The Sexuality Education in the US (SIECUS) Community Advocacy Project has tracked controversies in sexuality education over the years in order to gain an understanding of national trends as they emerge and reappear. During the 1999-2000 school year, SIECUS documented 122 debates regarding sexuality education in 31 states. This article provides an overview of debates regarding abstinence-only-until-marriage education on the federal, state, and local levels as well as state and local debates regarding other topics related to sexuality education. Overall, it was seen that communities have continually narrowed the scope of sexuality education. Some have adopted strict abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, some have excluded topics they felt were too controversial, some have rejected explicit materials, and some have even limited the discussion of basic information about puberty. In addition to such debates, many states and communities demonstrated concern about such subjects as appropriate content, opt-in/opt-out policies, and separating students by gender for presentations.
In an overview of the actions undertaken in both the Congress and the Supreme Court related to sexual orientation and abortion, it is noted that the Republican leadership in both houses of Congress have taken up many of the most important spending bills. These include the bill to include abstinence-only-until-marriage funding and the bill to provide evaluation funding. In the context of the US Supreme Court, its decisions have been focused on abortion and sexual orientation. Overall, the activities by both the US Congress and US Supreme Court serve to underscore the importance of the upcoming elections in the US. Further explanation states that the balance of the Court, being so precarious on such important decisions about fundamental rights, serves to highlight the importance of the election. Moreover, the composition of the Congress will play an important role in whether or not the abstinence-only-until-marriage program survives or thrives.
Martha Kempner, SIECUS education coordinator, analyzed the status of sexuality education programs in schools throughout the US during 1999-2000. In her article she pointed out that only strict, abstinence-only-until-marriage education programs were being accepted in America's schools with very little community debate. Kempner further stated that these proliferating abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have been taking the forms of one-time assemblies and semester-long classroom-based programs. Moreover, it was noted that other community debates during the period include appropriate content for sexuality education, opt-in/opt-out policies, and the separation by gender for classroom instruction. However, this discouraging picture drawn by Kempner is given hope in the August/September 2000 issue of the SIECUS Report. The Report published articles focusing on developments achieved regarding the issue of sexuality education in the US. These include the articles on the success of the national newsletter and Web Site called "SEX, ETC" and the semester-long program on sexuality education.
In response to the SIECUS Report entitled "Adolescent Sexuality and Popular Culture", Susan Bankowski of the Campaign for Our Children, Inc. explains why knowledge about popular culture is so important in work dealing with young people. It is noted that blame has often been placed on pop culture as contributing to American youth's early initiation into sexual activity. Various studies and groups of people cite the explicit display of sex in media as a major reason for such behavior of teens. However, in Europe, where teen birthrates are much lower and contraceptive use is higher than in the US, sex and sexuality are an accepted part of media expression. In view of this, Bankowski states that there is a need for sexuality educators to embrace the media that influence the teens with whom they work. Drawing on her own experience, Bankowski further explains that educators need to be aware of trends when selecting educational materials.
In the US, birth, pregnancy, and abortion rates have remained unacceptably high despite the declines experienced over the years. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 65% of teens engage in sexual intercourse before they graduate from high school, 18% of 9th-grade students initiate intercourse before age 13, and approximately 4 million teens in the US contract a sexually transmitted disease each year. The country's response on these dismal statistics have been unsuccessful, focusing only on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that are forbidden to discuss contraception and disease-prevention strategies. In view of this, the Network for Family Life Education launched the national newsletter and Web site ¿SEX, ETC¿. The goal was to provide up-to-date, accurate, balanced, and attractive materials that would change students' sexuality attitudes and behaviors. Developed by teens for teens, such an approach can push the envelope as to the kind of programs a school should implement if educators, administrators, and school board members will pay attention. Moreover, the approach holds the potential for an extraordinary new partnership between teens and caring adults that can move relevant, responsible sexuality education forward in a powerful and meaningful way.
