Unitarian Universalists Speak Out for Reality-Based Sexuality Education LegislationThe rest of this article can be read online here.
(July 28, 2005) At a meeting held with Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) yesterday, the Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Rob Keithan, director of the UUA's Washington Office for Advocacy, presented Senator Lautenberg with more than 2,000 affirmations of support signed by Unitarian Universalists from around the country in support of S.368, and H.R. 768, the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act.
The REAL Act is endorsed by Advocates for Youth, with whom the UUA is a partner, and would provide funding to states for medically accurate, age appropriate, comprehensive sexuality education in the schools—education that includes information about both abstinence and contraception, from both a values and public health perspective. The effort is consistent with the approach taken by Our Whole Lives (OWL), the UUA's reality-based sexuality education lifespan curriculum developed with the United Church of Christ and now in use in congregational and secular settings. More than 125 national and state and organizations are supporting the REAL Act, including medical, civil rights, family planning, educational, public health, reproductive rights, and HIV/AIDS organizations.
The UUA launched an effort to build support for the REAL Act as part of an outreach effort from the Rev. Sinkford to Unitarian Universalists across the country. Sinkford wrote to UUA members in late April, "The voices of the religious right have been largely successful in drowning out other people of faith. This has allowed them to dominate the current debate on moral values and assert themselves as the religious voice on crucial matters including civil rights, health and the family, international peace and justice, and religious liberty. You and I cannot allow the religious right to speak for us."
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