VOLUME 29 NUMBER 6 REPORT SEXUALITY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2001 REPORT VOL. 29, NO. 6 • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2001 Tamara Kreinin, M.H.S.A. President and CEO Monica Rodriguez Director of Information and Education Mac Edwards Editor The SIECUS Report is published bimonthly and distributed to SIECUS members, professionals, organizations, government officials, libraries, the media, and the general public.The SIECUS Report publishes work about sexuality, from a variety of disciplines and perspectives including medicine, law, philosophy, business, and the social sciences. Annual SIECUS Report subscription fees are $49 per year. Outside the United States, add $10 a year to these fees (in Canada and Mexico, add $5).The SIECUS Report is available on microfilm from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road,Ann Arbor, MI 48106. All article, review,advertising, and publication inquiries and submissions should be addressed to: Mac Edwards, Editor SIECUS Report 130 West 42nd Street, Suite 350 New York,NY 10036-7802 phone 212/819-9770 fax 212/819-9776 Web site: http://www.siecus.org E-mail: [email protected] Opinions expressed in the articles appearing in the SIECUS Report may not reflect the official position of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. Articles that express differing points of view are published as a contribution to responsible and mean- ingful dialogue regarding issues of significance in the field of sexuality. © 2001 by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Inc. No part of the SIECUS Report may be reproduced in any form without written permission. Design and layout by Alan Barnett, Inc. Proofreading by Peter Novobatzky Printing by Fulton Press Library of Congress catalog card number 72-627361 ISSN: 0091-3995 Contents ARTICLES 4 TRENDS 2000–2001: “FEWER DEBATES ABOUT SEXUALITY EDUCATION AS ABSTINENCE-ONLY PROGRAMS TAKE FOOTHOLD” Martha E. Kempner, M.A. SIECUS Education Coordinator 17 “WHAT ABSTINENCE-ONLY-UNTIL-MARRIAGE EDUCATION LOOKS LIKE IN COMMUNITIES TODAY” Claudia Trevor, M.A. SIECUS State and Community Advocacy Associate 22 “TEACHING ABOUT ISSUES,VALUES, AND DECISIONS: THE NEWSPAPER AS SEXUALITY EDUCATION TEXT” Peggy Brick, M.Ed. Sexuality Education Consultant Englewood, NJ 25 “TAKING ACTION ON SEXUAL HEALTH” Bronwyn Mayden, M.S.W. Executive Director Campaign for Our Children Baltimore, MD ALSO IN THIS ISSUE... FROM THE EDITOR “Comprehensive Sexuality Education Has Come a Long Way in Past Decades” By Mac Edwards ...............................................2 FROM THE PRESIDENT “The Landscape of Sexuality Education: Discouraging,Yet Exciting” By Tamara Kreinin, M.H.S.A. ......................................3 POLICY UPDATE “NIH Report Underscores Need to Reexamine ‘Medical Accuracy’” By Stacy Weibley, SIECUS Senior Public Policy Associate ...................29 SIECUS FACT SHEET “Issues and Answers: Fact Sheet on Sexuality Education” ...................30 INDEX TO VOLUME 29 ....................................38 VOLUME 29 NUMBER 6 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2001 SIECUS REPORT FROM THE EDITOR COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION HAS COME A LONG WAY IN PAST DECADES Mac Edwards S hould we be discouraged because American schools OH; and the Worthy Choice theatre troupe in Northwest are implementing abstinence-only-until-marriage Indiana, among many others. education programs without thought or comment? No. Comprehensive sexuality education has come a long GOOD NEWS way in the past decades. And I have no doubt this progress Even with abstinence-only-until-marriage gaining popular- will continue. ity, there are still many excellent comprehensive sexuality When I look back to my youth in rural Virginia in the education programs and supporters in the nation. 1950s and 1960s, I remember only silence in terms of sexuality Consultant Peggy Brick writes about educator education—both at school and at home. I also remember Deborah Roffman of Baltimore, MD, in her article only silence on the part of school administrators and teachers “Teaching About Issues, Values, and Decisions: The whenever I heard students make homophobic remarks. Newspaper as Sexuality Education Text.” She points to Over the years, I have educated myself about my sexual Roffman’s goal of supporting her students’ ongoing orientation and my sexual health. I have sought counselors at development as people: “I want them to take responsibility schools and community-based organizations to help me for their opinions and their behavior. That’s why they read understand and appreciate myself. As a result, I am comfort- newspapers. I want them to explore the world around them able with myself and proud of my life. and continually integrate what they are learning.” When