Mackenzie Massey is the President of the Texas Freedom Network Student Chapter at the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of the Texas Student Leadership Council, the Texas portion of Advocates for Youth's Cultural Advocacy and Mobilization Initiative.

World AIDS Day activities at UT Austin in the past have existed, but in 2011 I wanted to do it bigger and better than ever before. I knew the trick to this would be advanced planning, collaboration with many other organizations, and some solid fundraising.

In late September I met with my friend Ana Laura and we started brainstorming. After months of hard work the big day came, we raised almost $2,000 to put towards our event, and it was a HUGE success!

For more information about the day's events, check out our World AIDS Day coverage from KUT!

World AIDS Day at UT Austin included:
+ Free HIV Testing
+ Free food and prizes
+ A student organization fair of 13 diverse organizations that covered different aspects of the HIV epidemic including: literacy, food security, public health, prevention programs, education, sex education policy, poverty and international aid funding.
+ Red HIV awareness ribbons
+ An interactive sex education trivia wheel
+ Free condoms and lube
+ An expert panel discussion focusing on AIDS and Criminality
+ A resource fair of local direct service organizations in the Austin community
+ A banner signing campaign, with red finger paints!
+ Petitions for comprehensive sex education
+ Press coverage from 6 media outlets including Fox 7, KVUE, KUT, and Univision

This week the Texas Freedom Network Student Chapters at Texas State, University of Texas San Antonio, and University of Texas Austin hosted free, on-campus, documentary screenings of the award winning film, Daddy I Do. The very talented and passionate director, Cassie Jaye of Jayebird Productions, was kind enough to attend all three events and answer questions after the film played. Daddy I Do began as a documentary looking into the new phenomenon of "Purity Balls," where a young girl exchanges vows with her father in a wedding like ceremony, promising to stay "pure" and to "save" herself for marriage, and turned into a documentary about abstinence programs and the failure to effectively control unintended teen pregnancy. The film does an excellent job at allowing both sides of the discussion argue their case and leaving the viewer to come to their own conclusions, for more information about the award winning documentary go here! Below are some pictures from the successful events, enjoy!


Students at University of Texas San Antonio sign the Education Works petition for comprehensive sex education in Texas public schools! Sign it online here: www.educationworkstexas.org/get-involved/petition.html


Students at Texas State University in San Marcos get a chance to ask questions to Daddy I Do director, Cassie Jaye!


Universtiy of Texas at Austin Student Chapter president (that's me!) and director Cassie Jaye after the UT Austin screening!

I recently posted a link to the "Sign the Petition: Remove the Economic Barrier to Birth Control" blog that was posted earlier this week on my facebook page to encourage my friends to sign it.

I had many friends who "liked" it, commented that they had signed it, and even reposted it to their facebook. I was so proud of my friends who stood up for the injustice we see around us everyday, because its impossible to consistently use birth control if you can't afford it. I believe that the solution to our unplanned pregnancy problem is making birth control available and affordable.

Unfortunately, I also had a "friend" comment that this was stupid and wasteful, because it would be spending his tax dollars to pay for birth control that "stupid, irresponsible, forgetful girls" wouldn't even use consistently. According to his personal experience, "girls" can't be trusted to take the pill everyday, and this is why we have an unplanned pregnancy problem, because girls are dumb. Even when I suggested other forms of birth control, like IUDs which can last for five years with little maintenence and are highly effective at preventing pregnancy, he still argued that "girls" wouldn't remember to go get one in the first place.

First of all, as a WOMAN who has been consistently taking a hormonal birth control pill for four years now, this is offensive, we are perfectly capable of taking a pill every day. In fact, I know many women who take their pill every day.  They're also capable of discussing current events, reading, driving, voting, and other things men have claimed women can't do in the past.

Secondly, this puts the blame of pregnancy exclusively on women, which is wrong. I know most sex education classes don't actually explain reproduction (which is another issue), but it does in fact take a woman AND a man to reproduce. Why didn't the man in these situations have a conversation with his partner about her birth control use and use a condom as a back up contraceptive (crucial to prevent the transmission of STDs, also not taught in sex ed). 

Third, a woman's decision to use birth control is a complicated decision. It is so important that a woman discuss what option is best for her considering her family planning, financial, and health situation at the time with both her gyno and her partner. Not every method of contraception works for every woman. Some women have bad reactions to IUDs, some hormonal pills can cause nausea, and some women have continuous breakthrough bleeding or spotting while on the shot. 

Stating that women get pregnant because they are dumb, is not only dangerous, ignorant, and offensive it is also just plain WRONG. When women are provided with a full array of family planning options that are affordable, it only increases their ability to prevent unwanted pregnancies. It is crucial that we continue to fight for affordable birth control, and continue to educate our peers about the importance of birth control and different contraceptive methods. Most important, young women must be encouraged to talk with their partners and doctors about pregnancy prevention to come up with a plan that works for them.

I skipped class this past Tuesday to rally  with almost 100 peers at the Texas Capitol in support of comprehensive sex education, and here's why:

Texas has a HUGE unintended teen pregnancy problem.

