Joe Duffy and Threesomes.

In Blog, Cultureby Rashers Tierney1 Comment

spunout

The SIndo and the Joe Duffy Brigade are giving @SpunOut a bashing over a harm reduction article they published looking at threesomes.

Fine Gae”s Mulherin, yes her that pondered out loud if fornication led to pregnancy called them ‘incredibly regressive.’

This storm in a tea cup has a nasty edge to it, targeting as it does the funding of the spunout.ie website – which provides harm reduction advice on numerous topics. The usual array of conservative twats are rolling in behind calls for the funding to be withdrawn, the Iona Institute included.

The controversy generated by the Sindo article led to the site being temporarily knocked off line. The statement below was put up within the hour.

Arm young people with facts, not fear.

Published: March 23, 2013

Young people are having sex whether the Sunday Independent or Deputy Michelle Mulherin like it or not.

Some of them are having sex with more than one person, and sometimes with more than one person at the one time.

Research shows the average age at which teens start to engage in sexual activity is getting younger, particularly in urban areas. HSE data from 2006 (which is now seven years old) shows the average age at which a young person has sex for the first time is 17 (both male and female).

Education needs to begin earlier than the age of first sex and it is widely accepted that sexual education in Irish schools is both of poor quality and inconsistent.

Research by the HSE shows that young people who receive a detailed and quality sex education actually wait longer to have sex for the first time.

SpunOut.ie exists to provide balanced, reliable and responsible information for 16 to 25 year olds only. The age of consent in Northern Ireland is 16, SpunOut.ie is an all-island charity.

The Sunday Independent wrongly claims we receive €250,000 in state funding. We receive €124,000 in total and this was confirmed with the journalist in question at 11.50am on Saturday March 23rd by phone.

SpunOut.ie believes in the ability of young people to make the right decision for themselves once they have access to quality and reliable information, such as the information provided by our website.

We promote safer sex to reduce the transmission of STIs and unwanted pregnancy.

Young people are bombarded with unrealistic sexual imagery through films and porn, neither of which detail the drawbacks to different forms of sexual activity.

We do not promote threesomes, we arm young people with the facts about them.

We advise young people not to be coerced or pressured into having any form of sex.

All too often, older generations avoid having conversations with their young people about difficult subjects. This is particularly true in relation to sex. Parents feel uncomfortable talking to their children about it and teachers are afraid to raise the subject in the classroom. An adult’s discomfort does not negate a young person’s right to information.

Silence does not breed confidence, instead it creates fear and confusion.

We should arm our young people with the facts and trust them to make responsible decisions.

SpunOut.ie is proud to do just that.

Listening to Liveline is often enough to force you into emigration. So irrational and fearful can the outpourings on the show be, that often we mistake it for reflecting the thinking of a broad mass of Irish society. Its interesting to note how divergent the aired views are from those expressed on the show’s #liveline hashtag. The vast majority of which rip the piss and deride just how backwards the show is.

https://twitter.com/kevinhargaden/status/316197350752280577

https://twitter.com/tommymorrela/status/316197058581254144

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