I reflect on my youth, I am amazed at the progress And Bronwyn Mayden, executive director of we have made. I am also confident that today’s youth will not Campaign for Our Children, writes about the U.S. Surgeon let anything or anyone stand in the way of their receiving the General’s Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and information they need to lead sexually healthy lives. Responsible Sexual Behavior. “It provides a wake up call to the nation,” she says as she discusses steps to bring comprehen- FEW CONTROVERSIES sive sexuality education programs to more people. Martha Kempner, SIECUS education coordinator, writes in her year-end review of sexuality education controversies in MORE INFORMATION the United States, titled “Fewer Debates About Sexuality Stacy Weibley,SIECUS senior public policy associate, writes in Education as Abstinence-Only Programs Take Foothold,” “NIH Report Underscores Need to Reexamine ‘Medical that Americans are, as I mentioned, accepting abstinence- Accuracy’” about a report from the National Institutes of only-until-marriage curricula in their schools without Health on the ineffectiveness of condom usage. She indicates question. SIECUS recorded only 75 controversies in 30 that advocates of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are states during the past school year, the lowest number since using the report to show that safe sex is a myth and that the we started tracking controversies nine years ago and half the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been number of controversies SIECUS recorded last year. providing “medically inaccurate” information about condoms. Despite evidence that most Americans support Finally, we have revised and updated our “Issues and comprehensive sexuality education, abstinence-only-until- Answers: Fact Sheet on Sexuality Education” to clarify this marriage programs and related activities have become big subject for parents, educators, health care professionals, policy- business in the United States. Claudia Trevor, SIECUS state makers, the media, and others so they can better understand and community advocacy associate, writes in her article, the complexities and the importance of sexuality education. “What Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Education Looks All in all, we should be proud of the tremendous progress Like in Communities Today,” about state programs such as we have made in the past decades. We are steadily moving the Governor’s Program on Abstinence in Louisiana; bill- toward the day when we will have a sexually informed and board and classroom programs like Marriage First in Canton, healthy America. 2 SIECUS REPORT VOLUME 29, NUMBER 6 FROM THE PRESIDENT THE LANDSCAPE OF SEXUALITY EDUCATION: DISCOURAGING, YET EXCITING Tamara Kreinin, M.H.S.A. E very year as students and educators head back to ical, and religious communities together with policymakers, school, we devote an issue of the SIECUS Report to advocates, teachers, parents, and youth. I was proud to be examining the status of sexuality education in the United part of this process in which people with very different States. For almost a decade, this has included a report views came together to discuss difficult issues and found documenting and analyzing controversies surrounding numerous areas of agreement. I believe that we learned an sexuality education. Each year, we also highlight events in our important lesson about putting aside our differences to field and spotlight innovative ways of teaching about sexuality. focus on the needs of our communities. This SIECUS Report is particularly interesting to me COMMUNITY DISCUSSIONS because it paints a landscape of sexuality education that is On the community level, the analysis of trends in sexuality simultaneously discouraging and exciting. On the one hand, education included in this issue shows that fewer communities communities continue to restrict the scope and content of engaged in discussion of sexuality education and that many of sexuality education, often by implementing abstinence- them adopted restrictive programs as a way to avoid contro- only-until-marriage education. On the other, U.S. Surgeon versy. Moreover, many schools and communities followed the General David Satcher, a leader among our nation’s medical federal government’s lead and provided abstinence-only-until- and public health professionals, said that he feels so strongly marriage education without first investigating the needs of about the need to promote responsible sexual behavior their own students and the desires of their parents and teachers. among our young people that he has included it among the One of my primary concerns about the programs Surgeon General’s Top Public Health Priorities. schools and communities undertook this year is that they INNOVATIVE REPORT