Human Sexuality, STI's, and Political News Surrounding These Ideas

Next week our advisory starts discussions with the HIV/AIDS curriculum and we will be discussing the ideas of human sexuality, sexually transmitted infections, LGBT rights, and all kinds of issues surrounding those ideas and teen's attitudes towards them. In recent years, we have already had lessons on these subjects so we understand the basic ideas from the curriculum and from the health classes we took in the last couple semesters. At our school we have also participated in the Day of Silence, which is a protest for LGBT rights. In recent days, there have even been parts of the presidential race that relate to these issues like President Obama's endorsement of gay marriage and the stories about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's participation in the bullying of other boys during him time at prep school. As a high school student, I have first-hand experience to the different attitudes teens have about sexuality and the risks and consequences of sexual activity. There is a huge range of ideas, from people who are very casual about their sexuality and people who are very uncomfortable with the ideas of sexuality. It is almost impossible to avoid the different concepts with all of the portrayals of teen sexuality in the media and all of the classes we get on how to protect ourselves if we are sexually active, so I don't think that there are many questions I have on the subject, but it is going to be interesting to get the perspectives of different teachers and different students who have all had different levels of exposure to these subjects, It is going to be an interesting discussion, but it is always always AWKWARD. It is completely unavoidable, and sometimes the best thing to do is to laugh it off as a group.