Sex Ed: why its important, and why we shouldn't hide it.
So it's September 30th... and she promised 3 Sextember articles. Does a quick check of the current count and how many hours in a day. So yeah she might have been over ambitious with that on a month where she has a major paper being submitted to a journal but oh well. So instead she is going to get this one out now and post the other shorter one late. And if you couldn't tell yet, this is going to be a lot more rambly then one of our normal articles, but we have about an hour to write it so here we go.
What is sex Ed?
Sex Ed is defined on Wikipedia as "the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth control, sexual and reproductive health, emotional relationships and responsibilities, age of consent, and reproductive rights" and honestly, that's as good of a definition of what should be included in sex ed as any definition she could come up with. And its a pretty good definition of what should be covered in sex ed, except this is not what the majority of sex ed is based on around the world targeting under 18s. This definition is known as comprehensive sexual education and instead most schools and youth programs use what is refered to as abstinence-only sexual education which instead of a detailed education promotes the idea that the best way to stay safe is instead to simply not have sex.
Abstinence-only sex Ed vs comprehensive sex Ed rates are a poorly documented topic outside the US (and even in the US there are clear biases in studies) however from community feedback we know that comprehensive sex ed is still the minority even is sex positive countries and when aspects of it are explored, its usually as a scare tactic to back abstinence-only sex ed approaches. Worse still, there is almost no proper studies on the exact benefits of comprehensive sex ed, with all data being empirical at best. We know for certain that comprehensive sex ed reduces rates of teenage pregnancy and significantly reduces rates of STIs among younger generations, but depending who you trust that could be at low as a 3% difference or high as an 80% difference.
Under 18 sex Ed
So there is a lot of debate as to why comprehensive sexual education should be discouraged until someone is over 18. Much of this argument centres around the idea that educating someone around sex, whether professionally in a school classroom, at home with family or generally within a community, is somehow going to groom the minor into having sex earlier and cause them to find to fall into the clutches of a sexual predator as a result. In reality the opposite couldn't be more true, an extremely comprehensive 2007 study found, with no room for doubt, that comprehensive sexual education did not reduce the age someone begins interacting with sexual activity. In fact, if anything they found it increased the age by removing the taboo around sex and the allure of the forbidden. Further more, it becomes apparent when digging through many stories that comprehensive sexual education does not groom kids for sex but rather the exact opposite; it prepares kids for sex in a way that lets them be aware of what to look out for, shielding them from abuse and arming them with knowledge to use against a predator. Whats more, studies show that the source of the education matters little compared to the quality of the information provided and a thorough and detailed education is simply the key thing that matters.
So now this brings us to an interesting question; if comprehensive sexual education is so much better for our youth and our youth are going to have sex anyway, we do we insist on abstinence-only education? Well we believe there are three main factors at play. The first is religion. Like with anything around sex, many modern religions makes sex a sin, or something close to a sin. Therefore, since many countries are religious or religiously influenced (especially in schooling), education as sex being anything other then a thing done during marriage becomes a sin.
Second is the social taboo around minors interacting with or being allowed to see sex. Society sees youth as pure and innocent and sex as the exact opposite of that, so society says children can't be permitted to have that knowledge. There is no simple way around this then to increase sex positivity as a society. Sex is a basic human function, it is enjoyable (yes she might get some hate for saying that), it is not something to be disgusted or ashamed of, its not wrong, nor is it some amazingly special thing that should be kept like a health potion for the final boss, and as a society we need to stop teaching our youth this and trying to shield them from sex. For as long as we are shielding them from it, there will always be actors that seek to exploit the lack of knowledge against our youth.
The third factor is the innate fear that many have that if they educate a minor about sex, and then that minor goes and has sex, they are somehow responsible and groomed that minor. As we already discussed, that is simply not the case and they would have done so anyway. Educators, be they professional, family or community, should instead take comfort in the fact that they did everything in their power to prepare that minor to have as safe and enjoyable experience as possible. And yes their going to enjoy it, toughen the fuck up we already covered the fact sex isn't wrong, you might as well help them maximise the experience by educating them beforehand. As we mentioned above, educating someone doesn't groom them. it actually does the exact opposite. By teaching them what to expect and how to be safe, we also teach them to be on the lookout for those who don't want that. This lets them identify abusers and spot grooming attempts before they can even fully show their true colours and provides them with all the tools necessary to keep themselves safe.
Sexual education in minorities
There is a longer article coming soon about sexual education within minorites, but to summarize, minorites often have unique sexual education needs which can't be met by general sexual education. A line often bought up in communities is "we aren't professionals, we should leave this to the professionals". But the simple reality is there often aren't professionals on education for minorities, so I'm the community is the closest thing there are to professionals. In larger minorites there may be those me more qualified but it's rare there is ever going to be someone professional, rather a community leader who chooses to step up will to fill that role. And generally that can only happen with the support of the minority community.
This last point in the previous section is especially common within minority communities. Community plays a massive role within society, helping shape the sexual education of minors deliberately otherwise. Often our community has more influence over us then family or professionals, has a greater desire to protect us and gets a clearer picture of our needs around that education especially in minority communities such as the queer community, where traditional education may not be suitable. Yet often it is also the most hesitant to act for fear of being accused as groomers. This goes double time in communities like the queer community where extremists and bigots already accuse the community of grooming and the mentality becomes "well we cant do this because it will only be proving them right". Well we have some news for you; they don't give a fuck about if you are or are't grooming youth. Yeah that's the simple truth to it, they don't actually care what you do, they will attack you for it anyway, so playing respectability politics just leaves your communities youth vulnerable to the exact folks your trying to appease. You will never appease them, just let them win and hurt your community. So drop that shame and help protect your community's youth by providing them a proper education in a safe space instead of leaving it to others and appeasing bigots.
Final notes
We all have a right to sexual education, that is especially true of those who plan to engage in sexual activity regardless of their age. Regardless of your thoughts on the topic, youth always have and are always going to have sex, there is no point hiding from that fact. So instead of trying to hide it from them, we should do everything in our power to provide them their right to that education and protect them, both from bad experiences (yes yes, teen pregnancy and STIs are probably a bit worse then bad but you get the point) and from those who would seek to manipulate and abuse them. This is especially true of minorities where there simply isn't a proper education available and that duty falls to the community to uphold.