February 7, 2008 10:20 AM
Has Rep. Larry Liston's mom threatened to wash his mouth out with soap for calling unmarried teen parents "sluts"?
The Dome Blogger tracked down Rep. Larry Liston on the House floor today to ask the hard question:
Has his mother threatened to wash his mouth out with soap for saying unmarried teen parents are “sluts” whose promiscuous conduct shouldn’t be tolerated by society?
“Actually, my mother would agree with me,” the Colorado Springs Republican told the Rocky as he hurried to a committee hearing.
This issue was no laughing matter for Liston, whose fellow Colorado Springs Republican, Rep. Stella Garza Hicks, said she was “disturbed” and “offended” by the comment.
“Maybe I could have a used a different word, but I was frustrated," Liston said. "And that was that word that came to my mind, because in the old days, you know, it was frowned upon.”
Liston’s remarks were made during a discussion with health care professionals at a House Republican caucus lunch about Colorado’s high teen pregnancy rate, the Colorado Springs Gazette first reported. He questioned whether Colorado was in effect subsidizing teen pregnancies because there are no repercussions if the teens continue to have more children they can’t support.
“In my parents’ day and age, they were sent away, they were shunned, they were called what they are. There was at least a sense of shame,” Liston said of unmarried teen parents at the caucus. “There’s no sense of shame today. Society condones it. . . I think it’s wrong. They’re sluts. And I don’t mean just the women. I mean the men, too.”
Today, Liston said he was disturbed by the tolerance for the destructive epidemic of teen pregnancy.
“I’m distraught that our society seems to be saying that this type of activity is OK and we’re trying to perpetuate it,” he told the Rocky. “And we relegate these young men and women and their…babies to poverty -- I won’t say forever.
“But it puts them behind the eight ball, just to have their kicks and wear (their pregnancy) as a badge of honor, when there’s real repercussions to them, their family, and their children and society at large,” he added. “It comes at a real cost.”
--Alan Gathright
February 8, 2008
9:13 AM
Kari McLaughlin writes:
Mr. Liston is so far over the line on this. What about the boys who get these girls pregnant? They have a huge responsibility as well. What are they called? Studs? The boys pressure the girls as much as the girls give in. Name calling is NOT helpful, maybe better parenting and better education, particularly sex education and pre-parenting classes to give kids an idea of what is involved AFTER sex and with pregnancy. NBC has a show coming out about kids who thought being a parent would be easy. I suggest that parents of teenagers, female and male alike, should watch this with their kids as part of family night and maybe fewer teen pregnancies would occur.