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Dr. Turner picks up his plates
August 08, 2014
Initial Application Feb 2013
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Kansas City social
worker, marriage therapist and sexuality expert, Dr. George Turner, recently
won his 1.5 year battle with the State of Missouri over his license plate, SEX
DOC. “This became about more than celebrating my PhD in sexual health with a
personalized license plate”, shared Turner. “I found it repugnant that a small
governmental group was imposing their sex negative views without any
justification or guidelines. It was clear to me that they saw sexuality as
something bad, embarrassing or dirty. As a sexual health advocate, this was not
the community standard that I could endorse. This is about reclaiming the dialogue from one
of sexual shame to sexual literacy. Simply put this is a social justice issue
for me,” shared Turner.
A state appeals court said Turner, a certified sex therapist in
Kansas City, is entitled to his personalized license plate as part of marketing
his business as a psychotherapist. “Putting SEX DOC out there is a way to help
people start a conversation. Too often others are trying to silence
conversations on sexuality. My patients suffer from this shaming and I don’t
think the state of Missouri has any place it perpetuating this kind of psychological
harm. It is my intent to destigmatize problems related to sexual health,”
shared Turner.
The Administrative Hearing Commission rejected Turner’s petition
in February 2013, claiming that the word “sex” was “obscene and patently
offensive”. After several failed attempts by phone and letter to receive
justification from the Commission for this decision, Turner, argued his case in
Jefferson City last January. Turner was shocked to learn that the Commission
has no guidelines to make these decisions, but unilaterally rejects all applications
with the word ‘sex’.
Turner stated, “Sex negativity can often be used to fuel
oppression of groups. I work to eliminate the toxic messages and repressive
policies that ban positive sexuality education and knowledge to the shadows. Silencing
sexuality creates an environment ripe for sexism and sexual misuse. You need to
look no further to find the impact of this than in our own community”. Turner
cited examples like the KC juror, Laura Trickle, (2013) fined for breast
feeding her child or how rape culture perpetuates victim blaming similar to the
case of Maryville youth, Daisy Coleman (2013).
“Sexuality is a human right and access to comprehensive, medically
accurate, age-appropriate, sexuality information is key to sexual health. My
goal is to move our culture beyond the sexual dysfunction, disease, disaster
model,” shared Turner.
Turner presented evidence that the word “sex” is not obscene,
including the dictionary
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Dr. George Turner
Administrative Hearing
Jefferson City, MO. Feb 2013
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definition
according to Webster. When one of the two attorneys for the state asked,
“how do you explain that to a five-year old?” Turner shared, “As a sexuality
educator I saw this as a great opportunity to expand the conversation into real
and practical applications, and I gently tried to highlight to the attorney
that that would be a teachable moment, one where he as the parent can pass
along his views and values on the topic.” Turner also noted, “I think this
attorney, like many parents, was scared and not sure how he would approach a
potentially uncomfortable topic with his child. So I shared the book series by
Robie Harris with him afterwards. Books like, Its Perfectly Normal, are a phenomenal sex ed tool for families. In
some ways it felt like another day at the office, providing sexually accurate
information so that parents can raise sexually literate children. Most parents
want what is best for their kids and most want better sex ed than they had. They
just don’t have the comfort or skills. That’s where I often come into the
picture, helping parents craft a message and lesson plan for their kids. It’s a
great job!” stated Turner.
One of the attorney’s stated, “there’s a lot of questions out
there, when you put the word ‘sex’ out there in public…That’s really the gist
of it and why we denied it”. Addressing this concern, Turner responded, “The
word sex is already out in public. I believe the attorney’s statements were
based in fear and tipped his hand that he saw this as a personal duty to
protect children, his children. It also echoed a common myth about sexuality
education and that is it is one big conversation about reproduction at some
ambiguous age when the youth is old enough. However, censoring my license plate
because of your uncomfortableness with sexuality is akin to putting your head
in the sand. I empathize with the attorney and share his concern for providing
a safe community for children, but ignorance is not an effective strategy. A
better approach would be many small conversations that are based in comprehensive,
medically accurate, age appropriate sexuality education”.
