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Over Spring Break, I decided to go down to my hometown of Houston to hang out with a buddy of mine. He's the president of the University of Houston QSA (don't get me started on how jealous I am that he gets to HAVE a QSA at his school, let alone be the president of it). This QSA has an official office space that all the members go to put in "hours" and hang out between classes. In the office you can find out all you need to know about having safe sex in the form of pamphlets.
I picked up a pamphlet that was about reducing the risk of HIV transmission in female-female sexual intercourse. At first I was shocked. It had never occured to me that there would be the risk of HIV transmission between women. In the next second, I just felt dumb. Of course there would be a risk! There's still fluid transmissions!
Those of us who have had less than comprehensive sex education know why I didn't realize that. And those of us who are queer know why too. Queer issues are silenced and ignored in our sex ed. curriculum (if we even have it at all!). Without comprehensive sex education, we fill in the blanks with our own thoughts and the jokes we hear. If there is never any true discussion on sexual health for all people regardless of gender identity or sexual education, we put students at risk. If they're not given all the facts, they can't make informed decisions. Imagine the problems someone would face if they had my thought processes and not my genitalia. They could have exposed themselves to the risk of HIV because someone on their school board didn't think they needed access to that type of information.
The time to stop shaming and silencing queer issues in school is over. We need comprehensive sex education for everyone, so everyone is safe.
Texas Freedom Network did a survey of all the school districts in Texas to find out what they taught, and their findings are consistent with what I've described. Queer issues are swept under the rug or they're shamed.
http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=JustSayDontKnow
For example, in Asher Roth's song "I Love College" there is a line that say "when it comes to condoms, put two on." When I first heard this on the radio I was horrified!! Because I know that some people believe all of what they hear in the media, not knowing that some of it is misinformation!! (After this, I went around telling people that using two condoms is acutally NOT something you should do and explained why.)
I agree with you-- young people need all the facts in order to be able to make healthy, informed decisions.
I mean putting two condoms on is wrong! & millions of people listen to the media and read magazines. The information has to be all there and clear because half information is pretty much equivalent to wrong information in the wrong hands.