Family Advocate Condemns Misguided Illinois Condom Handouts
by Jim Brown
November 3, 2004
(AgapePress) - An Illinois pro-family activist is expressing outrage over the state's distribution of flavored condoms.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that since January the Illinois Department of Public Health has spent $115,000 in funds provided by the Bush administration on condoms -- 360,000 of which are flavored. The agency claims the orange, grape, lemon, and cherry condoms will help curb the state's high rates of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.
But Pete LaBarbera with the Illinois Family Institute feels the state is encouraging homosexuals to continue in immoral behavior, rather than concentrating on warning them of the health risks to which they are exposing themselves. "There's a big problem in the homosexual community in Chicago with syphilis," he says, "so rather than tell the homosexual community, 'Do not engage in this dangerous behavior,' they are giving them condoms to entice them to use them for oral sex."
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Peter LaBarbera |
The IFI spokesman is adamant that the public should not have to foot the bill for condoms that have the primary effect of promoting an unhealthy and immoral lifestyle. "It's just outrageous," he says, "and taxpayers should not be paying for this."LaBarbera contends that the City of Chicago, in particular, is so "messed up" that officials there are actually working with "bathhouses," homosexual establishments that he calls "places of perversion," in order to pass out condoms and other so-called safe-sex materials. He says liberals' idea of helping homosexuals is "to give them condoms for their perverse activity" rather than helping them to stop doing it.
"That's what we should be doing," the pro-family activist asserts. "We shouldn't be encouraging this behavior at all."
LaBarbera is also concerned the flavored condom distribution will entice more young people to engage in risky sexual activity. He believes the state's handout of these contraceptive barrier devices will undermine efforts to promote sexual abstinence among young people.