We can all agree on this.

Consistent and continuous abstinence is 100% effective at preventing unintended teen pregnancy.

Yes, that's true too.

BUT we know 52% of high school students in Texas have had sexual intercourse before graduatiing high school.

So, they're not being abstinent.

Well, are they at least using condoms?

No. In fact, 43.6% of sexually active Texas teens say the did not use a condom the last time they had sex.

This HUGE anomaly is a result of our failed abstinence-only sex education policies in Texas, which insist that abstinence be presented as the preferred behavior for unwed teenagers. These programs fail to offer any reliable information about anatomy, contraception, STIs, HIV/AIDS, healthy relationships, condoms, pregnancy, or self-esteem.

Even more alarming, abstinence-only materials in Texas regularly contain medical inaccuracies, especially about condoms. As a result, many high school students have been taught that condoms provide no protection from STIs, HIV/AIDS, or unintended pregnancy, despite the overwhelming support from the medical community, including the CDC, that condoms are extrememly effective at preventing pregnancy and the transmission of STIs.

So isn't it time that Texas catches up with the times and supports a medically accurate, comprehensive, evidence-based approach to sex education in order to effectively lower our unintended teen pregnancy rate?

That's why almost 100 Texas students stormed the Texas Capitol on Tuesday March 8, 2011. We met with our elected officials to urge them to support House Bill 1624 and Senate Bill 852 which would require sex education materials to be medically accurate, evidence based, stress abstinence, and also emphasize various methods of contraception and STI prevention. 

Overall, we had a great deal of support from many legislators and staffers but also many die-hard abstinence-only supporters who refuse to accept the reality that Texas teens are not remaining abstinent. We will continue pushing for the advancement of these bills and keep you posted on their progress, and what you can do to help! 

I get to work for the the Texas Freedom Network, an amazing nonprofit organization that advocates for religious freedom, strong public schools, and civil liberties. We work to offer a mainstream voice to counter the powerful religious right in Texas politics. One of our big issues right now is working towards comprehensive sex education in Texas, a battle that we know is tough. To help us achieve responsible, medically accurate, and peer reviewed sex ed to public schools, we're bringing out the big dogs: student chapters at Texas universitities!

At the University of Texas at Austin TFN Student Chapter that I am part of we have some great events coming up this semester:
+ Rock Texas Forward, a free rock concert and progressive student organization fair  
+ Free screening of Let's Talk About Sex with a faciliated discussion afterwards
+ Petition drive with free condoms on campus for Valentine's Day
+ It's Your Future, Speak Up for Sex Ed, an advocacy training day on campus
+ A youth lobby day at the Texas capitol!

We recently made a YouTube video about our student chapters and the important advocacy work that we do, check it out and let us know what you think!

Full link: www.youtube.com/watch

Recently, my friend Jackie and I made rounds at a couple fraternities around the University of Texas at Austin campus to talk to the fraternity brothers about safe sex.

Our presentation began with a trivia game of local statistics about sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies in Texas and at UT, most of our audience guessed wrong. They thought that STDs weren’t a big problem at UT and that most students used condoms. Unfortunately we know that nationally 1 in 4 teenage girls has had an STD and that only about half of UT students reported using a condom the last time they had sex. This got their attention pretty quick.

Next we gave a brief anatomy lesson (accompanied by giggles, hoots, and yelling from our audience), an introduction to the common STDs, and a list of local clinics in Austin that offer free testing and condoms.

Finally, time for the condom demonstration, our grand finale, what everyone had been waiting for! We took out the bananas and spread condoms across our table as the fraternity brothers whispered in giddy voices. I performed the actions, step by step, as Jackie narrated for me. I'll admit I was nervous and even embarrassed, especially since our audience was laughing and whistling at me, but I knew for most of these students, it was the first proper condom demonstration that had ever seen (hence the giggling).

Once we finished, we asked for volunteers and had them race to put condoms on bananas the fastest while still doing it correctly which was lots of fun and a good learning experience for them.

Before we left we passed out condoms and set up bowls of condoms around the fraternity house so that they would have a good supply of free condoms if they needed them

I highly recommend doing an activity like this with Greek organizations at your school. Not only was it was a ton of fun, but you also might be the first person to have an honest conversation about sex with them. Enjoy :) 

Hey Amplify Family :)

In recognition of World AIDS Day 2010, I wrote a guest opinion piece for the Daily Texan, the University of Texas at Austin's university newspaper and one of the largest university papers of the country. Real sex education saves lives, and that's the truth. This World AIDS Day, join the fight for comprehensive sex education in Texas by signing the petition at www.tfn.org/sexed!

I have pasted the article below, but for a direct link you can go to www.dailytexanonline.com/content/take-action-world-aids-day-2010. Enjoy!

