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Former power forward A.C. Green, a multimillionaire who played on the NBA championship Lakers team alongside Ervin "Magic" Johnson, says he wasn't embarrassed to be known as a virgin at age 18 or 38.

"If I were somehow, some way, able to hold my own strength and still keep my senses to me and still make pretty good decisions throughout," Green says today, "then there's not a middle school or high school student who can't do the same."

In short, the deeply religious Green says, peer pressure can be overcome.

Green, who has since married, markets a character-based abstinence until marriage curriculum called "Game Plan," used in dozens of public schools. He is the keynote speaker for the upcoming "Operation 2V (2 Value Virginity)" Conference on Sexual Purity and Restoration in Greensboro. The conference, Nov. 9-10, is geared toward pastors, parents, ministry leaders and young people.

The conference will focus on several themes: Virginity is to be valued, and sexual intimacy is sacred and a privilege for those who "satisfy the requirements of God through the union of opposite genders in marriage," according to the Rev. Raymond King, the conference organizer and founder of Securing Hope Ministry in Greensboro.

"We know there are some people who don't agree with those values. We respectfully disagree with them," King, author of the book "Sex, Satan and the Church ... Exposing the Lie," said of the heterosexual focus. "We are going to promote our agenda unapologetically."

Addison Ore of the Triad Health Project says studies show abstinence-only education doesn't work and that educators must have honest conversations with young people who are having sex, including those who are gay.

"We keep promoting these stereotypes, and we miss casting the wide net that we need to cast to protect everybody," Ore said of the conference's boundaries.

King, who hopes to spark a nationwide movement in celebration of sexual purity, says too often young people are getting the wrong message — or no message — at a time when they need guidance from their faith community to overcome compromising situations.

"The subject of sex is taboo in the church," King said.

Conference speakers include former gay rights advocate Charlene Cothran, the editor of Venus Magazine, and Mike Haley of Focus on the Family, who, like Cothran, says he is no longer gay. Radio personality Joseph Level is the forum moderator.

The conference will include a commitment service for youth and singles who vow virginity or celibacy until marriage.

Other topics involve what children are being taught in public school classrooms.

"I spoke to a women's shelter in northern California last week, and (there were)

12-year-old and 14-year-old girls who are pregnant," Green says. "They should be learning more about puberty, and here they are worrying about a baby. I see young boys who don't realize the ramification of careless, rampant sex. ... They need a better foundation. It's a big issue out there, and the behavior has to change."

Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nmclaughlin@news-record.com