Many college sexuality courses combine lectures with small group discussions as a way to personalize the large lecture class. This traditional two-tiered model provides opportunities for many health education students to acquire training and practical experience in sexuality education. However, not every college can offer this model due to curricular or faculty constraints. This paper introduces a one-semester, single-tier model in which discussion group leadership is shared by group members, with each group member leading one activity. Developed by Dr. Lyndall A. Ellingson, assistant professor at California State University-Chico, this model successfully meets the three course objectives of delivering introductory content, facilitating values clarification, and providing training in peer sexuality education all in a single semester. A most notable limitation of the model is the inability to select discussion leaders based on character traits important for successful sexuality and sexual diversity.
This article offers predictions concerning sexual expression in the US in the 21st century. Section 1 focuses on trends in sexuality education, aspects of programming, and the future by which sex education programs operate. Section 2 looks at HIV/AIDS in the next decade and the response of the American community, especially the young people and their view of lethal and chronic diseases. Section 3 provides insights on the possible state of reproductive rights that America will face, particularly in the areas of abortion, insurance coverage, hospital and pharmaceutical company involvement, and fertility technology. Section 4 focuses on the issue of sexual orientation, particularly homosexuality. Section 5 projects the continuing rise of censorship as a response to increased cultural diversity; this will affect various entities, such as libraries, strip clubs, erotica, retail, school curricula, nude beaches, museum exhibits, and the Internet. Thus, the 21st century will begin from where it ended: with sexual expression under siege from all directions.
This article reviews the history of American sexuality in the 20th century. Section 1 reveals how the nation dealt with the economic technological and social effects of industrialization at the start of the century. Section 2 examines the second decade of the century, which was characterized by the emergence of social and feminist theorists such as Sigmund Freud, who reevaluated the meaning of sex and sexuality beyond the procreative framework. Section 3 explores the shift in sexual behaviors and attitudes, which began during the 1920s. Practices like dating, necking, and petting became part of growing up and a real form of sexuality education. Sections 4 and 5, respectively, examine American sexuality during the Great Depression and the changes in the sexual landscape during the 1940s. Section 6 offers a glimpse on sexuality in the pop culture decade, when television entered American homes. In this period sexual ethics became a hotly debated issue. Section 7 examines the effect of scientific research on female sexuality. Institutional breakthroughs on human sexuality in 1970s are considered in section 8. During this decade, a new goal for sexual education emerged: the promotion of sexual health. Section 9 reviews the issue of AIDS amidst religious-political extremism, which used the epidemic to advance an anti-homosexuality agenda and push abstinence education in schools. Section 10 describes American sexuality at the end of the 20th century, the availability of school-based sexuality education programs, the public response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, sexuality and politics, and the role of the Internet.
Despite continued violations of sexual rights worldwide, there have been revolutionary changes where sexual rights have resulted in legal changes and social interactions. Advances in medical and scientific technology, the struggle for rights for the sexual minorities, equal rights for women, and an acceptance for diversity all had revolutionary impacts on the nature of relationships, as well as on social and sexual ethics and on the legal system. Moreover, the increasing mobility, affluence and leisure, declining influence of religion, and increasing understanding of sex and gender also fuel the rapid changes in the economic and social lives of people. The HIV epidemic has driven home the need to understand and appreciate the complexity of human sexuality from the interdisciplinary perspective of sexology. Entering the new millennium is a challenge for sexuality educators and advocates of sexual rights to continue to promote sexual health based upon increased freedoms around the world.
This fact sheet on opponents of comprehensive sexuality education provides a list of several organizations that oppose comprehensive sexuality education and/or favor abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The fact sheet includes information concerning the mission of individual organizations, the positions they hold on sexuality education, and the resources they offer to the public. These organizations include American Life League, Concerned Women For America, Eagle Forum, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Heritage Foundation, Human Life International, Medical Institute for Sexual Health, National Abstinence Clearinghouse, National Coalition for Abstinence Education, National Consortium of State Physicians' Resource Councils, and Stop Planned Parenthood International. Several other resources and abstinence education providers are outlined.
