I really want to see comprehensive sex education implemented in all schools in our state, and we are getting much closer with the passage of the Healthy Youth Act in North Carolina.  I want to speak with legislators, school board members, and teachers to make sure that we really do get comprehensive sex education in NC.

Dan J, 17, works with Advocates for Youth and the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (APPCNC) as a member of the North Carolina Teen Health Now Council

I live in North Carolina, where we have abstinence-only programs in almost every middle and high school.  I was fortunate enough to go to a school that had comprehensive sex ed, but I heard all sorts of things from my friends about sex that were completely untrue-all the typical rumors like "you can't get pregnant if you have sex in water", "condoms don’t work very well", and "you can get HIV from kissing".

Friends of mine who thought that all these things were true ran into all kinds of problems as they got older, and in 8th grade I decided to join Planned Parenthood's peer education program so that I could help other teens who didn't have comprehensive sex education.

I really want to see comprehensive sex education implemented in all schools in our state, and we are getting much closer with the passage of the Healthy Youth Act in North Carolina.  I want to speak with legislators, school board members, and teachers to make sure that we really do get comprehensive sex education in NC.

Young people can share a unique perspective on these issues-that of someone facing these issues everyday.  We know first-hand about what works and what doesn't work in the classroom to help us make smart, healthy decisions.  There is a lot of progress to be made in the areas of sex education, reproductive rights and freedoms, and LGBTQ rights, and young people will be central to that fight.  Our generation can step up to the plate and make real, meaningful change in this movement, and there are so many of us who want to do just that.