Let's talk about sex!

Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective held their 2nd national conference in Chicago this weekend. The theme for the gathering was "Let's talk about sex!"

More than 800 women and men attended the four day event, along with featured speakers including Byllye Avery, founder of the Black Women's Health Imperative, Dorothy Roberts, the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, and Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General and now a Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the University of Arkansas School of Public Health and a Distinguished Professor at the Clinton School of Public Policy.

The plenary sessions and workshops were thought-provoking and inspiring. Dr. Elders delivered some of the best quotes, however.

Talking about the current controversy surrounding the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, Dr. Elders said: "We insure our house, we insure our car ... but we don't want to insure our daughters against cervical cancer." She accused politicians of playing: "Vaginal politics -- using women to get elected." And she spoke about the challenges facing African American men, and how the government could "send kids to Harvard for less than what we spend incarcerating them."

My favorite comment came when she launched a verbal attack on "abstinence only" education. Dr. Elders noted that the argument most often used by advocates of abstinence only education is that condoms break. Her response was: "Yes, condoms break -- but the vows of chastity break far more easily."

Our children need to know how to protect themselves.

In her final swipe at the current administration, Dr. Elders noted: "Not to know is bad ... not to want to know is worse ... but not to care is unforgivable."

It's too bad that Bill Clinton caved under pressure from religious right leaders and forced her to resign. Dr. Joycelyn Elders is just the kind of Surgeon General we need.