Garrett Mize is the Youth Advocacy Coordinator at the Texas Freedom Network and heads up the Texas Youth Leadership Council, the Texas portion of Advocates for Youth's Cultural Advocacy and Mobilization Initiative.

We’ve been busy deep in the heart of Texas (yes, I just said that) since the Urban Retreat back in September.  Here’s just a few of the things we’ve done:

Our Youth Leadership Council (YLC) members Chris, Mackenzie and Devin all attend the University of Texas at Austin (Go Longhorns!) and are members of our Texas Freedom Network Student Chapter and worked together to collect nearly 300 Education Works petitions in support of comprehensive sex ed in just one day from eager students who are fed up with our state’s sex ed policies.

YLC members Kurt Mitchell and Alex Porter, who attend Texas State University (Go Bobcats!) in San Marcos, started a TFN Student Chapter this year on their campus.  On one afternoon they collected 160 petitions and met a lot of people who are ready to join a student group that is focused on promoting comprehensive sex ed.

Erika Morin, who attends the University of Texas at San Antonio (Go Roadrunners!), founded a TFN Student Chapter on her campus as well.  She hosted a panel discussion at her college where high school students, including fellow YLC member Nicole Vargas, talked about their experiences with sex ed in Texas public schools.  The 30 college students present were reminded of their high school experiences, and the fact that it is still an issue although they aren’t in high school anymore.

Our Austin folks have seen some success on their School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) in the Austin Independent School District.  The school district requires that all outside groups that wish to present information on human sexuality in classrooms be approved by the SHAC.  These supplementary groups each gave a presentation to the SHAC, and after the hard work on the Health Education Committee by our YLC members and their presentation to the SHAC about which groups they recommended, all of the comprehensive groups were approved.  They also recommended that the SHAC not approve a group with a history of medical inaccuracies and ties to abstinence-only groups.  The SHAC agreed, and voted not to accept this group.

Alex Pucciarelli has been collecting petitions on her high school campus in Dallas and has also shown Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque in her government class.  She’s also heading up a TFN Student Chapter there.  And Micaela Marini-Higgs, our YLC member in Houston is planning to speak at an LGBTQ youth resource group soon about how they can get more active in advocating for sex ed that is relevant to them.

Stan, who attends Baylor University, the largest Baptist university in the world, is planning a hip-hop event at a local coffee shop that has a large stage and performance area.  His show will feature acts who will rap, dance, and read poetry that is progressive and supportive of comprehensive sex ed.  I’m looking forward to this one!

All of our YLC members are working on many more events, and we’re also looking to bring a special guest speaker to our neck of the woods for a “Texas Tour”.  What are you up to?