Responding to a campaign spearheaded by the Christian Traditional Values Coalition and Rep. Mark Souder (R-Indiana), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is threatening to defund the Stop AIDS Project of San Francisco because its programs violate a federal law barring use of federal money to “encourage or promote sexual activity.” At issue are safe-sex workshops titled: “In Our Prime: Men for Hire,” “Bootylicious,” and “Oral Sex = Safe Sex.”
Joel Bleifuss, a former director of the Peace Studies Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is the editor & publisher of In These Times, where he has worked since October 1986.