HIV policy would reflect Dubya's religious views

There's a very disturbing article here about Dubya's plans to change CDC guidlines relating to HIV education and prevention.

I hope folks tell the CDC to avoid this slippery slide towards public policy being determined by some Texas nit-wit's fundamentalist belief system. Public comments will be accepted until Monday, August 16.

I pulled a little Nancy Drew (or is it Lois Lane?) and did some research on CDC guidelines for teaching kids about HIV/AIDS. The info is here. The passage that seems alarming to me is this one:

School systems should make programs available that will enable and encourage young people who have not engaged in sexual intercourse and who have not used illicit drugs to continue to

• Abstain from sexual intercourse until they are ready to establish a mutually monogamous relationship within the context of marriage;
• Refrain from using or injecting illicit drugs.

For young people who have engaged in sexual intercourse or who have injected illicit drugs, school programs should enable and encourage them to–

• Stop engaging in sexual intercourse until they are ready to establish a mutually monogamous relationship within the context of marriage;
• To stop using or injecting illicit drugs.

Now, I'm not opposed to telling kids not to inject drugs, duh! But for gay teens, who...um....cannot get legally married (especially here in Missouri, thanks to that pesky Constitution amendment), what are they supposed to do?

Oh, that's right....they're not supposed to be gay, anyway.

Maybe Dubya's next Faith Based initiative will be gay re-education. 'Coz gay teens can be changed.

I am encouraged, however, by the hundreds of folks who have urged the CDC not to change HIV/AIDS education.