The Final Word On Carrie Prejean

Wondering what to make of fired, disgraced and all-around tragic beauty queen and right-wing, Christian faux-martyr Carrie Prejean after sex pics and vids showed her to be a double-talking hypocrite who opposes same-sex marriage and showing off one's body but took pics of herself masturbating and sent them to the boyfriend she wasn't married to? I don't think you'll find a better summary than this one by Seattle editor, pundit and sex columnist Dan Savage. A quote:

And now we have proof that the person Prejean pretended to be after that pageant—the good Christian girl with a strong moral code who was chosen by God to stick it to the homos—doesn't jibe with the person she was before the pageant, i.e. a highly sexual and sexually active young woman with breast implants and a string of ex-boyfriends to her name. Carrie Prejean was not the very model of modern right-wing Christian conservatism that she pretended to be to ingratiate herself with the likes of Maggie Gallagher. She was an average young American woman, a little prettier and dimmer than most, with sexual urges and desires and agency. She was just another young woman aware of her own erotic power, a young woman with a digital camera, another young woman sexting her boyfriend because it turned her on to turn him on.

Worth 10 minutes of your time if this is a topic you're even slightly interested in.

Speaking Of Religion And Public Policy

Though there weren't as many people out as there were for Saturday's rally for the Phoenix Coyotes, U.S. President Barack Obama faced protesters yesterday over his support of a woman's right to choose. (Guardian)

Obama was giving the commencement address at Indiana's Notre Dame university--a Catholic college, and therefore (in theory at least) anti-choice on the issue of abortion. Several graduates reportedly decorated their morterboards with crosses and baby feet in protest of Obama's presence. (I'm going to have to find a photo of that because that sounds damn creepy. Maybe the Guardian's writer meant "crosses and baby footprints"?)

With his characteristic eloquence, Obama called for understanding on both sides of the debate.

Sounds good to me. So here, in the spirit of understanding and reaching out to people who don't agree with my pro-choice views (and actually want to change laws to take freedoms away from everyone who doesn't agree with them, but I digress), here are 10 ways anti-abortion activists can actually help fetuses without being a bunch of facists who just want everyone to do what they say all the time.

1) If you're opposed to abortion, don't have one.

2) Fight for strong sex education programs in schools. Sex education = less pregnancification.

3) Provide information about sexual alternatives for youth: activities like heavy petting, oral sex and mutal masturbation can have carry zero risk of pregnancy if properly done.

4) Push for inexpensive or better, free, birth control.

5) Demand politicians increase financial support for low-income housholds. No one should be pressured toward abortion because they can't afford a baby.

6) Free universal day care. See above.

7) Support a fair, progressive tax system that puts the cost of society on those who can afford it, rather than on middle or low-income housholds. Reducing financial stresses on ordinary households mitigates a risk factor associated with unplanned pregnancy. Agitate against the flat tax movement, which is a thinly-veiled attempt to reduce the taxes of society's wealthiest members at the expense of the rest of us.

8) Vote for politicians who support strong public services like education, health care and other social programs--all factors in reducing unplanned pregnancy (compare: Europe vs. the U.S.).

9) Develop a reality-based understanding of human sexuality. Many experts agree that reality is a healthy place to live in.

10) Support gay marriage and gay rights. No one should ever get pregnant because they're trying to prove they're not gay when they in fact are.

FOOTNOTE: The Guardian's story mentions a recent U.S. poll that found most Americans are opposed to abortion. Well, maybe they are and maybe they aren't. Here's a different interpretation of that poll, from syndicated sex columnist/gay rights advocate Dan Savage, who's the "Editorial Director" of The Stranger, a free weekly in Seattle.

And I just took that Virginity Pledge in the hopes I’d get more action!

President Obama's administration and the U.S. Senate just reversed a dumb-assed portion of the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act that prevented pharmaceutical companies from providing low-cost birth control to women who needed it. Not only that, but it cut $14 million in funding from the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program that promoted a no-sex-until-marriage line. Though it didn’t prevent babies from being born or STDs from spreading, we do shed a tear for the loss of funding to an idea that helped provide the ideal environment for the creation of the term “Saddlebacking.”

Hurrah to common sense, and a big yay to lower-cost birth control pills. And Barrack? I couldn’t love you more than I do right now.