Abstinence and the Palins

I am usually quite pleased with how Canadian politics tends to leave the private lives of its politicians and their families alone as, well, a private matter. That being said, when there is an example of gross hypocrisy - an anti-gay politician being outed, an anti-drug crusader caught smoking up - I consider that to be fair game and a juicy scandal.

It was with that in mind that I was intrigued by the story floating around the internet that Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's youngest child might not be her child, but her grandchild. Today's revelation that her daughter Bristol has not already had a child, but is five months pregnant, planning to keep the baby and marry the father deflates the potential scandal a great deal. If the Republican party could ignore the fact that the incumbent VP's daughter is a lesbian, they can certainly put a smiling face on the fact that Ms. Palin is planning on keeping her baby - a "nice" anti-abortion message to go with the social conservative mantra associated with her mother.

That being said, I do consider it to be absolutely fair game to cite the example of the young Ms. Palin if her mother decides to revive the Republican campaign for abstinence-only education, should disaster befall the Democrats, and the McCain-Palin ticket plunge the US into four more years of darkness. Clearly, this provides ample evidence that the abstinence campaign doesn't work. Rising numbers of teen pregnancy, and declining condom use (and rising HIV infection rates) provide evidence too - but sometimes a face needs to be associated with the problems of a failed policy.

Update: Queer minds think alike - Dan Savage seems to have had the same thought here.

Upperdate: And while I'm busy feeling vitriolic, clearly this will be a marriage made in heaven. After all, isn't that what the sacred state of marriage is for - covering up sexual (mis)adventures? Certainly better that it be used for that purpose, rather than allowing American gays and lesbians to get married. I was sad to learn that longtime lesbian activist Del Martin passed away last week, but glad that she did finally get to marry her partner of 55 years, despite what many American politicians (of both political stripes) might prefer.

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