Male Sex Phone Line Ordered To Be Re-Opened By Senate

[Lee]

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- A Web site devoted to helping young men avoid high-risk sex that could lead to HIV and AIDS must be switched back on by March 1, the state Senate ordered the Douglas administration Friday.


A link to the site, themanphone.org, was taken down in December after the Health Department was alerted that it included a link to a pornographic site.

That pornography link has been removed and the Health Department has indicated that it would re-establish the site soon, but lawmakers have been frustrated that it still hasn't happened.

"I'd like to hold the Department of Health's feet to the fire," said Sen. Jeannette White, D-Windham.

The issue has become a cause celebre around the Statehouse. Some believed the link to pornography that was put up, even though it was not intended, degraded the program altogether.

"I don't think anybody in the Senate disagrees with what the intent of what that Web site is _ or was," said Sen. George Coppenrath, R-Caledonia. "The Web site ended up being something none of us intended it to be."

The goal of the Web site, paid for by a federal grant, was to inform sexually active men between the ages of 18 and 24 of the possible consequences of sex, including unwanted pregnancies, HIV and AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases.

It was done with a Web site designed to be read by that generation.

"The reason this was so successful _ as (Health Commissioner) Dr. Paul Jarris said _ was the edginess of it," White said. "The edginess appealed to this population."

Gov. James Douglas' spokesman, Jason Gibbs, said the amendment to the budget bill was not necessary. "We are along the way toward re-establishing that service on the Web site to be run by the Department of Health," Gibbs said.

But he made clear that the administration was being cautious because of the experience late last year.

"No state-sponsored Web site should contain or link to a Web site that contains pornographic material," he said. "We support education campaigns targeted to this particularly high-risk population. But we want to be sure the material is scientifically based and compelling and we also want to be sure it's not an inviting target for someone to peddle porn."

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=4453306&nav=4QcS

Interesting stuff, i wonder if the porn site link they mentioned had a referral code in it?

Regards,

Lee

[maxpower]

I personally think we have just about all prevented a net lose of sexually transmitted disease. Masturbation is the safest sex possible, how many people decided not to go out tonight after all after using our services.