Klein & Harvey To Speak at Capitol Hill Sex Ed Briefings Monday

The Secular Coalition for America (SCA) will host two Capitol Hill briefings on sex education in public schools on Monday. All are invited to attend their U.S. House Briefing from 10-11:30 am in room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building or a U.S. Senate Briefing from 1-2 pm in room 428, Dirksen Senate Office Building. Speakers will include Dr. Marty Klein, a sex therapist and public policy analyst, and Phil Harvey, owner of DKT International, a Washington-based charity that implements large-scale family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention programs in 19 countries. Harvey is also the co-founder of online retailer Adam & Eve. "The topic of the Congressional Briefing is giving our kids what we didn't have, and it's about the importance of evidence-based sex education," Klein told AVN. "I'm going to talk about the things that science knows about sexuality and the things that science knows about sexuality education, and I think that what every parent wants and what every political representative ought to want is sexuality education for young people that helps them become happy, healthy adults and happy, healthy adolescents, and that's what I'm going to be talking about: what does the science tell us? Not what does Marty Klein think is right or what does God think is right but what does the science tell us?" Complimentary signed copies of Dr. Klein's book Sexual Intelligence: What We Really Want From Sex and How To Get It, will be available to attendees while supplies last. Also, those who go to Klein's blog, sexed.org, will find that, starting on Monday, there will be a comprehensive article on what science does say about sexual health, and why it's important to pay attention to that science. Expected attendees at the briefings will primarily include congressional aides from both the Senate and the House, and they will be reporting back to their congressional employers to give them the latest information about what science says about sex ed. The SCA notes that in the U.S. every year, there are 850,000 teen pregnancies, and 9.1 million Americans under age 25 contract sexually transmitted diseases. Yet, in 32 states, sex education curricula is not required to be medically accurate. Klein and Harvey will discuss the importance of accurate youth sex education and the policy changes needed to make sex education effective including the current status of the issues nationally, including Title V abstinence-only funding, and the importance of properly evaluated, evidence-based programs and more. Registration is now open for the House Briefing here or the Senate Briefing here.