I just returned from speaking in Lincoln and Omaha. Nice places, with nice people.
Their government is ignorant, vicious, and dangerous.
Nebraska governor Dave Heineman is apparently so frightened of sex, he wants to keep it as far away from his state as possible. His appointee to run Nebraska’s Department of Health & Human Services is also obsessed with sex. The University’s new administrator is right in line with their dangerous program to undermine the health of every Nebraskan.
Responding to only a few gentle questions, my Nebraska hosts gave me an earful about their government’s War On Sex. Here’s what they told me:
• The University has ended its funding of the peer sex education program. Almost 20 years old, it was attended by 17% of last year’s seniors.
• The University has eliminated funding for free, confidential, anonymous HIV testing.
• The University still has no comment on whether it will deliver sex education or sexual health services on campus.
• Omaha’s Douglas County now has the 5th highest per capita rate of gonorrhea in America. Its response: doubling its abstinence-only funding, which is proven ineffective in reducing STDs.
• The state publishes consumer information about diabetes. It has now removed ‘erection problems’ as a symptom of this dangerous and misunderstood disease.
• The state has changed its annual “sexual health update” conference to an “HIV/STD health update” conference.
• The state has changed its Medicaid (health services for low-income people) intake form. It used to ask a single question: “would you like information about family planning services?” Now it has deleted this question as “unnecessary.”
If you think the “War On Sex” is just a snazzy metaphor I use to discuss an abstract social issue, think again. Real people in Nebraska are suffering because of decisions made by other real people in Nebraska.