What Does it Mean to Become an Advocate? (continued)

Get Involved

Locate the health curricula review committee in your school district, county, city, or state.These committees, usually made up of parents, teachers, professionals, and students, are responsible for evaluating sexuality education curricula before they are adopted by schools. As such, they often have the most powerful influence on sexuality education in their communities. Ask how you can join the committee.

Locate the group or task force in charge of overseeing or monitoring abstinence-onlyuntil- marriage programs in your state or territory by calling the maternal and child health program in your state's health department. Ask how you can participate as a citizen member of the oversight body. (You may find that there is no such task force. If so, write the governor and ask him or her to create one.)

Get Your Message Out

Contact your governor, state health commissioner, state education commissioner, state representatives and senators, federal representatives and senators, city council members, mayor,municipal officials, school board members, and school superintendents. Let them know your opinion about sexuality education by signing a petition or writing a letter. (You can usually find contact information for these individuals in the "blue pages" or government pages of your local phone book.)

Get the local media involved in this issue. Find out which reporter writes about schoolrelated or health issues. Call and ask to speak about your concerns. Inform the reporter about the results of your local poll or petition to support sexuality education. Invite the reporter to a sexuality education class; a roundtable discussion about the topic with youth, educators, and parents; a student rally; or a community group meeting.

Write an article for your local paper's opinion/editorial section. Determine which local organizations have newsletters or other periodicals that might also publish the article.You can also write a letter to the editor in response to something that the newspaper published or something that was in the news or happened in the community. You can also respond to other people's letters to the editor.

Use the Internet to get your message across. Create a web site, message board, or list serv dedicated to comprehensive sexuality education in your area or contribute opinions to those that already exist.

Young People Are Not Getting What They Need. Today's youth are bombarded with messages from television,music, movies, and the Internet.Yet the high rates of teen pregnancy as well as STD and HIV infections suggest that they are clearly not getting the accurate, unbiased information about sexuality that they need.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the U.S. government has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that have the exclusive purpose of telling teens not to have sex until they are married. These programs do not provide young people with the basic information and skills to help them deal with challenges that they may face as they grow up.They are also not proven effective.

Young People Benefit from Comprehensive Sexuality Education Many parents and caregivers worry that teaching about sex is an invitation to their teens to have sex. However scientific evaluations of sexuality education, HIV prevention education, and adolescent pregnancy prevention programs have consistently found that these programs can help delay intercourse, reduce the frequency of intercourse, reduce the number of sexual partners, and increase condom and contraceptive use among teens who are sexually active.3 These programs allow students to obtain the information and develop the skills they need to make healthy, responsible decisions about their sexuality throughout their lifetime.