Joycelyn Elders

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In January 1994 in the context of abortion, Elders said, "We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children." [9]

Later that year, she was invited to speak at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity, and she replied, "As per your specific question in regard to masturbation, I think that is something that is a part of human sexuality and it's a part of something that perhaps should be taught. But we've not even taught our children the very basics. And I feel that we have tried ignorance for a very long time and it's time we try education." [15]

Resignation

Elders' comments on masturbation caused great controversy and resulted in Elders losing the support of the White House. Clinton's chief of staff, Leon Panetta, remarked, "There have been too many areas where the President does not agree with her views. This is just one too many." [1] In December 1994, Elders was forced to resign by President Clinton. [1] [16] [17] This led sex-positive retailer Good Vibrations in 1995 to proclaim May 28 as National Masturbation Day in honor of Elders' advocacy. [18] [19]

A collection of Elders' professional papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. [20]

Post-governmental activities

The Dr. Joycelyn Elders School of Allied and Public Health at Philander Smith College Philander Smith College Harry R. Kendall Center.jpg
The Dr. Joycelyn Elders School of Allied and Public Health at Philander Smith College

Since leaving her post as Surgeon General, Elders has returned to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences as professor of pediatrics, and is currently professor emerita at UAMS. [21] She is a regular on the lecture circuit, speaking against teen pregnancy. She has appeared on TV in Penn and Teller: Bullshit! during the episode on abstinence, where she says that she considers abstinence-only programs to be child abuse and discusses her opinions on teenage sex education, masturbation and contraceptives. In 2009 Elders teamed up with the University of Minnesota to establish the nation's first Chair in Sexual Health Education, a fund to attract and retain outstanding tenured sexual health education faculty in the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota Medical School. [22] She is interviewed in the 2013 documentary How to Lose Your Virginity on her opinions regarding comprehensive sex education versus abstinence-only sex education. [23]

Elders was inducted into the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame in 2016. [24]

In 2015, Philander Smith College, Elders' alma mater, established the Dr. Joycelyn Elders School of Allied and Public Health. [25]

In an October 15, 2010, article, she clearly voiced support for legalization of marijuana: [26]

I think we consume far more dangerous drugs that are legal: cigarette smoking, nicotine and alcohol ... I feel they cause much more devastating effects physically. We need to lift the prohibition on marijuana.

In 1997, Elders published a memoir. [27]

She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1991. [6] She was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa as an honoris causa initiate at SUNY Plattsburgh in 1996.

See also

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References

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  4. 1 2 "Joycelyn Elders". Encyclopedia of World Biography. The Gale Group Inc. 2004. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
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  6. 1 2 "CHRONICLE". The New York Times. June 26, 1991.
  7. "Poor Mothers, Poorer Babies". New York Times. November 6, 1989.
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  10. HEARING OF THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES, UNITED STATES SENATE ... ON M. JOYCELYN ELDERS, OF ARKANSAS. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1993. p. 50. ISBN   9780160446702 . Retrieved 20 January 2021.
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  12. "Top Doc's Son Gets 10 Years". Time. August 29, 1994. Archived from the original on February 2, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
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  16. Mitchell, Alison (November 6, 1996). "President Clinton Makes a Celebratory Return to His Starting Point in Arkansas". The New York Times. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
  17. Dash, Leon (January 1997). "Joycelyn Elders: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America". The Washington Monthly. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
  18. Clinton Fires Surgeon General Over New Flap
  19. Silver, Matty (April 14, 2015). "Make time for yourselves during National Masturbation Month in May" . Retrieved May 28, 2016.
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  22. Program Human Sexuality (2016-07-15). "Joycelyn Elders Chair in Sexual Health Education". Program in Human Sexuality - University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  23. Gray, Emma (May 7, 2012). "Therese Shechter, Director Of Film 'How To Lose Your Virginity,' Talks Female Sexuality, 'Purity' And The Virgin-Whore Complex". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
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  25. "Philander Forward". Philander Smith College. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022. Established August 27, 2015
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  27. Joycelyn Elders, Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America, Harper Perennial (1997)
Joycelyn Elders
Joycelyn Elders official photo portrait.jpg
15th Surgeon General of the United States
In office
September 8, 1993 December 31, 1994