Chastity

Much of the world seems to be chanting the message of safe sex to our young. That chant says: Safe sex is using a condom while engaging in sexual intercourse. The message is that it will protect you from unwanted pregnancy and disease, especially the threat of AIDS. Just how much protection can people expect to get from a condom? The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that condoms fail up to 17 percent in avoiding pregnancy. If the AIDS virus is 450 times smaller than sperm, how can a condom keep out the dreaded disease?

In Christopher Durang's satirical play, Sister Mary Ignatius always taught that sodomy was so disgusting it "made Jesus puke. " According to Colman McCarthy's Nov. 7 Op-ed Page column, one of his Jesuit professors taught that God winks at such "sins of weakness. " One of these jokers is pulling our leg. If the Vatican is in the grip of "homophobia," as Mr. McCarthy asserts, things haven't changed much since St. Peter first set up shop in decadent Rome circa A.D. 42. And after St. Paul "frittered away his moral force with homophobic rantings" in his famous letter to Corinth, Catholic gays and lesbians in that progressive metropolis had to make their own choices about allegiance to so harsh a church leadership.

Chastity: It's not just a word. It's an adventure. The Body & Soul Posse knows. Members of the group jiggled and jumped with the single-minded intensity that only youngsters have. Strutting and fretting their hour-and-a-half upon the stage, their message rocked, rolled and rumbled into 60 young minds yesterday. Chastity! The word echoed in a paneled meeting room at the Valley Forge Sheraton, where the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation opened the first day of its weekend convention.

Sometimes conventional wisdom turns out to be wrong. The latest bit of wisdom to be debunked concerns teenagers and sex. Specifically, it's the notion that kids are going to have sex, no matter what adults say to dissuade them - and so we should be handing out condoms instead of lecturing about virginity. But this notion of inevitable sex among teens happens not to be true. Losing your virginity at age 14 or 15 isn't inevitable - whether you're poor and urban, or rich and suburban.

BECOMING CHAZ. 9 p.m. tomorrow, OWN. FEW, IF ANY, of the millions who first encountered a blonde toddler named Chastity on "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" would have predicted that that little girl would one day grow up to be a burly guy named Chaz. But, then, who'd have guessed that her shaggy-haired father would someday be a Republican congressman? Or that her wisecracking mother would win an Academy Award? Clearly, attitudes and perceptions can be adjusted.

IF YOU'RE OLD enough to remember the old " Sonny & Cher Show," you might recall they used to occasionally bring out their cute, little blond moppet of a daughter, Chastity Bono . Make that Mr. Chastity Bono. According to TMZ.com, Chastity/ Chaz, best known for her civil-rights advocacy, is in the early stages of changing gender - transitioning from female to male. She began the process earlier this year, shortly after she turned 40. (Some women will do anything to avoid menopause.

Holding a box of cereal, Kim McBryan talks about fueling up for a demanding date. But when she reads the ingredients, it's not the whole grain wheat, sugar and fortifying vitamins she wants the students to think about - but making choices about sexual behavior. "Chastity is a high-energy source made with 100 percent whole goodness, and grace, and provides either natural or soulful nutrition that may be missing from your dating diet," McBryan told a group of cadets at Valley Forge Military Academy.

While lifeguards keep swimmers in safe waters, members of Generation Life are delivering tidings along New Jersey beaches that they hope will save their peers from a deluge of sexually transmitted disease. Generation Lifers, in their teens and 20s, swim against the cultural tide. Members want to spread the word that the only safe sex is lifetime fidelity between two HIV- and STD-free people. That's what members do during school presentations in the fall, winter and spring, when they also fight for the rights of the unborn.

You've heard of the traveling salesman. Well, that's kind of what I am. I travel the country, from Maine to California, pitching my "product" to 50,000 teens each year, and guess what? Many of the kids are "buying" it. My "product" is intangible; it can't be purchased at a store, nor given out in a school-based clinic; yet it is 100 percent effective in preventing teenage pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted disease. Furthermore, it costs nothing, has no harmful side effects, and it's contagious.

