Explicit Photos and Bryant Gumbel: The Answer to Today’s Trivia Quiz

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With a bit of team effort, all three questions were answered (in perhaps excessive detail. . .).  Patrick correctly stated that the problem started over some explicit sexual photographs, especially, as Ms. Theologian pointed out, the one with the man tasting his own semen.  Other pictures that were seen as objectionable by some including the same man masturbating, and various couples (opposite sex and otherwise) engaged in sexual activities.

As Philocrites described, the About Your Sexuality program became nationally infamous after Bryant Gumbel featured it on his short-lived tabloid news show “Public Eye” on CBS in 1997.  The program was brought to his attention by several parents who–despite signing release forms for their children that included stated that they’d attended the orientation sessions and were comfortable with the explicit nature of AYS–were shocked when their kids told them they were being shown explicit photographs at church as part of the program.  They tried to interest various legal and media entities in their outrage, but in the end only Gumbel bit the hook.  The resulting story wasn’t very contextual.  AYS’s replacement, Our Whole Lives, was already being field-tested at this point, but Gumbel’s story surely helped to put AYS to rest much quicker.

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