Recently, students at the University of Texas in Austin hosted a free screening of the film Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque. The film event was a means by which the students raised awarness about the abstinence-only policies being implemented in Texas and offered students a chance to get educated on how to do something about it. The students who ran the event were members of the Advocates for Youth Texas Youth Leadership Council and members of the Texas Freedom Network Student Chapter.

But why show a movie on campus? Because it is an effective way of getting information out about sex-ed policy and an opportunity to tell people how to stand up for comprehensive sex-ed. In Texas, the students encouraged the movie-goers to attend their local school district’s School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) meetings.
Every school district has a SHAC or similar group that makes suggestions to the school board on what sex-ed curriculum to adopt. Joining your local SHAC is a critical part of successfully advocating for comprehensive sexuality education. As students our strategy must be grassroots and top down. We should do everything we can to lobby our members of Congress in Washington DC, but we should also spend time making sure things are right in our own neck of the woods. That’s why it’s important to be active on your campus. Show movies and hold panel discussion events and also join your local school district’s School Health Advisory Council.
Young people have a right to medically-accurate comprehensive sexuality education. Young people deserve the respect to be trusted to make healthy decisions when they are provided with the right information. We have a responsibility to make sure this happens.
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