Under the Bush administration, school districts received federal money for promoting theologically-based, ineffective "abstinence-only" sex education rather than medically accurate education. The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act intends to counter this by providing federal funding to support responsible, comprehensive sex education in schools. This education would include age-appropriate, science-based, and medically accurate information about both abstinence and contraception. Currently, there are no dedicated federal funds allocated for comprehensive sex education in schools.
Advocates for Youth has partnered with Choice USA, Law Students for Reproductive Justice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, Sierra Club and Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom to make October a nation-wide Sex-Ed Month of Action. The Secular Student Alliance is cooperating with Advocates for Youth to help promote the Sex-Ed Month of Action.
We encourage our affiliate groups to get involved and hold an event to take action on sex education!
What Can My Group do?
Get Politically Active!
The Secular Coalition for America has information on how you can contact your representatives in Congress to encourage them to support the REAL Act at http://www.secular.org/issues/sex_ed/.
There are two action alerts on the matter that your group can participate in as a group or as individuals: Advocates for Youth and Amplify Your Voice.
In addition, starting October 1st there will be an online petition in support of the REAL Act on www.amplifyyourvoice.org.
Hold an event!
During the month of October, Advocates for Youth will be working with young people across the country to host events on their campuses to educate their peers about the importance of comprehensive sex education, to advocate for comprehensive sex education within their community, and to urge their representatives in Congress to pass the REAL Act. If you are interested in getting involved and hosting an event in your community, please email Sarah Audelo at sarah@advocatesforyouth.org.
You might want to hold an event distributing free condoms on your campus: http://www.lovecondoms.org/lovecondoms.html. Or, you might take a global approach and raise funds to support condom distribution in Africa or elsewhere around the world.
You can spend a day tabling or distributing literature to raise awareness of sex ed in our country, and encourage people to get active and involved. Check out one group's event on Facebook!
Fighting misinformation is another crucial element of sex education. Speak up against events like the recent campus-sponsored "Porn and Popcorn" event at Purdue University: http://blaghag.blogspot.com/2009/09/anti-porn-event-emotional-appeals-and.html
Talk about Sex (Ed)!
Consider making "Sex Ed in America" a topic of a discussion meeting for your group this week. Or, look into bringing a speaker to your group from a local Planned Parenthood or a professor with experience in sex education public policy. You could also have a joint meeting with another student group to share ideas or create dialogue about this issue.
Share your ideas!
We've created a discussion thread on our Facebook group about the Sex-Ed Month of Action. Check it out to find and share ideas for your group! You can jump there directly at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=11533&uid=2204543896.
