Editor:
Dr. Joycelyn Elders didn’t even say anything as potentially controversial as what Elicia Gonzales attributes to her [“Next month, give yourself a hand,” April 24-30]. As I recall, her actual words were, “Masturbation is something natural and normal, and that is perhaps something that ought to be taught in schools.” In other words, she was saying schools should teach that masturbation is natural and normal, not that schools should teach masturbation — something that would be superfluous inasmuch as most youngsters have no trouble discovering it on their own.
The notion that she suggested teaching kids to masturbate was simply a willful misrepresentation of the right wing, calculated to evoke a sex-panic reaction in the general public.
Eric Hamell Center City