My experience of sexual education in high school was very limited. I attended a Catholic high school where the only information we received was from the nun who taught religion class who told us “Don’t have strange and kinky sex, because then you will not be satisfied with ordinary sex.” Unfortunately this strategy did not prove very effective, and risky sexual behavior, pregnancy, STIs, and abortions were commonplace among my high school peers.
Originally I thought this experience was limited to my strict religious background, but when I began college I realized many of my peers who attended public schools in Texas were often less informed about sexual health than I was. I met graduates of the public school system who did not know how HIV was transmitted, were completely misinformed about birth control and had no information about safe-sex practices for gay, lesbian, transgender and queer individuals and couples.
After graduating from high school I began a seminary program where I was studying to become a Catholic priest. I quickly realized that the Catholic Church was not the ideal setting to be involved in social change or queer activism so I left seminary and began attending Texas State University where I am studying social work. I became involved in queer activism and also began volunteering in a local AIDS hospice.
I am passionate about sexual health and comprehensive sex education because it is a matter of life and death. As a queer person I know that most sex education treats queer people like ghosts; we are invisible and silent. This often has serious and sometimes deadly consequences which are absolutely avoidable and rooted in sex education policy.
My motivation for this work is rooted in my personal experiences with the HIV epidemic and the friends I have who are living with AIDS. Through my work and volunteerism I often encounter youth who are recently diagnosed with a STI/STD or who have had a recent scare because of risky sexual behavior. Often these situations could have prevented or avoided if comprehensive sexual education and appropriate resources had been available in the community.
My fervent hope is to work to empower youth to take ownership of their sexual health and education and to advocate for a comprehensively developed curriculum where queer and heterosexual youth are represented. Comprehensive sexual education is an important issue for youth and anti-oppression work because sexual health education is an issue to combat sexism, classism, racism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism, cisgenderism and patriarchy, which all intersect around this issue.
