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Advocates Updates
- Muslim Youth Project RFP due March 31, 2010
- Mr. Sidibe’s UNAIDS framework for global HIV/AIDS - Advocates' Blog
- On Wisconsin! - Advocates' Blog
- New article in the Parents Sex Ed Centerby Robie Harris, author of It's Perfectly Normal
- Job opening: Coordinator, Youth Activist Network
New Publications: 
- Sex Assault Reports Rise in Military (New York Times)
The Department of Defense released an annual report on Tuesday showing an 11 percent increase in reports of sexual assault in the military over the past year - Teenage girls return to sex after STD (UPI)
While some teenage girls diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease are counseled on abstinence, many return to having sex, U.S. researchers found. - Rewriting History in Texas (New York Times)
The Texas Board of Education, notorious for its past efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools, has now moved to revise the social studies curriculum. - Evidence skirmish could delay end of Prop 8 trial (AP)
An attempt by civil rights groups to keep sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban from obtaining internal campaign documents could delay a verdict in the federal trial on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, lawyers on both sides said Tuesday. - Health bill's abortion fight is much ado about little difference (Washington Post Op-Ed)
There is scant difference between the House bill that antiabortion advocates deem acceptable and the Senate version they claim would allow federal funds to underwrite abortions.
by Nikki Serapio, Manager of New Media Strategies
Recently my colleague Sarah Audelo and I had the chance to attend RootsCampDC, which brought together over 700 community and online organizers. (Kudos to the New Organizing Institute for spearheading a great event.) We were excited to meet and listen to so many inspiring activists...no doubt, it's not often that you can talk about social networks and old-school advocacy with both a Chavez-era labor organizer and a young tech startup CEO (at the same time)!
Here's what I took away from my RootsCamp conversations.
1) Let's work to bridge "online" and "offline." It's tempting to think of websites and social networks as constituting one separate and isolated sphere. If I tweet about Utah's horrible new miscarriage law, for example, we might expect this to lead to...well...more tweeting. Ultimately, though, our duty is to use online tools in order to promote real-life organizing.
More after the jump!
What is "having sex"? It depends who you ask
by Emily Bridges, Director, Public Information Services
Advocates for Youth has long argued that one of the many problems with abstinence-only programs is that people have differing definitions of "sex" and "what it means to remain abstinent." New research from the journal Sexual Health confirms that this is, in fact, a problem. Researchers surveyed adults ages 18-96 and found wildly differing ideas about what people define as an act of sex. For instance, only 1/3 of young men ages 18-29 and 60% of young women ages 18-29 classified performing oral sex as "having had sex," while almost 80% of men and women ages 30-64 classified performing oral sex as having had sex. Young people were also less likely to consider anal intercourse "having had sex."
Confusion about these definitions has played a role in sexual behavior for some time.
Read More >
