March 18, 2011

Must-See Video: “I Have Sex”

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Not to blow your minds or anything, but young people have sex. And quite a few of them are pissed about the proposed budget cuts to Planned Parenthood, which has been basically deemed a giant abortion factory instead of a comprehensive sex education advocate and family planning provider. In reality, Planned Parenthood offers many health and gynecological services, STD and STI screenings, cancer screenings, birth control, and counseling, and students don’t want those services taken away.

“I Have Sex,” is a video produced by students at Wesleyan University. Posted last week, it has rapidly garnered more than 238,000 views on YouTube. The idea has spread to other schools, including Bard College; Oberlin College; Elmira College in Trumansburg, New York; and also to Americans studying abroad in Equador and France. Sex isn’t the only thing young people have, of course. They also have mad social-media skills, which is partly why the videos have gone viral. The Wesleyan organizers attracted more than 30,000 people to their “event” on Facebook, and have launched a proper fan page that’s gaining followers as well.

Perhaps the video’s most telling tidbit is its camparison between what the government spends on tax breaks for oil companies ($2.5 billion) versus how much it pays to keep Planned Parenthood afloat ($75 million).

You can read more about the student-led Planned Parenthood campaign here, but first check out the video below. Get inspired, get informed, and realize that young people getting laid isn’t cause for some great moral panic. Axing sex education and reproductive services, on the other hand, is.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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