Girl Scouts Sponsor UN Panel for Scouts to Get Sexy

In March 2010, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women had two weeks' worth of meetings in New York on equality for women and its progress.

Sounds good, right? One of the panel meetings was sponsored by the Girl Scouts. Only Scouting girls and Scout leaders were invited - all other adults were asked to leave the room.

The reason for the exclusivity may have been the passing out of a Planned Parenthood pamphlet called "Healthy, Happy and Hot," distributed with the blessing of the Worldwide Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (wagggsworld).

News of the pamphlets and what's in them have been making the rounds through concerned parents, scout leaders, citizens and whatever media outlets are bold enough to go against Planned Parenthood.

In "Healthy, Happy and Hot," Planned Parenthood discusses human rights to sexual activity and tells Girl Scouts that even if they are HIV-infected, they can have all the kinds of sex they want. Including choosing when and if to disclose their HIV to their partners.

Because I have a daughter (although she's grown), and my city houses the headquarters for Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, I researched whether this was a scam story from some extremist Web site.

It's no scam - The Washington Times carried the story of a mother who discovered the pamphlet at the UN Conference. And although I found a message board at snopes.com where most comments tried to downplay the pamphlet's info, its existence is acknowledged.

Here are some tasty tidbits from the brochure (paraphrased items from the booklet are in italics):

-Throughout, Planned Parenthood advises how to practice "safer" sex. The term safe sex is never used. Probably because they already know there's no such thing as 100% safe sex.

Girls knows best if and when it is safe to disclose their HIV status (p3)... Girls don't have to disclose if they are HIV positive (p5)...

First, the Girl Scouts is open to girls aged 5 through 17, including the Daisies (Kindergarten through first grade) and Brownies (second to third grade). Do we really believe these girls "know best" what's good for them?

Second, lack of HIV disclosure to a partner is against the law in many of the United States. According to the Center for AIDS Intervention Research (CAIR), as of 2006 no fewer than 23 states had passed laws criminalizing the passing on of HIV knowingly without disclosure to a partner. Here in Florida, anonymous disclosure assistance is offered. However, that only takes place when an HIV-infected person passes on the names of people they've already had sex with.

(In their 2008 pamphlet "Verdict on a Virus," International Planned Parenthood states that criminal laws against knowingly passing on HIV without disclosure violates human rights to privacy. That may be true, but it's still the law in many places - and by the way, where are the human rights of the innocent victim?)

Some people tell their partner when they first meet, and others wait until later. Girls should do whatever makes them comfortable (p7)...

What's "later?" If the girl thinks it's okay to wait until after sex, that's a too late to tell your partner you have HIV.

Sex can include kissing, touching, licking, tickling, sucking, and cuddling, that some people like to have aggressive sex and there is no right or wrong way (p9)...

So...its okay for someone to be rough with our daughters?

Sometimes people choose not to have safer sex...there are other ways to reduce the risks of STDs and unwanted pregnancies, like getting tested often...(p 14)...

If you get tested after sex, it's too late to "reduce your risk." Plus, HIV and AIDS can incubate for months to years without being seen in tests.

While giving advice in the brochure on the dangers of STDs, Planned Parenthood uses every opportunity to insinuate more colorful info about how to have hot sex.

The only redeeming factor to this pamphlet is the times it repeats that people of all kinds, no matter their condition, deserve respect.

Worldwide, the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Association reaches millions of girls in Africa, the Arab nations, Asia Pacific and throughout Europe as well as North, Central and South America. Since this was a United Nations Meeting sponsored by the Girl Scouts, it is assumed many of these nations were represented at the panel where the pamphlets were distributed.

The Planned Parenthood Web site on Sex and Sexual Activity is rather benign and doesn't show the pamphlet, unless it's been removed or was printed only for the Girl Scouts. And you won't find Planned Parenthood in the search engine at the Girl Scouts USA home page. Of course not.

I've received a lot of criticism for my past Associated Content articles on Planned Parenthood and teen sex from people with rose-colored glasses on who think all this sexual liberality is okay.

From where I sit, it's not okay at all. Call me crazy.

Sources:

23 states have laws for disclosure of HIV: Center for AIDS Intervention Research (CAIR), http://www.caps.ucsf.edu/pubs/FS/disclosure.php;

Florida offers disclosure assistance: Center for Aids Prevention Studies, UCSF: http://www.caps.ucsf.edu/pubs/FS/PCRSFS.php;

Austin Ruse, "The Girl Scout Sex Guide," The Washington Times, 3/18/10 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/18/girl-scout-sex-guide/;

"Girl Scouts taught how to be hot," Kathleen Farah, World Net Daily, 3/16/10, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=128389;

AIDS incubation period: STD Descriptions, Stanford University.