More faux outrage about sex in Pork Report

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research's Pork Report is out again. I won't deny that they provide a valuable service in scrutinizing state spending at a time when we don't have much money. As I pointed out last year, they seem to have developed a bad habit of trying to whip people into a frenzy about sex in the arts. Page 9 of this year's report delivers more of the same. One heading reads "Tax Dollars for Dirty Movies."

They point out: "In 2009, the Tennessee Art Commission handed $29,040 in tax money to subsidize the Nashville Film Festival. Some of that money went to support films many taxpayers will never see and, in fact, would find highly objectionable."

Based on the testimony of guests and the comments of some members of the Shelby County Commission today, it's pretty obvious that we have a long way to go in being able to discuss issues of sexuality with great openness. Some people seem to revel in finding anything "objectionable."

We'd love to see the TCPR do a study on what science-based sex education would do for the teen pregnancy rate and sexually transmitted disease rate in Tennessee. Who knows what kind of money that might save? Thrift is a great Puritan virtue, repression a Puritan vice.

Premarital sex and adultery shake the House

The Tennessean has posted this video of last week's House Judiciary Committee debate on Rep. Stacey Campfield's (R-Knoxville) paternity bill. Rep. Rob Briley (D-Nashville) peppered Rep. Campfield with questions about whether he believes premarital sex and adultery are wrong. Rep. Campfield replied that he didn't know what those questions had to do with the bill. He didn't directly answer the question about premarital sex, but finally did say that adultery is wrong.

Most commentators seem to be focusing on the testiness of the exchange and Briley's comment that the bill is one of the most "anti-child" bills he's ever seen.

What I think will be of interest to the GLBT community and what may be of interest to conservatives is the pass that premarital (straight) sex gets while some legislators on the Right continue to look for ways to draw bills limiting GLBT rights. Consider Rep. Campfield's HB2997 which would prohibit instruction in human sexuality other than heterosexuality in grades K-8.

How does this pass for premarital sex fit with the cluster of family values and abstinence only education?

Sen. Paul Stanley's bill banning adoption by unmarried cohabiting couples in a sexual relationship is at least more consistent with family values discourse, though no more palatable.