SIECUS has for the past 35 years worked with educators, reproductive health care providers, medical professionals, and policymakers to promote sexuality education and sexual health for all people. SIECUS most recently compiled information in the booklet "Making the Connection: Sexuality and Reproductive Health" designed to help program planners, providers, and policymakers understand the link between sexuality and reproductive health. Reproductive health care providers help people manage their sexual lives. Individuals' reproductive health care decisions depend upon their ability to make informed and healthy choices about their sexuality. Providers and program planners need to address sexuality issues as an integral part of reproductive health. Sexuality-related definitions are presented and issues relevant to reproductive health care clinics are noted.
The Peruvian Institute for Responsible Parenthood (INPPARES) has incorporated the Internet into its national sexuality information and counseling service. The idea for an Internet site devoted exclusively to the sharing of sexuality information originated in 1995 with the Institute's youth services staff. More than half the requests for information and advice come from adolescents and young adults. The Internet service is publicized through its Web site, listservs and bulletin boards, and word of mouth. Questions most frequently pertain to sexuality, contraceptive methods, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, sexual problems, and pregnancy. When INPPARES staff reply to the e-mail, they include a brief questionnaire to enable the organization to keep track of the age, gender, educational level, and geographic location of those who use the service. This strategy offers an opportunity to reach groups (e.g., students and workers) who are often not available during regular clinic hours and, because of its anonymity, those who might be uncomfortable assessing reproductive health services directly.
The author conducted a training program on adolescent sexuality education and reproductive health for the staff of the humanitarian and relief agencies serving the refugee camps in Africa's Great Lakes region. Participants reported that, for many adolescent refugees, exploitative sex is inextricably linked to survival. Displaced youth are often sexually victimized in exchange for food, shelter, and protection. Participants identified numerous factors that adversely affect the sexual health of adolescent refugees: migration-related disruptions in the transfer of sexual health information; a state of cultural limbo, in which refugees are part of neither the country they fled nor the new culture; use of unaccompanied minors as a source of cheap labor; dangerous misinformation regarding HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; a high prevalence of unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion; unequal power dynamics in the camps; stereotypical gender roles that promote sexual exploitation and violence; tacit acceptance of child marriage; and the fact that United Nations High Commission on Refugees-supported schools cover only elementary education. An important first step toward improving this situation is more awareness on the part of key change agents about the health, social, and emotional needs of adolescent refugees. Specific recommendations include the provision of contraceptives and other sexual health services to adolescent refugees, training of grass-roots educators to work with parents and peer educators to work with youth, standardization of program development and implementation guidelines, creation of advocacy groups, focus group discussions with the target population, and recreational and social programs to promote self-esteem and personal development.
In the author's experience as an international consultant on sexuality education, American consultants are viewed as representing authority, advanced knowledge, affluence, and exceptional sexual openness. Each of these assumptions can create obstacles for the consultant in foreign settings. The sharing of expertise can be hindered by differences in cultural norms, an absence of materials and technology, or inadequate skills development on the part of professionals in the host country. Many countries have never experienced training that involves interactive methodologies. On the other hand, work in sexuality education tends to be valued for its positive impact on health rather than viewed as a moral invasion of the host country culture. It is essential for the international consultant to approach training groups with the perspective that he or she needs to learn about their culture as much as the group needs to be provided with guidance on sexuality education.
TARSHI, a confidential phone help line in India, provides sexuality information, counseling, and referrals in English and Hindi. About 80% of callers are men and 70% are in the 15-30 year age group. An analysis of the subject matter of these calls indicates widespread ignorance about HIV transmission, a cultural belief that masturbation is an unacceptable way to satisfy sexual desires, lack of awareness of the connection between sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, exposure to misleading Westernized images of sexuality through the mass media, clandestine premarital sexual activity engineered to protect the hymen, lack of knowledge about conception, the belief that women who appear respectable and healthy could not be HIV-infected, societal dismissal of the reality of homosexual relationships in India, unprotected intercourse with commercial sex workers, women's fears of insisting on protected sex, child sexual abuse, the widespread practice of sexual relations between young men and older women, and the emergence of advertisements for sexual services. It is essential that HIV/AIDS prevention programs in India recognize these factors and address people's needs in a clear, nonjudgmental manner.
