[DRAFT] the WA is boring at the moment LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX!

[Imperium Anglorum]

Mate, that's a lot of could's.

[The Dark Star Republic]

This proposal could increase teenage pregnancy rates in countries where few minors have vaginal intercourse.

OOC: I am willing to suspend my disbelief and accept a great many fantastical worlds exist within the world of NS, but I find it hard to believe there are any in which teenage boys aren't trying to stick their dicks into just about any open hole.

This proposal could increase teenage pregnancy rates in countries where minors cannot readily access contraception or where they have access only to ineffective forms of birth control (sponges, 12% failure; male condoms, 18% failure; female condoms, 21% failure; withdrawal, 22% failure; calendar, 24% failure; spermicide, 28% failure). The most standard, effective form of birth control is oral contraception, which does not require any sort of special instruction in secondary schools (girls, take a pill daily).

It's difficult to take seriously the idea that the oral contraceptive has rendered sex education obsolete. Nor is your obsessive focus on teenage pregnancy very compelling: an oral contraceptive won't protect against an STI, nor will taking an oral contraceptive magically imbue girls with knowledge of how their own body works.

We're also entering chicken v. egg territory. I'd mentioned a proposal about legalising access to contraception as the second idea in this agenda; presumably, if I pursued that, you would turn around and argue that it's dangerous to legalise contraceptives without sex education because people won't understand how to use them properly.

I'm entirely in character.

I don't really think you understand what that means. But I won't drag this into a discussion on roleplaying etiquette; suffice it so say, not really interested anymore.

Your vote against has been noted; I won't be replying further.

OOC: I know I don't have to tell you this, but I wouldn't be so deterred by a negative reaction from the forum regulars. There was uproar about Reproductive Freedoms on the forums, yet it passed by insane margins. I imagine among the general voters, this would be very popular. Unless the WA shifts its attitude towards issues like abortion and returns the choice over how to formulate policy on them to nations, then I think a resolution of this kind at some point must be pursued.

I don't know that I agree: I actually think the general voters are more sovereigntist on matters like this than we give them credit and that abortion is simply a very particular exception. But I suppose there's only one way to find out!

[The Dark Star Republic]

Permits nations to tailor the specifics of their curriculum to their particular national circumstances, and to devolve comprehensive sex education planning and provision to local authorities;
............

Encourages nations to make arrangements for students not part of their state education systems to receive comprehensive sex education to a comparable level;

We support this proposal. However we are concerned with the above two clauses. Firstly, we would like the permits clause to be tightened to make it clear that nations must still comply with the requirements clause while "tailoring".

Secondly, we are concerned that the encourages clause effectively optionalises the entire proposal for any member nation with partially or entirely privatised education. Perhaps the clause could be restated to grant all students the right to the education outlined in clauses 1, 2 & 3 without regard to whether they are home-schooled, privately schooled or whatever? Or to achieve the same thing but in a rather blunt fashion, change the "encourages" to "requires"?

"Those are both good points and the wording of both clauses troubled us, for the reasons you describe. They have both been considered in the redrafting.

"The draft has been quite extensively updated now. While there are doubtless other aspects to consider, three that concern us: the awkward preamble (never our delegation's forte); how to cater to persons with mental, developmental or learning disabilities; and making better use of the WHA."

~ Daisy Chinmusic
Legislative Intern

[Pharthan]

OOC: I am willing to suspend my disbelief and accept a great many fantastical worlds exist within the world of NS, but I find it hard to believe there are any in which teenage boys aren't trying to stick their dicks into just about any open hole.

OOC: If the NS world were all Westernized, this might be true. But NS world is much more culturally diverse than RL Earth. A super-religious nation, or a very controlled nation might be very strict on pre-marital intercourse to the point that such urges are genuinely suppressed; the desire will obviously exist, but that does not mean attempts at intercourse exist. Even in Western nations, many individuals stay chaste, by choice, until marriage. I still have coworkers who, quite intentionally, have remained chaste into their mid-twenties, and not for lack of opportunity. (Uniforms tend to be "chick magnets," especially in foreign countries. And New York City.)
Expanding upon the culture issue, this resolution could increase teen-pregnancy in some nations, reduce it in others, have no effect in some, et cetera. All nations are different.

