The state Senate’s passage of the Healthy Youth Act, a sexual-education reform bill approved in late September, might seem like gilding the lily to some.
As the No. 1 blue state, our legislators generally tend to promote policy that protects reproductive rights, which coincides with our residents’ active social roles in promoting sexual health ― just look at the legacy of Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and “Our Bodies, Ourselves.”
Still, the bill is vital in that it prevents certain aspects of sexual education from falling through the cracks.
When I was growing up, we learned about our changing bodies in late elementary school, birth control in middle school (yowza!), and then, in high school, things fell apart.
My entire experience of high-school sex ed. was a slideshow of sexually-transmitted infections. No words. Just pictures of STIs for 50 minutes and then we were dismissed. End of story.
While public high schoolers might count themselves lucky to even have sexual education in the first place, quality is really key here. You can’t really say my classmates and I got a comprehensive education that day when it was just a bunch of kids yelling “GROSS!” while a gym teacher silently clicked through slides.
I went to school in one of the more progressive districts in this progressive state, and I believe my sex-ed. experience is proof that the best-laid plans of any PTA or school committee can fall apart without diligent oversight.
To put it charitably, something may have gotten lost in translation. To put it less charitably, yuuuck.
Generations have been deprived of the tools of sexual well-being due to a lack of care taken in teaching this difficult subject, and, all agendas aside, simple dissemination of the facts can keep people healthy and out of harm’s way.
It’s important to not just rely on facts, but to couple them with an understanding of the changing world, and goodwill. There has to be goodwill.
With those characteristics at the forefront, the Healthy Youth Act looks exactly like what I wish I’d been taught in high school.
According to a WBUR story, the act “requires Massachusetts schools that offer sex education to ensure the curriculum covers reproduction and sexual development, how to discuss safe sexual activity, human-development changes, anatomy, the benefits of abstinence and importance of contraceptives, healthy relationship and communication skills and more.
“The curriculum would also need to affirm that people have different sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions and offer information about resources for LGBTQ students.”
The bill requires new materials to be medically accurate, up-to-date, and age appropriate. The Healthy Youth Act is only pushing for its curriculum to be taught in schools that already teach sex ed., and it understands that some parents will want to opt out.
As is often the case, Massachusetts has an opportunity to be a progressive leader here, and this bill is a great way to get with the times; I’m hoping the House will see it that way as well. Similar acts are making their way through the North Carolina, California, and Washington legislature. Evidently, more and more people are beginning to realize that we have an increased capacity to protect young people from being ignored, misled or, in my case, severely grossed out. This one’s for posterity.
Ultimately, no matter where you stand on sex before marriage, pregnancy, abstinence-only education, or any other headline issue, know this: Miseducation is a public-health concern. In other words, regardless of what you do or don’t want your kid to do behind closed doors, knowledge is power, and it will keep them safe.
