Abstainers-Only Need Apply
Politicians want to make kids swear off sex- why don’t they make their interns?
By Ben Waxman, Juniata College
Monday June 26, 2006
About a year ago, a conservative organization called the Independent Women’s Forum commissioned a study that sought to gauge the sexual activity of interns working on Capitol Hill. The report surveyed 200 interns and found that about half had engaged in some kind of physical intimacy over the summer. Most relations occurred between fellow interns, but about 11 percent reported flirting or relationships with staffers and elected officials.
 The survey is filled with hilarious, if not slightly obvious, factoids about the summer dating scene in Washington, D.C. For example, the study breathlessly reported that interns working for the Senate were almost twice as likely to engage in a casual physical encounter as their counterparts in the House. In addition, less than 20 percent of all interns believe that “hooking up” will lead to a lasting relationship. Scandalous!
Of course, none of this should be surprising. After all, an estimated 20,000 interns flock to Washington every summer. There is bound to be a lot of romantic intrigue when that many young people are thrown together in one place. This abundance of sexual activity poses a very interesting question: Will young people interning for conservative elected officials and organizations practice what they preach?
What do I mean? Well, take Senator Rick Santorum. He is one of the leading congressional advocates of abstinence-only education. In the last year alone, he has secured over $2 million for ideologically-driven programs that encourage young people to save sex for marriage. For Santorum, these programs are part of a broad agenda of social conservatism. And every summer, Santorum’s office is filled with college-aged interns who want to help him fight the culture war.
Since Santorum is so eager to impose his beliefs on others, it seems only fair that his interns should volunteer for the cause. Santorum regularly bemoans the lack of traditional role models for young people. By publicly promoting their own eagerness to forgo sex before marriage, Santorum’s interns could show that conservatives are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
Of course, interns for elected officials shouldn’t be forced to go it alone. Conservative think tanks could also get into the act.
Consider the Heritage Foundation. They have an extremely robust internship program. They also have a strong affinity for abstinence-only education in public schools. These two worlds are bound to collide. For example, Heritage Foundation interns often work on public policy briefs — like the many documents on the Foundation’s website that extol the virtues of teenage virginity pledges.
If virginity pledges and abstinence programs are such a good idea for the general public, then they should be good enough for Heritage interns. These future conservative leaders ought to be willing to take public virginity pledges. After all, one of the cornerstones of conservative politics is the idea of voluntary compliance. If these young conservative aren’t willing to jump on the abstinence bandwagon, it seems fairly foolish to try to force it on everyone else.
Demanding that summer interns take celibacy pledges might seem draconian to some. However, conservative elected officials and their allies are eager to impose their brand of morality on everyone else. Is it really too much to ask that they make sure their own house is in order? Better to assemble a coalition of the willing before mandating programs for young people everywhere.
Of course, I won’t blame conservative interns if they don’t want to become poster children for abstinence-only education. A recent congressional study found that many abstinence-only curricula were riddled with factual errors. Other studies, including one by the well respected Guttmacher Institute, have found that virginity pledges are woefully inadequate at preventing teenage pregnancy and the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. In short, the programs being promoted by conservative elected officials and policy organizations are a complete failure. In the end, both liberal and conservative interns will do their share of hooking up this summer. After all, summer romances are a staple of any college career. Still, the hypocrisy of those who are working for abstinence-preaching organizations shouldn’t go unnoticed. It’s important to practice safe sex — but it’s just as important to practice safe politics.
Cross-posted at Social Capital
Ben Waxman studies politics at Juniata College and can be contacted at benwaxman@gmail.com.
Illustration: Matt Bors
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ahh, abstience-only “education”
that’s propaganda, not learning…
— Pete Bogs - Jun 29, 06:24 PM - #Great job in writing this article Ben. The truth is the abstinence programs are not being as effective as one Texan had hoped. I think the failure results have been proven in Texas school districts.
— Sue B - Jul 6, 05:22 PM - #Congressmen and women, senators, judges, presidents and their aides should definitely hold the bar and stop spouting off hypocrisy.
Their God fearing spouses don’t appreciate infidelity.
They can keep their old ideas to themselves, but we can sit back and laugh. The church no longer controls the scribes who were the only ones who could publish in print. Guttenberg fixed that problem, and the phone, internet etc. finished the job. Of course, the church had their own little problem with the perverts they bred by telling kids at the dawn of their sexuality that masterbation was wrong, they would go to hell for violating church rules about sex, etc. Guess what you backwards conservatives – it is all over, the cat is out of the bag. Society moves forward, and of the many younger/college age kids etc I work with, the only virgin is actually a 30 year old near mental religious case whom we all suspect isn’t far from perversion himself, due his his self denial.
— Stanley James - Jul 8, 08:17 PM - #Florida, where I live, receives funding—in the top ten percent of all the states—for abstinence-based programs. We are also in the top ten percent for highest teen pregnancies. There is a correlation, however there were about a half of dozen high school classroom (yes, in the classroom) incidents of fellatio in one school year. When I was in public high school (not too long ago), the guidance counselors came in and told all the classes about abstinence; they couldn’t even say condom, like it was the Roman Catholic Church or something. The fact is: these programs do not work. The real irony is in divorce rates. I have seen abstinence propaganda, G2W (Good 2 Wait) shirts. Every so often I will see one these shirts and I think to myself: the person is going to give his/her virginity away to someone whom has a 50% chance of divorcing him/her. I think these conservatives are ineffectual, naive, and hypocritical, however that’s another story.
— Robert L. - Jul 9, 01:14 AM - #Abstinence only education is absurd! While having some abstinence incorporated into it, sex education should tell the educated what to do if they decide not to remain abstinent. If they decide they don’t believe in abstinence, they’re going to be running around having unprotected sex because nobody told them what a condom is for! One of the previous posters said that in his state they receive excellent funding for abstinence only education, and they also have high teen preganancy ratings! This is not a coincidence, it’s a lack of informing. The classes are the most uninforming things with the underlying concept of “sex is bad, wait until your married”. They’re trying to teach me how to think and I refuse to sit back and let them. The last straw will be if they start circulating abstinence pledges and expecting us to sign them. No, I’m not signing it because I feel like running out and screwing everything in sight, I’m not signing because I want to choose for myself when the time is right, thank you very much Arizona State Board of Education.
— Caitlin - Oct 13, 12:45 AM - #I think young people today are just sick of the hippy rhetoric!
— cece - Jun 18, 10:59 AM - #they see the consequencences of “free love” both on an individual basis ( disease of mind body snd soul) as well as the devestation of society as a whole. Civilized people “can” control themselves! We are moving away from the selfishness of the last generation, finally!