Although she tried to meet these requests, Calderone grew tired of carrying the entire educational load of an association that had no separate staff in public health nursing or health education. She was ready to jump. In 1964, at the age of 60, Dr. Mary Steichen Calderone therefore quit her position as medical director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Unlike earlier generations of sex educators, Calderone and her allies concentrated almost defiantly upon sexuality as a potentially positive force. Emphasis must be on sex as a vital life force to be utilized.
Sex is what it means to be a man or a woman.
Parents and school administrators appealed to sex educators to help them turn the rising tide of teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and general promiscuity. Calderone surely knew that her call for a positive, nonjudgmental sex education in the schools would arouse controversy, but she did not anticipate the fury of conservative reaction. By the end of 1969 Calderone was guaranteed to be picketed at almost every speech. She refused to debate her attackers. I don't go on platforms with liars, deliberate liars.