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Take Action on World AIDS Day 2010

By Mackenzie Massey, Daily Texan Guest Columnist

Today is World AIDS Day, and I can’t help but wonder what Texas is really doing to decrease our alarmingly high rates of HIV/AIDS in youth. As we stand now, Texas has dubious distinction of having the third highest rate nationally of new cases of HIV/AIDS diagnosed in young people between the ages of 13 and 19. While nobody is pleased about this, those who set education policy in Texas don’t seem to be doing much to stop the spread of HIV in young people. Education is the most effective tool in preventing the spread of HIV, and only through comprehensive education about HIV/AIDS will we begin to see a decrease in rates of infection in our young people.

Texas has been the poster child for abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education for years. Our Texas Education Code explicitly requires abstinence to be presented as the preferred choice of behavior for youth. As recent graduates from Texas high schools, we know what we were taught in our health classes, and how little information we received about HIV/AIDS. According to a Texas Freedom Network Education Fund study, as of 2009 a whopping 94 percent of school districts in Texas teach exclusively abstinence-only sex education.

Abstinence-only sex education is exactly what it sounds like: only abstinence. Abstinence-only programs teach students that the only healthy and morally correct way to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancy is through abstinence. While it is unquestionably true that abstinence is a great method to prevent STIs and unintended pregnancy, not all teens remain abstinent until marriage. In fact, the overwhelming majority don’t — 70.7 percent of Texas students had sexual intercourse by the age of 19, according to 2009 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By denying Texas students medically accurate information about healthy relationships, anatomy, condoms and contraception, we put more than seven out of 10 Texas teens at risk of contracting STIs or becoming pregnant.

The CDC states that condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective at preventing the transmission of HIV. Because condoms are so widely accepted as a crucial component of HIV prevention, it is natural to expect that Texas classrooms would discuss condoms when covering HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Unfortunately, this is far from true. The three leading health education textbooks in Texas fail to even mention the word “condom” once. When sex education materials do mention condoms, they aren’t always medically accurate. An alarming 40.1 percent of Texas school districts were found to contain factual errors in secondary school sexuality education materials related to condoms, according to the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund. The implied message to Texas students is that condoms don’t work. So when teens do decide to have sex, they too often do so without lifesaving information and protection. Sure enough, according to the CDC’s 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 43.6 percent of sexually active students in Texas did not use a condom during the last instance of sexual intercourse. This is dangerous.

On this World AIDS Day, I urge you to join me in speaking out against life-threatening abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education programs that put our youth in danger of contracting HIV. Sign the Education Works petition for responsible, comprehensive, medically accurate sex education in Texas public schools at www.tfn.org/sexed. To read the ground-breaking report on the state of sex education in Texas, go towww.tfn.org/justsaydontknow. If you are interested in doing more to advocate for comprehensive sex education in Texas, come to a Texas Freedom Network Student Chapter meeting in the spring semester to get involved. Together, we can ensure sane health education policy that will, quite literally, save lives.

Massey is a government sophomore and President of the Texas Freedom Network student chapter.

Texas has long been the poster child for abstinence-only until marriage sex education programs. Texas also has one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation, which only continues to rise. Obviously, abstinence programs aren't effective in giving our students the information they need to make healthy decisions!

This past Thursday at the University of Texas at Austin, we got together with some friends for the first of two petition drives to raise awareness, gain support, and advocate for comprehensive sex education in Texas public schools, because real sex ed saves lives! So far we have...

• Engaged 10 youth volunteers in advocating and collecting petitions for comprehensive sex ed in Texas
• Gotten 236 new petition signatures in support of comprehensive sex ed in Texas
• Distributed information about upcoming meetings for our student organization that advocates for comprehensive sex ed
• Gotten a lot of high fives from youth who are sick of policy makers forcing their values on us and depriving us of medically accurate information!

Check out a couple pictures from the drive, stay posted for more comprehensive sex ed advocacy, and sign the petition online at educationworkstexas.org!

In the past month, we have seen a national increase in youth suicides as a result of homophobic, hateful bullies in public schools. Victims of bullying have been told that there must be something wrong with them, while the perpetrators of this homophobic abuse are left unpunished. Bullying in public schools must stop, while this is not a new phenomenon, it has certainly increased in recent years with the use of social media to spread hate and with the acceptance and even approval of school administrators. This must stop.

Watch Ellen Degeneres' statement about the recent suicides, and her plea for this abuse to stop flying under the radar and to instead confront it  head on.

Also in support of LGBTQ youth around the country, and to honor those who took their lives as a result of bullying, there has been a movement through Facebook to wear purple on October 20, 2010 to show support of the LGBTQ community.

Speak out against bullying, 
Speak out against homophobia, 
Reach out to a peer in need, 
Stand up to hateful bullies,
Become an ally and an advocate,
Spread love and acceptance,
Remember that we shape the future,
Help to make it a future we are proud of.

In Texas, every school district is required by the legislature to have a School Health Advisory Council which makes recommendations to the local school board about school health policy in your schools. Watch this video to learn about my experiences on the Austin Independent School District's School Health Advisory and how you can join your local SHAC. As youth, we know more about what our peers learn, don't learn, and need to be learning. We need to share our expertise in order to implement responsible health education policy.

Good luck,
Kenzie