In preparation for my interview with Dr. Mitchell Tepper on Monday, I’m reading Cory Silverberg’s great interview with him. Dr. Tepper is the assistant project director at The Center of Excellence for Sexual Health. He heads up the Center’s Disabilities, Chronic Conditions and Sexual Health Program, as well as their Military Initiative. He’s also the founder of sexualhealth.com and has an official bio.
This excerpt from the Q&A really struck me. I met him at the sex::tech - focus on youth conference last year, and was impressed with his knowledge and clarity of expression then. But look how wonderfully he sums up a complex situation, passionately without being silly, and strongly without being defensive.
I hope I can interview him (about technology’s role in this enormous undertaking) without sounding like a blithering idiot.
Q. Some people would say that sexuality is too private and personal for doctors and hospitals to be dealing with. That the government’s responsibility is to fix people up and send them on their way. How would you respond to someone who thinks that there are more important things for us to be paying attention to when it comes to wounded soldiers than their sex lives?
A. It is true that there are a lot of competing priorities when it comes to treating our wounded military personnel, that sexuality is a very private matter, and that sometimes we have to stop the bleeding first. However, this does not excuse us from providing comprehensive sexual health care - care that addresses the biological, psychological, social, emotional, relational, and even spiritual dimensions of sexuality - to our wounded heroes who risked their lives in the service of our country. When sexual health is understood to touch every part of a person’s life, when three-quarters of military related suicides are attributed to problems with intimate relationships, when divorce rates for those who serve in the military are significantly higher than the general population’s, when intimate partner violence is significantly higher for those who serve in the military, we see that it is not just the government’s responsibility to provide sexual health care but a moral imperative.
It seems to me that if we continue tell ourselves and our soldiers that they are fighting for families, protecting the women and children, for the freedoms and the pursuit of happiness, that to deny them sexual health services is an appalling inconsistency.
