Comprehensive Sex Ed is a Long Way Away
Why we can’t wait for sex ed to catch up on making safe spaces for inclusive education to happen.
“Less scare tactics, more information”
This response I received in the survey, Inclusive Health Education, sums up the opinion of most everyone I reached out to when asking how their sex/health education could have been improved.
The problems with our current health education model goes far beyond teaching abstinence only. LGBT+ students are never taught about their own identity, and students from every background are rarely educated about healthy relationships, consent, or how sex actually works. Our current model is failing all of our students, but parents are just as important in early sex education as our schools.
I have been looking into making health and sex education more inclusive for over a year now. Being dissatisfied with my own education in order to learn about my identity, learn about sex, and find out anything about my own anatomy I had to turn to the internet- specifically 2014 era Tumblr. However with that comes some misinformation, and ripe with peoples’ personal opinions over facts. I received my initial sex ed in 2013, fairly recent right? Well, after conducting my research it seems as though it hasn’t changed at all since the 1970’s. (You can find the survey here)
I had an opportunity to create a solution design to this issue in my Analytics for Design course through Boise State University’s (BSU) College of Innovation and Design (CID). Throughout this course I researched how to make sex ed more inclusive, specifically for LGBT youth. While I found many solutions that seemed viable, it dawned on me that I needed something feasible. Changing the law, and making inclusive/comprehensive sex ed available for all is the ultimate goal- but I live in a state that taught me that abstinence is the only option, and that my body is for my husband only. I’ve concluded that in order to start changing sex ed for the better, we have to start outside public education. Making a change this big is going to take a long time- however we can start educating ourselves, and the younger generation, immediately.
How do people feel about their own education?
While conducting my survey I didn’t want to let my own bias cloud my survey results, maybe some people had great sex ed experiences, maybe it was just me. Well, it wasn’t just me. Of those I surveyed on a scale of 1–5 respondents on average rated their experience with health/sex education between a 2.5 and 3.
While average scores didn’t vary as much by age group, they did vary by sexual identity. LGBT+ people gave the lowest scores of those surveyed, with an average score of 2.12 out of 5.
Our current sex ed model doesn’t benefit any student, it’s failing our LGBT+ students, non LGBT+ students, males, females, early childhood, upper childhood, late adolescent. Everyone is being under served, and inclusive health education would benefit everyone. That is, everyone but the lawmakers who would be put in a slightly uncomfortable position.
Where do we make inclusive education happen?
It’s no shock that changing legislation surrounding sex ed is fighting an uphill battle. Especially in states like mine (Idaho), abstinence only education has ruled for decades, and in an effort to “protect our children” our lawmakers have ignored pleas for updated, factual education. But we don’t need to change the law to make everyone more educated, and make a safer world for our children to learn in. These steps can be taken at home, in LGBT safe spaces, and online.
Of all parents responding to my survey, only two said they would have wanted their child to get the same health/sex education that they did. If we want better for our children, then parents need to take a stand and start educating on their own. Not all students are comfortable talking to their parents about issues, my research would indicate that LGBT people are especially uncomfortable talking to their parents about topics surround health/sex ed and that they’d rather be able to access this information without their parents knowing.
Because of this information needs to be available in all safe spaces, schools, home, LGBT community spaces, youth shelters, etc. We can start by making information available in these spaces, and move towards having comprehensive sex ed classes in these spaces. So while the long fight for inclusive and comprehensive sex ed will continue in legislation, we can start today by educating our own children, friends, family, and students on our own terms.
Sex ed hasn’t changed in decades, and it isn’t going anywhere different fast. The solution is not only to work towards legislative change, but to take matters into our own hands. Parents, educators, peers, and community leaders all have a role to play in making this change. Begin by educating your own children, or encouraging them to find resources on their own time.
Here are some resources I’ve used that are a great starting point for inclusive sex education outside the classroom:
https://www.hrc.org/resources/a-call-to-action-lgbtq-youth-need-inclusive-sex-education
https://www.loveisrespect.org/pdf/Dating_Abuse_Statistics.pdf
