Blog 5: Sexuality & Sexual Education

Anderson's article, "Lesbian and Gay Adolescents: Social and Developmental Considerations" held many new and interesting facts for me, and it also supported some things I already knew. I feel that people today who don't understand gay and lesbian people really don't understand why gay and lesbian adolescents feel the way they do. I've heard people say, "They're too young to be thinking about that." But this article really disproves the idea of being too young to make that decision. "According to reports of adult lesbians and gay men, the onset of homosexual arousal, homosexual erotic imagery, and homosexual romantic attachment occurs during adolescence." I guess the "decision" part could still be up in the air, but I highly doubt people are just going with the flow of being gay or lesbian during these years because it's considered "cool." Another point that supports this idea: "The average age of first homosexual experiences was 13.1 years for the gay boys and 15.2 years for the lesbian girls." I do find this to be really young, no matter what your sexual orientation. But I think the young age here is partly due to the confusion felt my the adolescent. It was also interesting for me to read, "There is evidence that teenagers are now self-labeling at earlier ages." I hope what is meant here is that teenagers have made a decision about their sexuality and are not afraid to hide what they have discovered, and that is why they are self-labeling. If that is the case, I think it is easier to come out in this current society than it was a few decades ago. Not to say that it is easy to come out, but just that it is more common to see now.

I hear conversations all the time about whether or not someone is gay, followed by, "He can't be gay; he's married to a woman." Being a man who is married to a woman even though he is truly interested in men is something I believe to be quite common (the same goes for lesbians who are married to men). "Gay and lesbian teenagers frequently begin or continue heterosexual activity despite and awareness of their homosexual orientation." I believe this goes along with a point that Anderson makes later in the article about identity crisis in adolescence. "Homosexual adolescents initially make one of three choices in dealing with their newly acknowledged feelings: (a) try to change them; (b) continue to hide them; or (c) accept them." The adolescents who continue to engage in heterosexual relationships have not come to terms with their feelings and are hiding them by staying in these relationships.

This article was mostly informational, but I found it interesting to take in. Some people say that talk of sexual orientation does not belong in schools, but I think it's something that adolescents need at their age because for some, it's dominating their lives during this time. They can be left confused about their feelings or could spend more time hiding what they feel instead of paying attention to what is going on in the classroom.

Sexuality Education and Desire: Still Missing after All These Years
What absolutely blew my mind about this article was how much money is spent on teaching kids about abstinence, and about how it's the only method that works. At this point in our society, I'm pretty sure that the more money spent on teaching ONLY abstinence, the more money is spent on abortions or treating teens for STDs. Clearly teens are not interested in not having sex. Fine also makes an interesting point about promoting abstinence only until marriage. "This educational crusade has been unleashed through public institutions and laws advocating the virtues of abstinence, the dangers of unmarried sex, and the promised safety of heterosexual marriage." The fact that she called it a crusade is interesting. It's nothing more than a push for something people don't actually want, and I'll repeat that it's a waste of money. When I started reading through the numbers my mind instantly jumped to all the other things we could be spending that money on.