I can see this resolution largely violating religious-rights in some nations, as well.

[Christian Democrats]

OOC: It's not even that difficult to imagine. In China and India, the average person becomes sexually active at 22. That's 2.6 billion people, or 36% of the world population. Not surprisingly, illegitimate births are less than 1% in both countries.

http://chartsbin.com/view/xxj
http://sustaindemographicdividend.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Table2.png

The same goes for the rest of Asia and most of the Middle East.

[Mundiferrum]

OOC: I am willing to suspend my disbelief and accept a great many fantastical worlds exist within the world of NS, but I find it hard to believe there are any in which teenage boys aren't trying to stick their dicks into just about any open hole.

OOC: If the NS world were all Westernized, this might be true. But NS world is much more culturally diverse than RL Earth. A super-religious nation, or a very controlled nation might be very strict on pre-marital intercourse to the point that such urges are genuinely suppressed; the desire will obviously exist, but that does not mean attempts at intercourse exist. Even in Western nations, many individuals stay chaste, by choice, until marriage. I still have coworkers who, quite intentionally, have remained chaste into their mid-twenties, and not for lack of opportunity. (Uniforms tend to be "chick magnets," especially in foreign countries. And New York City.)
Expanding upon the culture issue, this resolution could increase teen-pregnancy in some nations, reduce it in others, have no effect in some, et cetera. All nations are different.

I can see this resolution largely violating religious-rights in some nations, as well.

OOC: To be honest, the only reason I'm really supporting this is because the GA so far has taken such a wildly liberal stance with sexy things (RF as the number resolution of last year? Oh my). I agree this is a bit too much: the GA doesn't really have to legislate about sex ed since it seems to be an all to, er, national issue, especially since this might end up being a bit too intrusive to nations with other, still effective means of keeping their population down and all that, but hey, what the hell.

[The Dark Star Republic]

I agree this is a bit too much: the GA doesn't really have to legislate about sex ed since it seems to be an all to, er, national issue

OOC: So, education about star charts and gun safety are international issues, but sex - a topic the WA has repeatedly legislated on - isn't?

The WA has decreed that all people have more or less absolute rights to sexual privacy, sexual autonomy, and reproductive freedom. Those people should at least be capable of understanding what those rights mean.

[Mundiferrum]

I agree this is a bit too much: the GA doesn't really have to legislate about sex ed since it seems to be an all to, er, national issue

OOC: So, education about star charts and gun safety are international issues, but sex - a topic the WA has repeatedly legislated on - isn't?

The WA has decreed that all people have more or less absolute rights to sexual privacy, sexual autonomy, and reproductive freedom. Those people should at least be capable of understanding what those rights mean.

OOC: I didn't say those were simply national issues either, and on your second point, well, that was basically my point too. We've already done sexual privacy, autonomy, reproductive freedoms, etc. Might as well complete the package with this one.

[Pharthan]

OOC: So, education about star charts and gun safety are international issues, but sex - a topic the WA has repeatedly legislated on - isn't?

OOC: There are people that would argue that the aforementioned are also not international issues. I do agree with the others; this is very much a national issue. Education on STDs and Sexual Assault would be international, IMO.

[The Dark Star Republic]

Education on STDs and Sexual Assault would be international, IMO.

OOC: So where's the cut-off? We can all come to any issue and say "not an international issue" or "this is an international issue", but without some sort of justification it's all a bit arbitrary. Far more people because of complications from pregnancy, illegal abortions, STDs, or sexual assaults, than do from nuclear powerplant meltdowns!

[Pharthan]

Education on STDs and Sexual Assault would be international, IMO.

OOC: So where's the cut-off? We can all come to any issue and say "not an international issue" or "this is an international issue", but without some sort of justification it's all a bit arbitrary. Far more people because of complications from pregnancy, illegal abortions, STDs, or sexual assaults, than do from nuclear powerplant meltdowns!

