more funding for sketchy ab-only groups.

i had to put off blogging a little longer than i'd hoped, and as such, one of the things i wanted to write about - hymenoplasty among some muslim women in europe - has already been so thoroughly and skillfully blogged about on feministing, dkos, OBOS, and the like, that you don't have to take my word for it on how twisted our patriarchal obsession with virginity is. karen rayne actually has a pretty excellent piece on virginity over at her blog on adolescent sexuality. good stuff.

anyway, i did want to cover something that didn't get nearly enough play, as far as i'm concerned. i picked this up over at RHrealitycheck [link on the right]. in a nutshell:

"[Best Friends, a]n organization that promotes sexual abstinence for teens received a federal grant of over a million dollars, twice what it had requested, despite the skepticism Department of Justice staffers had about the group and the fact that it refused to participate in a congressionally mandated study."

best friends received this grant in spite of the additional fact that they ranked 53rd out of 104 grants in the category they were competing for. so what gives?

dollars.

i know; it's like they can't even keep things interesting. best friends president elayne bennett just happens to be friends with the chief administrator of the office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention [OJJDP], j. robert flores. flores and his cronies attend best friends fundraisers on a regular basis, according to the article, and while they're eating, drinking, and ensuring that the teen STD rate will be 1 in 3 by the next time the CDC puts out a report, organizations like the rape abuse and incest national network [RAINN] get nothing.

but, i mean, RAINN is only the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization. and one of its top-ranked charities. but that's it.

nothing to see here. move along.