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Andi's Bio, 19, Colorado
My name is Andi. I’m 19 years old and I live in Englewood, Colorado. I have been involved with comprehensive sex education, queer issues, and youth activism within my community since I was in middle school. These issues are important because they affect me and the people I care about.
Currently, I am trying to figure out how to have the time and money to go to college. I want to be a foreign language teacher for middle and high school students. In working with students, I hope to be a positive adult role model for younger generations, mostly because I feel that my generation hasn’t had many good adult role models.
I’m involved with comprehensive sex education because through abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in my schools, I was put at risk. I was not taught that there were ways to get STDs except through needle sharing and straight-sex. I was given no information on how to be safe if I chose to become sexually active. Consequently, I engaged in behaviors that I believed to be safe but, in reality, put my life at risk. I believe that no one should have to make health-related decisions based on incomplete and inaccurate information.
I became involved in the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at my high school because I wanted to see queer youth finally being accepted into the world as people instead of being harassed. I was in marching band for a long time, which is an awesome experience, and I encourage anyone coming into high school to join the marching band. It’s a lot of work, and you may start to hate it while you’re doing it, but you’ll miss it when it’s gone. I can crochet and knit, as well as sew, and I also like to play various strategy type games. I also occasionally go to a Unitarian Universalist church.
I entered the condom art contest because it was something fun to do. It was really awesome to be able to play around with ideas, and to see condoms as an everyday, useful object instead of some disgusting taboo thing. It was really great to be able to show my friends and my family that I am involved in comprehensive sex education activism without making them (or me) uncomfortable with the topic.
>> Watch Andi's Video Clips
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