By: Charlie Holder
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – There is currently no uniformed sex education across the United States.
In Arkansas, there is no sex education curriculum and teachers are encouraged to stress abstinence to students instead. The Sexual Health Organization and Outreach (SHOO), is run by students to teach others about sexual health.
This week SHOO invited the LGBTQIA+ community to a presentation about the stigma around sex. SHOO’s goal is to teach students what they weren’t allowed to learn in high school.
“There is no sex ed in high school, so if nobody has gotten to it at this point I think the university should be giving us some sort of educational resource or program to do it,” Rivers Nicholas, the President of SHOO said.
Sex education curriculum ranges from personal skills like communication and decision-making to navigating through different relationships, and human development. An officer from SHOO, Emmarie Gates, said the reason there is a stigma around sex education is because the university is located in the south.
“Sexual health is not a political topic, it is a health topic, it’s a discussion between you and your partner and you and your doctor,” Gates said.
Nicholas said members of the LGBTQIA+ community didn’t feel like they were getting the information they needed.
“We reached out to Safe Zone Allies to see if we could work together to get more LGBTQIA+ students to come to our events. We hosted this event today focusing specifically on sexual health information for them,” Nicholas said.
Safe Zone Allies is a student group that meets weekly to discuss LGBTQIA+ history, gender and sexual identities. Gates said these students need sex education just as much as everyone else.
“Sex is not about gender, it’s not about any identity. It’s about who you’re comfortable with your body and I think it’s important that students understand that it’s okay to go to the doctor, it’s okay to talk about it and if you need help and you don’t know where to go. You can come to us and we will send you where you need to go,” Gates said.
SHOO will host more sexual health information meetings throughout the semester.