via queen emily comes the news that the northern territories (famous for sending the military into indigenous communities to “investigate” child sexual abuse) has just announced that anybody (doctors, parents, friends, etc) who does not report known cases of teens engaging in sexual activity are subject to heavy fines. This is in *all* cases of sexual activity–which includes if a minor is having consensual sex with another minor (aka messing around, experimenting, etc).

queen emily notes the problem with this lovely intervention:

Though it lacks the specificity of the “intervention” targeted at indigenous communities (cos nothing helps health issues like sending in the army), this law is clearly targeted at indigenous teenagers, and given the already existing difficulty for indigenous people accessing proper health care in the NT, is only likely to make things much, much worse. Because why on earth would a teenager go to the doctor for contraception advice knowing that their partner would get locked up as a result? A substantial amount of teenagers are likely to have sex no matter whhttp://flipfloppingjoy.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpat, all this does is make the chances of their having unsafe sex that much higher–and as with anything sex-related, girls are going to get the worse of it.

This is not a preventative law, it is punitive and it is aimed at policing indigenous teenagers’ sexuality. Not only that, it will be counter-productive and utterly pointless.

This sort of nation/state targeted monitoring of the sexuality of teens/young people is something most people of color are vividly aware of. When you through in queerness, disability, and nationality (among others), and community expectations, things for especially teen girls of color get even worse.

How do we learn, engage in, and trust ourselves to build a healthy fabulous sexuality when from the time we reach reproductive age, the nation/state literally owns the first and final say as to what happens to our bodies? How do we learn to say “no” or “yes” when the nation/state insists on doing it for us?

Which is not to say I think that there is no place at all for ‘rules’ on teen sexuality.

Rather instead–that there are a whole bunch of unanswered questions and consequences that come from nation/state control over sexuality. And the nation/state seems to be responsible and accountable to everybody *except* the people it is controlling.