On Wednesday, Oct. 7, I attended the screening of the second installment in a student-produced film series entitled Sex Ed for Everyone. According to the producers, members of the Women’s Student Activist Collective, the goal of the Sex Ed for Everyone project is to “create discussion around topics related to sexual education, to make sex ed comprehensive and accessible, and to include a broad spectrum of sexualities and genders.”

The screened episode, titled “Consent,” is a pre-teen friendly film that defines mutual consent, specifically focusing on the importance of obtaining verbal consent before beginning or continuing any sexual contact. The video does an excellent job of including couples that represent multiple sexual orientations, as well as emphasizing that a person cannot give consent if they are severely intoxicated or less than fully conscious. It also does a great job of touching on concepts that I wish my junior high peers could have been exposed to, offering a sharp contrast to the message that the Senate Finance Committee sent in the past few weeks when they approved Senator Hatch’s bill that would provide $50 million per year until 2014 to exclusively fund abstinence-only education. In light of this political regression, the question that this film raises is this: In a country that sets the standard for medical research and proclaims to have secular politics, how is it that we are still dealing with the sexual education controversy?

Not only does abstinence-only education take away a crucial opportunity for teens to gain knowledge that is essential for them to operate in reality, it also does not enable discussion of important topics that are indirectly related to sexual education, like sexual assault and mutual consent. Comprehensive sexual education reform would better prevent not only Sexually Transmitted Infections and unplanned pregnancies, but also occurrences of sexual harassment and sexual assault. We live in a rape culture – we are steeped in sexuality, traditional gender roles and violence in nearly every aspect of our society, so of course these issues are in teens minds; adults shouldn’t be pretending that the situation is any different, no matter what their personal morals. Educators and politicians need to wise up – teens deal with sex.

We as adults need to acknowledge that teens have control over their actions. We need to give teens the tools and the confidence they need to make healthy decisions about sex, because they will be faced with making these decisions whether we equip them with knowledge and support or not. What better cause could $250 million go towards than to promote healthy decision making and open communication about sexual issues in America’s youth?

Tell kids not to have sex, and they may or may not have sex. Tell kids how to avoid STIs and unplanned pregnancies and create a safe discussion space for them, and they still may or may not have sex, but if they do they’ll know how to protect themselves and their partners. Down with abstinence clowns, up with healthy progress.

Tags: health