Group Activism Blog: Week 1

Madison Zierk
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 Sec. 0002
2/12/10

Group Activism Blog: Week 1

Activism

In our first week together as a group we met up and discussed the project as a whole, where we would like to see it progress, and who to get in contact with in order to get our project going. Since we were not affiliated with any organization to begin with we thought of contacting Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando in a means to see if they were currently doing anything with regards to the Healthy Teens Act. We also researched the Healthy Teens Act and sought to find the actual wording of the bill. We set goals for each of the members of the group. Gryphyn would be in charge of researching all of the legal jargin of the bill and where it stands right now in how actively it's getting pushed. I would be in charge of finding out how The Healthy Teens Act and teaching comprehensive sex education pertains to the Women's Rights movement. Ryan and Cecily would be in charge of contacting other groups (on and off campus) who might be interested in helping our cause along.

Reflection

In researching sex education among the country (but mostly Florida) I found that Florida has the sixth-highest teen pregnancy rate and the second-highest rate of HIV and AIDS cases. According to the essay in Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives, entitled Women's Bodies, Women's Health, "Sexually transmitted infections affect some 19 million people each year, almost half of them aged 15-24."(Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 215) Florida's continuance of teaching abstinence-only programs in their school systems is only hurting the future generations of teens and young adults. Most of these young men and women are becoming sexually active without any form of proper sex education to guide them to a safe and healthy sex life. These abstinence-only programs are only scaring these children into believing that if they don't have vaginal sex they're fine in the "Lord's Eye", so to speak, while at the same time giving absolutely no information to the young LGBTQQI community who is already being "condemned" for not following the heteronormative way of life.

Reciprocity

This project really appealed to be from the beginning because I have long since considered becoming a sex educator. By participating in this project I will have a hand in bringing comprehensive sex education to the Florida school systems. I feel that it is rewarding teaching the young men and women about how to have a safe and healthy sex life while teaching them that while abstinence is the safest way to prevent pregnancy and the contraction of STIs, it isn't the only way to protect themselves if they completely feel that they are ready to take on the responsibilities of having sex.

Works Cited

"Women's Bodies, Women's Health." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 207-24. Print.