H.L. Mencken long ago described public health as ‘the corruption of medicine by morality’. With the recent announcement that Panned Parenthood would join AHF in attempting to mandate the use of condoms and other “protective equipment” by adult performers under force of law, we are reminded of the dark history of public health and social justice movements the world over.
Planned Parenthood, today as valuable and respected an organization as can be, was nonetheless founded by Margaret Sanger to help diminish the number of babies of less desirable races. Even the finest things can have ugly beginnings, or ends.
If someone with the virus that causes AIDS was about to have sex with you, should they have to tell you about their HIV-positive status first? Planned Parenthood doesn’t think so.
In a brochure entitled Happy, Healthy, and Hot, which Planned Parenthood describes as a “guide for young people living with HIV to help them understand their sexual rights, and live healthy, fun, happy and sexually fulfilling lives,” the giant of the abortion advocacy world proclaims:
You have the right to decide if, when, and how to disclose your HIV status…
You know best if and when it is safe to disclose your [HIV] status…
There is no right or wrong way to have sex. Just have fun, explore and be yourself!…
It is not always possible to talk about to your partner(s) or to practice safer sex…
There is no if, and there is no question of when. The only appropriate time to disclose one’s HIV status is before having sex with your partner. That is the “right way.” An organization that really cared about sexual health would not need me to explain this.
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Like Weinstein, PPH is completely committed to the all-condoms-all-the-time ideology, under which they falsely presume, despite claims to the contrary, that everyone will use them and that they will always work as a bulwark against HIV transmission, even though we know the statistics don’t support that religion. Nevertheless, rather than advocate testing and disclosure they will side with their buddies at AHF with the claim that it really doesn’t matter if you’re infected or not as long as you use condoms. That’s just not so and never will be. Again, I refer people to what it says on the condom… Read more »
Can we discuss this issue – which appears to be a real one – without defaulting to silly right wing talking points? Calling Planned Parenthood an organization formed to decrease less desireable babies is like starting a critique of Ford Motor Company or Disney Corp with reference to their founders Nazi sympathies – it’s entirely besides the point, and it’s not the way that educated adults talk about things. When you lead with that, it’s hard to take the rest of what you say seriously. I’m with Ernest and Nina. I don’t think this is a good thing for PPH… Read more »
Planned Parenthood is also a huge supporter of AB1576, they are one of the main reasons certain political people are afraid to speak against the bill in public…so good luck with that PP support
PPH supporting bad things is a real issue. A long dead woman being a racist is not. Like I said, nuance…supporting the condom bill a blip on the radar of what this organization does. Most of what they do is good and I can’t disavow everything they do because of a flawed position on this issue. From an outsider perspective, condoms in porn make sense. We’re iconoclasts in porn. We don’t agree with the conventional wisdom regarding condoms (best thing ever, all condoms all the time) We’re like the grass based beef farmers who want to slaughter thier own cows… Read more »
Thank you for the comments, Lily. The intro to this piece has been re-worked to clarify the intended context: to view what’s happening now vis-a-vis AB 1576 through the prism of public health and social justice movements.
This whole controversy over PPH speaks to how poorly we’ve made our case against things like AB 1576. Gail Dines and her pals, like Bob Herbert at The NYT and Don Hazen at AlterNet, have done much to erode support among liberals, not all of whom are porn fans but who have stepped up in the past to defend our First Amendment rights on principle. We’ve been so obsessed with fighting off our avowed foes we’ve failed to keep our few friends onboard and that’s hurt us. Measure B would not have passed in the face of determined opposition from… Read more »
ACLU has a pretty shitty record on aiding sex workers, as you yourself have pointed out on numerous occasions. In addition, the LA County Democratic Party was too chickenshit to take a position on Measure B. I’m not saying I agree with how two anti-Measure B campaign was run, and I agree that the adult business needs to do a better job solidifying support among its historical friends and allies, but I think it’s extremely unlikely that the new left would’ve done anything for the adult business in the case of Measure B. Weinstein didn’t steal that election, he bought… Read more »
I have to disagree as a student of L.A. politics. This is a long-time pro-labor democratic stronghold. Running a campaign based on the woeful state of porn producers here was suicidally stupid. AHF knew that which is why they campaigned all over East and South L.A. rather than on the west side, where people knew them too well. It’s worth noting that Measure B went down by a flaming 22 points in West Hollywood where AHF has the highest concentration of clients. There are still plenty of old-fashioned, pro-free-speech liberals in this town and in this country, but we haven’t… Read more »
Oh, I agree that we took our traditional allies for granted and we were outmaneuvered, however that has been a long-term failing on our parts not restricted to the time of the Measure B campaign. The adult communities political ineptitude pre-dates Weinstein’s crusade. And yes, I agree that failing to focus on the so-called “worker rights” angle was disastrous, and will remain so, however groups like the ACLU lost interest in our side of the argument a very long time ago — in terms of adult production and sex worker rights, generally. Also, we’ve known for years (thanks to the… Read more »