OOC: The cut off is what is restricted. If you are teaching about STDs and Sexual Assault, you are preventing rape, sexual assault, rape due to belief that you can cure AIDS by raping a virgin, et cetera. You restrict cultures that promote such things. Generally speaking, such restrictions are not bad things. If you start forcing people to teach kids about sex, that is something that in their culture they may not be ready for. Sure, they may be biologically ready for it, but their culture might dictate otherwise. You may be presenting a cultural upset that will do more harm than good.

And for the record, the impact of nuclear meltdown is not from the meltdown itself. It's people's reactions to the meltdown, because people are stupid and fear that which they do not understand. You have a global freak out and you stop using nuclear plants. Your reliance on old fossil fuel plants continues or even accelerates. You accelerate global climate change. Everyone suffers.

[The Dark Star Republic]

If you start forcing people to teach kids about sex, that is something that in their culture they may not be ready for.

OOC: No one is "forced" to teach anything. If you don't want to become a sex ed teacher, don't.

And I am at a loss to explain how legalising sexual freedom doesn't create a cultural shock where teaching young people what sex is does.

[Pharthan]

If you start forcing people to teach kids about sex, that is something that in their culture they may not be ready for.

OOC: No one is "forced" to teach anything. If you don't want to become a sex ed teacher, don't.

And I am at a loss to explain how legalising sexual freedom doesn't create a cultural shock where teaching young people what sex is does.

OOC: The nation is forced to. Admittedly the resolution doesn't specify at what age thus must be taught. "Sexual maturity" is rather vague.

You're trying to justify your resolution based on previous resolutions. There are rules based around making each resolution it's own standalone resolution, and they just be able to Rgue themselves on their own without the assistance of precedence of other resolutions. This isn't a court of law; it's not a valid argument. Begging legal precedence need not apply to non-legal issues.

[The Dark Star Republic]

You're trying to justify your resolution based on previous resolutions.

OOC: There are ample justifications for supporting comprehensive sex education independent of prior WA law; I'm just adding in mentions of what the WA has done - what the WA has always done and has never shown any signs of not doing - to try to sway those crying "NatSov". The "Modern NatSov" is utterly impenetrable so it's highly difficult to predict how will they vote; as such, I need to build as much of a case as possible.

If you think there is a House of Cards legality issue with my proposal, feel free to challenge it!

[The Dark Star Republic]

OOC: A trial submission of this received a substantially lower number of approvals than my other proposal, and based on observing the queue, I think it's probably not worth going ahead with, given the negative reaction on the forum as well. I find it incredibly difficult to conceive of why players want the WA to legalise incest and abortion but don't want people to be taught sex ed, but so it goes.

If anyone else would like to use something I've included in this proposal, feel free to ask.

[Mundiferrum]

OOC: No one is "forced" to teach anything. If you don't want to become a sex ed teacher, don't.

And I am at a loss to explain how legalising sexual freedom doesn't create a cultural shock where teaching young people what sex is does.

OOC: The nation is forced to. Admittedly the resolution doesn't specify at what age thus must be taught. "Sexual maturity" is rather vague.

OOC: Sexual maturity is far from vague. It's the point at which an organism is capable of reproducing -- when sexy times has actual consequences, and when the organism feels all tingly inside (ie pubescence). There's no arguing around that.

[Sierra Lyricalia]

...I find it incredibly difficult to conceive of why players want the WA to legalise incest and abortion but don't want people to be taught sex ed, but so it goes.

OOC: Apparently we really have it in for fetuses. Gotta keep those Abortionplex numbers up, and if people actually know what they're doing, those profits take a dip.

[Separatist Peoples]

Never mind!

[The Dark Star Republic]

this site is for 13 and over.

OOC: I somewhat suspect not. Nonetheless, let's ignore this poster until they stop/go away or the mods have a chance to clean up.

[Kryozerkia]

this site is for 13 and over.

OOC: I somewhat suspect not. Nonetheless, let's ignore this poster until they stop/go away or the mods have a chance to clean up.

The forum is 13+; the game itself is open to younger players.

[The Dark Star Republic]

OOC: I somewhat suspect not. Nonetheless, let's ignore this poster until they stop/go away or the mods have a chance to clean up.

The forum is 13+; the game itself is open to younger players.

I was simply making a snide reference to the fact that the spammer was very much acting like someone who was younger than 13. Nonetheless, thanks for clearing out those posts.