What I want for young people of my generation and future generations is for us to be open with talking about sexual health and rights.

Ruth is a college senior and a member of the Campus Organizing Team.

I first got involved with activism in the youth sexual health and rights movement was last year when I became a REACH Peer Educator. Reach stands for Responsible Education Action for Campus Health. My interest in sexual health grew when I took a course called Sex, Health, and Decision-making for my public health minor. As a REACH Peer Educator, I help coordinate awareness campaigns, wellness promotion activities, give out presentations of various topics such as safer sex, alcohol, as well as am a referral source and resource.

I was one of those individuals who were hesitant to talk about “it”. Growing up, I was raised in Haitian-American household where talk of sex was in a sense a “taboo”. The only way that I learned about sexual health was from school and media outlets such as the internet and television. In the beginning of high school I took more of an interest in health so began to pay attention.

What I want for young people of my generation and future generations is for us to be open with talking about sexual health and rights. Many young people these days do not get accurate information and find themselves going to friends and inaccurate sources. There also needs to just be more than abstinence-only programs: we need more comprehensive-sex education in the middle and high school classrooms.

Young people sometimes listen better to their peers instead of adults. This is one of the great benefits of being a peer educator. You are able to explain concepts using analogies to explain things that will make people your age understand. We are the future, so if we don’t speak up for the issues affecting us, who will?