As you can imagine talking about what misconceptions one’s had about sex in their lives can be a bit embarrassing, but I’m going to own it and bask in the fact that I wasn’t given the best sex education, abstinence-only. Here are some of the things my abstinence-only education left me confused on:

Semen in the eyes may require surgery to prevent blindness. (I never really believed this, but I heard it.)

Masturbation will cause the penis to bend towards the hand most used. (Typically, this is not true unless one is overly aggressive and causes damage to one of the corpora cavernosas. Penises most often curve due to corpora cavernosas development, the pull of the frenulum, or the tightness circumcision.)

A penis can never be too big. (The word “ouch” explains it all.)

Puberty occurs between the ages of 11 and 13 for boys. (This should be rephrased to say "usually". There are outliers from the mean ages.)

The male foreskin is disgusting, unnatural and harbors STIs. (Proper hygiene should remove anything that’s not clean. Armpits need attention after the start of puberty, so do genitals. The removal of the foreskin is technically an amputation of something very normal. A penis is a penis. Be smart handling one and you shouldn’t have to be too concerned about catching an STI.)

Gays will never be happy. (I’m pretty happy. But when I’m not, I don’t think it’s because I’m gay, and I don’t believe I’m any less happy than the average straight man.)

Shampoo is a good lubricant. (Good thing I was told this was a bad idea from a friend. He said he was chafing for weeks after he used it.)

Young people don’t have STIs. (A person can have an STI from birth or teens may lie about their previous sexual experience.)

I know I wasn’t the only one who had warped views on sex and sexual health with what we learned, or in our case didn’t learn, in school, but what I didn’t know about these subjects I was fortunate to find a way to learn. Unfortunately, many students will be getting inadequate sex education at school and no sex education from other sources. Well, that’s not entirely true, there’s always TV and gossip.

Cross-posted from The Buzz:
http://blog.tellthemsc.org/2011/05/tims-list-of-misconceptions/

If you’ve spent any time trying to keep up with politics lately, I’m sure you can agree that deciphering through the media’s biases is a difficult feat. It’s not any easier for politicians. They have their personal beliefs and their parties, but they also have you, their constituents.

Like many of our legislators, my political knowledge is specialized. I can only give my educated opinion on a handful of topics.

We have this huge campus next door to the State House. Why aren’t eager students flooding the steps to make their opinions heard? We all have specialties. Inform your politicians about what you believe is important for our state.

I’ve taken an interest in reforming state policies that have an impact on sexual health statistics in the state. I see that the state spends $180,000,000 a year on unintended pregnancies. South Carolina is also an “HIV Hot Spot.” I inform legislators that investing in prevention programs result in saving 17 times what they invest! Currently, South Carolina allows schools to teach unscientifically founded information with regards to sex education and to give false information about contraceptives. So, I advocate for reforming the education system to teach scientifically based facts, educate about contraceptives, and to inform students how to obtain contraceptives. I follow an organization that organizes the public interests. I get an email from TellThemSC.org (nonprofit/nonpartisan) once a month that keeps me up to date with changing legislation.

I challenge you to become specialized in one aspect of your community’s policies. Do something and get someone to help you out.

Cross-Posted from The Buzz