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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 7, 2004)
Lecturer decries nation's lack of sex education Gilbert Herdt addressed the Bush administration's attacks on gay marriage Thursday in the EMU By Jeremy Berrington Freelance Reporter Cultural anthropologist Gilbert Herdt focused on the role of local communities and their imparts on the lives of America's lesbian, gay, bi sexual, transgender and queer youth in a lecture in the EMU Fir Room on rhursday afternoon. Herdt, a professor of human sexu ality studies and anthropology at San Francisco State University, has been conducting research on sexuality for 30 years. He is the director of the Na tional Sexuality Resource Center, and his research has taken him around the world. While Herdt acknowledged an overall increase in sexual tolerance in contemporary society, he cri tiqued America's shortcomings in sexual literacy. Many of these at tacks were directed at the Bush ad ministration. "The government of the United States is not contributing to sexual lit eracy at all," Herdt said. "Quite the contrary — they are making political ly motivated attacks against sexual ed ucation from all issues ranging from abortion to the dissemination of safe sex information." According to Herdt, the Bush administration has continued its conservative attack on the LGBTQ population with a plan to impose a constitutional amendment outlaw ing gay marriage. Herdt said these ac tions help to create social oppression and inequality. "How can homosexuals express themselves in a sex-negative, chau vinistic environment?" Herdt asked. "They can't. There is no develop ment. Only unexpressed desire, si lence, shame, torment and a legacy of social oppression." Herdt said America leads the indus trialized world in some undesirable categories. "We are number one in unwanted abortions, unintended pregnancies, HIV rates and sexual violence," he said, mis is due pnmanly to the lack of sexual education and dialogue in American culture." Theater arts major Wayne Bund agreed with Herdt's assertions. "As a homosexual in contempo rary society, 1 have found my experi ence to be very in line with much of what Dr. Herdt was describing," he said. "There is a tremendous amount of pressure not to speak up about differences of sexuality." Herdt's main suggestion for the im provement of sexual literacy in the United States was to move the intro duction of sexual education to first grade classrooms. "This has been done in the Nether lands, it has been done in France and it has produced very favorable results, he said. Event organizer Lynn Stephan said programs such as this are an integral part of sexual understanding. "The University has attempted to sponsor these events annually in or der to help raise more awareness about the state of sexuality in our so ciety," Stephan said. Stephan said the lecture's schedul ing had nothing to do timing-wise with the national election. "We did not ask Dr. Herdt to come here to raise any political sentiments or create controversy," Stephan said. "This is merely to educate and inform people." Jeremy Berrington is a freelance reporter for the Emerald. ETHICS continued from page 1 Carroll dted a study released last year that showed Americans had three main misconceptions about Iraq: That weapons of mass destruction had been found, a connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq had been demonstrated and that the world approved of U.S inter vention in Iraq. He said 80 percent of people who primarily got their news from Fox believed at least one of the misconceptions. He said the figure was more than 57 percentage points higher than people who get their news from public news broadcasting. "How in the world could Fox have left its listeners so deeply in the dark?" Carroll asked. He added that a difference exists between journalism and propaganda. As he addressed some of the hard hits journalism has taken in the field of ethics, Carroll noted that anyone could be a journalist because, unlike other fields, journalism had no quali fication tests, boards to censure mis conduct or a universally accepted set of standards. However, Carroll said a great depth of feeling remains on the importance of ethics that is centered around news papers' sense of responsibilities to their readers. "I've learned that these ethics are deeply believed in even though in some places they are not even writ ten down," he said. When ethical guidelines are ignored, their propo nents respond with 'tribal ferocity,'" he added. "If you stray badly from these rules, you will pay dearly," he said. He said while much media has end ed up "in the gutter," the LA Times has a different philosophy and was dedicat ed to taking the "high road." "I do think that a lot of newspaper people have made a lot of strategic mis takes, " he said. 'They cut back space on things people really need to know." Carroll, whose career as a journalist spans 40 years, joined the L.A. Times in 2000, according to the paper's Web site. Under his leadership, the paper earned five Pulitzer Prizes this year. Tim Gleason, dean of the SOJC, said Carroll is a "journalist's journalist." "As an editor he cares deeply about the integrity of the profession and he believes that news, real news is the heart and soul of the business of jour nalism," Gleason said as he intro duced Carroll. University graduate student Mose Mosely had similar sentiments. He said he admired Carroll not only for his vast experience around the coun try, but also for his consistent com mitment to his ideals. "The depth of his integrity is very impressive," Mosely said. Bobbie Willis, a staff writer for the Eugene Weekly, said she felt Carroll brought up some relevant issues in to day s media environment. "It really made me take a look at my career as a journalist," she said. Willis said she understood Carroll's concerns about the state of journal ism nationally, but added that many of the journalists she has encountered were very committed to accurate and ethical reporting. Carroll had a few words of advise for student journalists; he told them to pick their boss carefully. "Don't be lured by the money or the big name of the employer," he said, Tim Kupsick Photographer L.A. Times Editor John Carroll spoke about journalism ethics and pseudo-journalism at the Gerlinger Lounge on Thursday. adding that journalists should not al low their integrity to be compromised by unscrupulous employers. "Don't be a piano player in a whorehouse," he said. Contact the news editor at ayishayahya@dailyemeraid.com. Be a Leader in the Army National Guard, and get the respect of soldiers who will look to you for leadership. 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