple exposure during the 2004 Superbowl broadcast;
* The tea party’s impact on the War On Sex;
* The extraordinary new restrictions on abortion, and new attacks on contraception;
* President Obama’s breaking his promise to make faith-based organizations comply with federal anti-discrimination law as a condition of getting federal money;
* How many feminists have teamed up with the Religious Right to spread lies about pornography, demanding its elimination;
* The bizarre wisdom of Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, Dr. Phil, Melissa Farley, and other public figures who apparently misunderstand and mistrust sexuality.
The goal of this war is limiting anything that makes sex:
• More pleasurable
• Healthier
• Safer
• Easier
• More entertaining
• More comfortable
• More understandable
• More varied or experimental
• More recreational
…and this book shows how they’re doing it.
If a group wants to eliminate the separation of church and state, or wants to destroy science as a basis of public policy, sexuality is the best arena on which to focus. And that’s exactly what’s happening.
This updated edition also discusses the one arena in which our sexual freedoms have actually expanded since 2000: the civil rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender people. It’s an interesting, gratifying story, and it deserves to be told. We all deserve the comfort it provides, too.
To order the book, just click here.