Joycelyn Elders (1933 - )

Sun Aug 13, 1933

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Dr. Joycelyn Elders, born on this day in 1933, is an American pediatrician and public health administrator who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. Elders was the first African American to serve as Surgeon General and is best known for her frank discussion of her views on controversial issues such as drug legalization, masturbation, and distributing contraception in schools.

Although she faced censure from the Clinton administration for advocating the legalization of drugs, it was her sex positive view on masturbation that led to her removal from office. After stating “I think that [masturbation] is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught”, Clinton forced her to resign as Surgeon General in December of 1994. She is currently a professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

“If you can’t control your reproduction, you can’t control your life.”

- Dr. Joycelyn Elders

  • @[email protected]
    33•1 month ago

    bOth SiDEs ArE the SAme is how we got into this mess in the first place.

    People couldn’t bear to vote for Humphrey and we got Nixon. They stayed away from Gore and we got Bush.

    Half a loaf is much better than a giant pile of shit.

      • @cm0002
        5•1 month ago

        I wonder what our timeline would have looked like if the court ruled the opposite

      • @[email protected]
        2•1 month ago

        It’s not the popular vote that matters, it’s the vote in each state. A heavier turn out in Florida would have turned the tide.

        Look at how the ‘Moral Majority’ took over the GOP. They’d go to every single local Republican clubhouse anytime there was anything to decide. If twenty people had decided on the local sheriff candidate last time, the MM’s would show up with fifty. They grabbed the party by the grassroots.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell

        • @[email protected]English
          4•1 month ago

          As long as we are shifting goalposts, how about some voter suppression?

          When Steen gave the poll worker his name, she searched a list of registered voters in the precinct and told him, “You can’t vote. You’re a convicted felon.”

          “You must be mistaken,” a shocked Steen replied. “I’ve never been arrested in my life.”

          He later found out from journalist Greg Palast that he’d been confused with a convict named Willie O’Steen, who had committed a felony between 1991 and 1993, when Steen was in the Persian Gulf. Little did Steen know that the same thing was happening to voters across the state of Florida—and disproportionately to voters like him, who were African-American.

    • Verdant BananaEnglish
      -23•1 month ago

      having a loaf of bread that is made up of half bread and the other half consisting of shit is still just as nonedible as a loaf of bread consisting of just shit

      • @[email protected]
        13•1 month ago

        That’s the voice of privilege.

        Maybe you don’t have to worry about things like gay and trans rights, or good schools, or a clean environment.

        One side actually did stuff, despite having to fight uphill.

        If you can’t see any difference between the administrations of Obama and Bush Jr. that says a lot about you.

        • redrumM
          -3•1 month ago

          That’s a false dichotomy, there are other political options outside the two factions (republicans and democrats) of the US Bourgeoisie party.