BECOMING CHAZ. 9 p.m. tomorrow, OWN. FEW, IF ANY, of the millions who first encountered a blonde toddler named Chastity on "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" would have predicted that that little girl would one day grow up to be a burly guy named Chaz. But, then, who'd have guessed that her shaggy-haired father would someday be a Republican congressman? Or that her wisecracking mother would win an Academy Award? Clearly, attitudes and perceptions can be adjusted.

On screen, James Gandolfini has become the big, beefy Buddha of unresolved internal conflict and quiet rage. He developed the persona on "The Sopranos" and gives us a law-abiding version in "Welcome to the Rileys" as Doug, a hardware salesman from Indianapolis who uses a sales convention in New Orleans to take a break from his wife (Melissa Leo) and his stifling home, where the couple grieves messily and separately over the death of their teenage daughter. In the big N.O., he meets a teen dancer/hooker named Mallory (Kristen Stewart)

IF YOU'RE OLD enough to remember the old " Sonny & Cher Show," you might recall they used to occasionally bring out their cute, little blond moppet of a daughter, Chastity Bono . Make that Mr. Chastity Bono. According to TMZ.com, Chastity/ Chaz, best known for her civil-rights advocacy, is in the early stages of changing gender - transitioning from female to male. She began the process earlier this year, shortly after she turned 40. (Some women will do anything to avoid menopause.

In America, the taunt that can really sting those older than 18 is, "You're a virgin who can't drive!" I treasure the retort proffered by Cher, poised heroine of 1995's Clueless, who responds to her taunters, "You know how picky I am about my shoes - and they only go on my feet. " If Andy, the bicycle-riding hero of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, were as quick-witted as Cher, he'd probably say, "You know how important it is to keep your action figure in its original packaging. " Quick-witted, Andy is not. But he discovers much to his (and our)

My organization seeks to build a culture of life by spreading the chastity message to young people through classroom education about the permanent and procreative powers of sexual intimacy and intercourse. In the 2003-2004 school year, Generation Life chastity educators addressed more than 20,000 students in grades seven through 12. Chastity is a commitment to sexual purity, the heart of which is self-respect and self-control. Chastity provides real sexual freedom without pressures and risks.

While lifeguards keep swimmers in safe waters, members of Generation Life are delivering tidings along New Jersey beaches that they hope will save their peers from a deluge of sexually transmitted disease. Generation Lifers, in their teens and 20s, swim against the cultural tide. Members want to spread the word that the only safe sex is lifetime fidelity between two HIV- and STD-free people. That's what members do during school presentations in the fall, winter and spring, when they also fight for the rights of the unborn.

Generation Life is a movement of young people committed to building a culture of life by spreading the message of chastity and upholding the sanctity of human life in all its stages. To many youth today, chastity is a foreign word. Chastity does not mean sexual abstinence. Rather, chastity is a lifestyle that embraces sexual self-control by practicing purity in one's thoughts, words and deeds. Simply stated, it is an ordered understanding of sexual desire. Whereas abstinence says no to sex for a period of time, chastity says a big yes to sex, but in the confines of marriage.

Won't Tonja McGill's future husband be pleased? McGill, 18, is single and doesn't have a romantic interest, but when she finally does wed, her bridegroom will find that his bride has been saving herself for him. "I am going to wait," she says. "[Premarital sex] can lead to all kinds of stress in a marriage. " Besides her fear of marital distrust and suspicion, McGill has other reasons for wanting to remain a virgin until her wedding night. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are high on the list.

When it came to talking with her 10-year-old daughter about puberty, female sexuality and chastity, Linda Miller said she felt a little uncomfortable and knew she needed help. A mother of three, Miller brought her second daughter, Kate, to a meeting of about 100 girls age 9 to 13 and their mothers yesterday afternoon at Christ the King Catholic School hoping that an open discussion about adolescence and chastity might break the ice for further intimate mother-daughter conversations.