Sex Education Fundraiser Features Stripper, Draws Rebuke

By Doug Huntington, Christian Post Reporter Friday, June 08, 2007

A Chicago-based sex education organization held their annual fundraiser on Thursday, featuring an adult entertainer as its special guest.

Pro-abstinence groups had expressed their concern over the risqué adults-only event sponsored by the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH), because the organization is supposed to be teaching youth about responsible sex. The opponents argue that the affair was a contradiction, however.

"Isn't it ironic that ICAH is holding an adults-only fundraiser featuring a stripper who has an adults-only website," commented John Jansen, co-director of Generations for Life, a Chicago-based youth outreach, in a statement. "Yet at the same time, they expect parents to trust them to know the best way to teach their children about sex."

The fundraising event was themed "Indulgence: ICAH's 3rd Annual Spring Affair" and highlighted a Neo-Burlesque performance by Michelle L'amour, former Miss Exotica World 2005 who also runs an 18-years-or-older website.

Pro-life and pro-abstinence groups are criticizing the event, especially since the "primary mission" of ICAH is "to promote a positive approach to adolescent sexual health and comprehensive support for young parents," according to the ICAH website. They say that the organization workers prove that they are neither "positive" nor "comprehensive" with the way they act.

Opposing groups also explained that this year's event was not unusual, and that the Chicago-based pro-sex organization had precedent of having risqué bashes.

During last year's spring benefit, ICAH sponsors held their event at the Headquarters of Playboy Enterprises in downtown Chicago. Attending the party as a VIP was CEO Christie Hefner, daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

"Now, with this year's event featuring stripper Michelle L'amour, ICAH has shown it's still as brazen as ever," added Jansen. "Considering the character of ICAH's fundraising events these past two years, doesn't this tell us everything we need to know about the values being pushed on our kids by the advocates of so-called comprehensive sex education?"

ICAH has also teamed up with Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of U.S. abortions, in the Chicago area as part of the Illinois Campaign for Responsible Sex Education – a program that discourages abstinence education while promoting condom-based sex education.