Federal, state, and local laws in the US now govern almost every aspect of sexuality. This includes sexuality at the workplace, sexuality education, adolescent sexuality, access to sexuality information and sexually explicit materials, sexual orientation, and sexually transmitted disease(STD)/HIV transmission. Almost 33% of the US Supreme Court's docket this past term concerned sexuality issues. In contrast to 50 years ago, when sexuality law was confined to the criminal arena, contemporary "sex crimes" primarily relate to nonconsensual and exploitative behaviors. It is time for lawmakers, judges, lawyers, policy analysts, lobbyists, and advocates to realize they cannot legislate or litigate how, when, or why people fall in love. Rather, the role of the law should be to create and preserve models of justice and equality that seek to preserve one's individual rights to privacy and freedom to choose in matters related to one's sexuality. This includes free access to age-appropriate sexuality information, the right to marriage and children regardless of sexual orientation, comprehensive sexuality education that encompasses information about avoiding unwanted pregnancies and HIV/STDs, access to contraception and abortion, protection from sexually abusive or exploitative relationships, and access to sexual health care.
The University of Puerto Rico's HIV/AIDS Research and Education Center was founded to promote research and to create programs to help prevent HIV infection through a decrease in risk practices. Specific Center goals are to create and launch research projects to identify the sociocultural factors behind risk behaviors, and to develop innovative educational programs and techniques based upon the research findings. Before the founding of the center, a survey of more than 7000 University of Puerto Rico students found that about 10% of respondents reported always using condoms during sex; male and female respondents reported averages of 6.1 and 2.5 lifetime sex partners, respectively; approximately 30% of the female respondents reported having engaged in anal intercourse; and Puerto Ricans have rigid sexual norms and polarized gender roles. These findings point to the need for meaningful HIV/AIDS interventions. The center has launched a 5-year project to relate contextual variables to the context of sexuality and gender roles in sexual negotiation and sexual practices in Puerto Rico. The center's education program is described.
Strategies must be developed to address the high rate of adolescent pregnancy among Blacks in the US and the adverse consequences of premature parenting. A number of programs and strategies have been developed and are being implemented in various sites across the US. The "Let the Circle Be Unbroken: Rites of Passage" program is an effort to incorporate an Afrocentric conceptual model into a prevention program. It involves adapting socialization processes often observed in African cultures, which openly acknowledge the need to formally help adolescents during their transition from childhood to adulthood. That socialization process tends to be a cultural experience which requires that ideology, education, training, and culture be taught before an activity or celebration marking the successful transition from one stage of development to another. The "Rites of Passage" approach follows these basic premises to teach adolescents the knowledge and skills needed to become responsible community members and spiritually mature adults. It is specifically designed to help young people build self-esteem; enhance self-image; develop leadership skills, cultural awareness, and appreciation; and make healthy, productive, and self-affirming life choices.
While abstinence-based, the Emory/Grady Teen Services Program's "Postponing Sexual Involvement" curriculum, first published in 1983, contains detailed, comprehensive information about reproduction, family planning, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). It has helped adolescents to delay the initiation of sexual involvement. The program responsible for the curriculum is part of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. A new adaptation of the sexuality education curriculum, titled "Managing Pressures Before Marriage", is strictly aligned with the 7 restrictive provisions of the new federal abstinence-only education guidelines. It argues that abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is the expected standard for all school-age children, a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity, and sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects. SIECUS staff were dismayed to review the new curriculum because the changes have turned the effective Postponing Sexual Involvement curriculum into one which explicitly promotes the restricted abstinence-only federal law. The new Managing Pressures Before Marriage risks alienating adolescents who are sexually active, who are children of single parents, and who may be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. HIV/AIDS is mentioned only briefly; the only mention of contraception and condoms is that they are not 100% effective in preventing pregnancy and STDs; sexual orientation is never mentioned, and all of the role plays and skits are heterosexual; and the "finding help" section no longer encourages adolescents to seek more information from parents, libraries, physicians, and hotlines. The original Postponing Sexual Involvement curriculum is, however, still available.
