Last week, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) released the 2008, 6th edition of its SIECUS State Profiles: A Portrait of Sexuality Education and Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs in the States.
SIECUS is the convening body of the National Coalition to Support Sexuality Education (NCSSE), a coalition of over 140 national organizations committed to medically accurate, age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education for all children and youth in the United States. NSRC became an active member of NCSSE two years ago. Since that time, we have attended and presented at biannual NCSSE meetings, signed on to dozens of letters urging states to reject abstinence-only funding and thanking them when they did, and recommended NCSSE coalition membership to some of our national organizational partners and allies.
Today I had the opportunity to partake in an NCSSE coalition conference call, to learn more about this truly paradigm shifting, 700+ page report. During the call, I was reminded by just how immense of an undertaking producing this annual report is- and my sincerest gratitude (and awe!) goes out to SIECUS Policy Director Bill Smith and the SIECUS staff for yet again doing such an exhaustive and amazing job.
This document is truly one of the most powerful resources we have in the field of sexuality today- whether we use it for our own advocacy efforts regionally or nationally or whether we use it as educators, researchers, or activists it provides us with the current, up to date knowledge about exactly how much and where federal money is going to support ab-only programs. The state profiles serve as our national barometer for understanding just how much work we have yet to do...a reminder that especially with our recent successes a renewed commitment to ending ab-only and birthing a common, dynamic vision for comprehensive sex ed is crucial now more than ever before.
If you care about the future of sexuality education, research and advocacy in the United States, take the time to familiarize yourself and others with this document and all affiliated information provided on the SIECUS site. As Bill Smith said today--we are at a critical and paradigm shifting moment in this country where comprehensive sexuality education and abstinence-only until marriage funding is concerned. Our collective momentum now needs to increase. We need more partners and unified action.
The end goal here is not just to end federal funding of failed abstinence only education programs-but to achieve as SIECUS says, "genuine federal investment in comprehensive sex education."
At NSRC, like so many others, our sincere hope is that one day that word "comprehensive" will come to mean medically--socially--culturally--scientifically accurate, age appropriate sexuality education across the lifespan and inclusive of all diverse individuals and communities. We are starting to think the federal government might also have some level of responsibility in ensuring that our ever increasing aging population in America is armed with accurate sexual health knowledge and training-- the recent explosion in HIV rates and staggering sexual identity related suicides among elders shows that we have our work cut out for us...but thanks to the efforts of SIECUS/NCSSE and others we are even closer to realizing a sexually healthier nation.
Investment indeed, SIECUS. We deserve nothing less as a nation and look forward to continuing to work with you and others to collectively make it all happen. Thank you for continuing to invest in all that you do and for providing us today with hope and a renewed call to action. You can count on us...
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If you are a national organization interested in joining the National Coalition to Support Sexuality Education, please visit: http://www.ncsse.com/index.cfm?pageId=930
Take a moment and check out SIECUS Policy Director Bill Smith's video-blog and R-H Reality Check blog about the release of the new data:
http://siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Feature.showFeature&FeatureID=1672
