Dear Keianna,
Thanks for writing us. I understand that you are wondering why your
school
hired a lady to give sex education class that is openly homophobic
based on
her religious values. You think that it makes no sense that she would
answer questions about heterosexual sex, but not homosexual sex. Well,
you
are absolutely right to be offended by such conduct, and I hope that
you and
your friends can stick together and bring up the situation to an
authority
figure of your school/community.
I don’t know where you are from, but if you live in North America, it
is
quite surprising in today’s society that your school would let such
things
happen. I mean, homosexuality is not illegal or seen as a mental
disease
anymore, and all sexual education programs should not only be open to
answer
questions that students might have about gay sex and relationships, but
they
should bring up the subject by themselves. If there are still people,
like
the lady of your sex ed class, who are very religious and believe that
homosexuality is a sin, it is in no way acceptable to openly
communicate
their beliefs in a school setting, even less in a sex ed class! Are
your
school directors aware of what happened ? If not, you could let them
know
about the homophobic comments of that lady and suggest that they hire
another sex ed teacher who will talk about not only straight sex, but
also
gay sex. If, however, your director is already aware of the situation
but
doesn’t do anything about it, or worse, if he agrees with what the lady
said, then you should contact an organization/activist group in your
city/surroundings that defends GLBT rights; I’m sure that they could
help
you to do something about it and also answer your friend’s questions
about
safe-sex. You can also talk about it to other adults that are
gay-friendly
and ask for their help. Here’s the website for the organization Egale
Canada, which deals with such issues in Canada: http://www.egale.ca/
I hope that helps, don’t hesitate to contact us again if you have other
questions !
Marilyn, for AlterHeros