Tea Party darling from Cedar Creek Lake gets amendment passed transferring HIV education funds to abstinence-only sex ed
Anyone surprised by Texas Rep. Dr. Stuart Spitzer’s advocacy of abstinence education over HIV/STD public awareness campaigns shouldn’t be. And you should expect more of the same from the East Texas legislator who represents much of the Cedar Creek Lake area.
Spitzer won the seat from two-term Republican Rep. Lance Gooden with the support of the Kaufman County Tea Party. His first challenge against Gooden in 2012 failed, but his second challenge, last year, succeeded in large part because he and his supporters portrayed Gooden as a liberal.
Spitzer described himself as a “true conservative,” and he touted his marriage and two children as evidence of his strong moral character. A whisper campaign by Spitzer supporters suggested that Gooden, who is 32 and unmarried, might be gay, even though there is no evidence of that.
Gooden, from Terrell in Kaufman County, appeared to be more moderate than his opponent, and he made no public statements about the issue of marriage equality, while Spitzer spoke in favor of “traditional marriage,” downsizing the state budget and whatever else the Tea Party wanted to hear.
Spitzer is a member of the First Baptist Church in Kaufman where he is a deacon and Sunday school teacher. At a luncheon in Austin where I sat next to him with another reporter, he pointed out to us that he is a teetotaler as well when he moved a glass of iced tea out of camera range to avoid the possibility of it being mistaken for a cocktail.
Spitzer is a surgeon, and he graduated from Baylor University and the UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. On the night of his election to the 83rd Legislature, Spitzer said, “God in his infinite wisdom has chosen to lead us here to this night of victory.”
Spitzer, a native of Athens in Henderson County, wasted no time in pursuing his ultraconservative agenda by sponsoring legislation in the Texas House of Representatives diverting $3 million from the biennial budget from HIV/STD prevention education to abstinence-only sexual education programs. The political newcomer cited his own sexual history as evidence of abstinence being an effective tool in preventing sexually-transmitted disease infections: He said he was a virgin until the age of 29 when he married his wife.
House Democrats fought Spitzer’s message, citing statistics showing Texas has the third-highest HIV rate in the nation. They advocated abstinence among teenagers, but they argued against decreasing the budget for prevention methods for teenagers who reject the idea of abstinence.
Spitzer’s amendment passed. 97-47.
The Texas Observer and Texas Monthly skewered Spitzer for statements like, “Abstinence is the best way to prevent HIV,” and that his ultimate goal would be for “everyone to be abstinent until they are married.”
Spitzer is on record against marriage equality, so it is unclear what he thinks gay and lesbian citizens should do, although we can probably guess. The suggestion would no doubt involve lifelong abstinence supplemented by extensive conversion therapy.
After Spitzer’s amendment passed in the House, Texas Monthly reported teen pregnancy is high and HIV cases are increasing in the legislator’s district. The publication gave teenage pregnancy rates in District 4 by zip code, and it noted Kaufman County spends $3.29 million per year on teen pregnancy and Henderson County spends $2.99 million.
The magazine quipped that Spitzer might be practicing abstinence, but lots of teenagers in his district obviously do not.
Spitzer’s legislative office issued a press release in the wake of mass media coverage describing the firestorm as “multitudes of misleading attacks being levied by biased media sources and left-leaning blogs across the nation.” The press release noted the amendment shifted less than 1 percent of the annual $191.4 million HIV/STD Awareness Education fund budget to abstinence education, resulting in a 28 percent increase to it.
“It amazes me how visceral the attacks on my family and me have been as a result of this effort, and how misinformed people are as to the effects of our amendment,” Spitzer said in the statement.
The lawmaker’s work in Austin played well back home in District 4. Athens Daily Review Editor Chad Wilson praised Spitzer in an editorial, and the editor noted that he too had remained a virgin until his marriage.
If Spitzer and Wilson say they remained virgins until their marriages, I will take their word for it. Still, I think expectations that others will follow suit in large enough numbers to decrease incidences of sexually-transmitted diseases to be an unrealistic view of society, especially for a medical professional and a journalist.
Regardless of the criticism Spitzer might have endured from people who are on the front lines fighting HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases, I imagine the praise he got from his conservative political base in his district more than made up for any sting he might feel from his foes. We no doubt will be hearing much more from Spitzer about issues important to the LGBT community during the rest of the legislative session — and possibly beyond.
David Webb is a veteran journalist with more than three decades of experience, including a stint as a staff reporter for Dallas Voice. He also previously worked as a researcher and writer for SPLC. He freelances for publications nationwide.