Adolescent Sexuality by Dr. Karen Rayne

Hi Folks,

I was up far too late watching the presidential nomination results come in from my native Texas and our cold sister to the north, Ohio.

I must say, I am generally delighted by the two democratic candidates, and will ultimately be pleased by either of them. I am somewhat disappointed that both campaigns are beginning to use more below-the-belt comments. I hope that, as it becomes increasingly obvious that both candidates have dedicated and passionate followers, and are approximately evenly split across the nation, that both the Clinton and Obama campaigns finish this primary season with passion, honesty, and above all graciousness.

So please pardon me today - I’m going back to bed!

RH Reality Check has a recent post about two teenagers in Iowa working for comprehensive sex education. They are encouraging Iowa to reject Abstinence-only funding from the federal government. Here’s a portion of the post:

It isn’t unusual for Iowa high school students Stacey Hoch and Venessa McDole, both peer advisors, to speak with their classmates about sensitive subjects. Thursday morning, however, they took their advocacy one step further by speaking in front of policymakers at a meeting hosted in Des Moines by FutureNet, an Iowa network for adolescent pregnancy prevention, parenting and sexual health. The goal of their talk was to request that Iowa youth be given adequate information to make informed personal decisions about sexual activity.

“[It was important to come today] just so we could keep adults informed,” McDole, a junior at North High School in Des Moines, said. “There just aren’t very many teen voices. We don’t have a voice in the community. We don’t have a voice for anything. Adults go and make decisions for us. So, coming here gives us a voice.”

Hoch, a senior at Scavo High School in Des Moines, nodded her head as McDole spoke about the importance of allowing Iowa’s youth a voice in the sex education policies that affect them.

“Also, there is so much more than just teen pregnancy prevention,” Hoch said. “We also need to pay attention to sexually transmitted infection [STI] prevention. That’s something that abstinence-only sexual education doesn’t really cover, because it doesn’t cover anything except ‘be abstinent.’ It’s important for [Iowa teens] to know that there are STIs that can be really dangerous and really deadly.”

<snip>

McDole nodded in agreement before adding, “At my school, there are a lot of teen parents, there’s a lot of freshmen coming in and not knowing — there’s a lot of everything at my school. You have some kids that will shy away from [sexual activity]. But then you have other people who are coming into this new environment and it’s a big environmental shock for them. … Many of them end up doing what the crowd does without realizing that, as a teenager, they are making very crucial decisions. It’s a decision of whether or not you’re going to get pregnant, whether or not you’re going to get an STI, or even whether you are going to college or not.

“Teens are making these very important decisions. When a wrong decision is made, unfortunately, they usually can’t go back and reverse it. For instance, if you contracted HIV, you can’t just go back and say ‘Well, I shouldn’t have done that and I take it back now.’ So, when adults make these decisions for us, when they think they know what is best for us without asking us, it doesn’t make any sense. We’re the ones who are going through this. We want our own voice.”

During their public remarks, the two young women encouraged adults to trust Iowa students with the truth about a wide variety of topics.

“We deserve to have all the information we can,” Hoch told those in attendance. “We need that information — all of that information — if we are going to be able to make appropriate and good choices.”

I am so proud of these two teenagers. It takes such strength and courage to stand up and speak publicly about sex and sex education in a social and educational environment that encourages quite the opposite. Empowered teenagers who not only take a stand for what they believe in, but do so in a way that is effective and influential, are wonderful. I would love for more teenagers to get active in these ways, either independently like Hoch and McDole, or through organizations like Advocates for Youth.

(Written by guest blogger JustAnotherTeen.)
My guest blog for this month will be about 4parents.gov. I found this website through a commercial (they are all on their site) and I must say, it kind of disturbed me. On the about us page, they said this:

“4Parents.gov is part of a national public education campaign to provide parents with the information, tools and skills they need to help their teens make healthy choices, including waiting until marriage to have sex. Nothing is more important for a child, pre-teen, or teen than a caring parent. If pre-teens and teens are going to make the choices that will help them grow up to be healthy adults, they need parents to talk with them about important topics like sex and relationships. 4parents.gov is meant to give parents the information and guidance they need for having these conversations”

To me, it makes no sense. I mean, I realize it is just a further extension of the current administrations abstinence-only sex education, but seeing it so blatantly in print makes it worse. So making the choice to have sex before marriage, according to this website, is unhealthy. And apparently you won’t grow up to become a healthy adult if you don’t wait until marriage either! Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the fact that it is important to have a caring parent, but to say it is only healthy to wait for sex seems a bit over dramatic and damaging even.

“Do you know that 53% of high school students have not had sexual intercourse?”

By their own admission, almost half of high school students have had sex. I know they meant for this to bolster their case, but in my eyes it weakens is. By saying that almost half have sex, and yet also saying that there is no need for anything but abstinence only sex ed, they seem to contradict each other. I mean, is failing to tell teens the ways to protect themselves as much as possible not the same as condoning the transmission of STDs and unwanted pregnancies? Because in my eyes failing to tell teenager about contraceptives is like saying “I hope you get chlamydia if you have sex before marriage!”

“Do you know that, according to one survey, two-thirds of teens who have had sexual intercourse wish they had waited?”

According to one survey? One? With all the government funding going into this project, they could only find one survey that supported the numbers they wanted to use, huh? I’m sure with enough funding and time I could get a similar number of respondents to say that the moon is made out of cheese!

As many parts of the site as I hate, there are some good parts to. In the “What if my son or daughter tells me he or she is gay?” page, it has this good advice:

“If you believe your teenager may be gay, or is experiencing difficulties with gender identity or sexual orientation, consider the following points:

• All children, pre-teens, and teens need to feel accepted and loved. Remember, your son or daughter is probably very scared about having this conversation with you. Accepting your son or daughter can help lead to strong, life-affirming relationships in the future.
• Some teens who question their sexual orientation are at increased risk for depression, attempted suicide, or other problems
• Some parents need help in understanding and communicating with their son or daughter. You have made a great step in this direction already by visiting this website.
• Counselors and other health professionals may be helpful for both teens and parents when addressing difficult issues.”

Please look over this site and tell me what you think in the comments section! And, as always, feel free to email me at justanotherteen@gmail.com !