We’ve Gotta Talk About Sex!
Honest, fact-based, comprehensive, developmentally appropriate, inclusive conversation about healthy sexuality
Trans Parent Day is an annual event established in 2009 that honors both transgender parents and parents who have trans children. It always falls on the first Sunday of the month. We just celebrated on Sunday, November 3. According to a new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law (2020), an estimated 19% of transgender adults in the U.S. are parents.
Read MoreA glossary of slang we’ve gotten from students recently
One of the joys of teaching is how much you learn from your students, and sex-ed class is a great place for a rich vocabulary exchange. Sometimes they’re testing us; sometimes it’s to make their classmates laugh. Fortunately urbandictionary.com provides a wealth of resources for cracking the code and showing the youths that yeah, we know a thing or two. Read on for some of the new terms we’ve seen most often in the past few months–mostly from 7th, 8th, and 9th graders–and the “teachable moments” they’ve offered.
Read MoreHelping Survivors* is an organization on a mission to help heal, educate, and empower people who have been impacted by sexual assault and abuse. They have provided us with a really important resource addressing the difficult topic of child sexual abuse.
Key Takeaways
While child sexual abuse can happen to anyone and be perpetrated by anyone, it often occurs with someone the child knows and can take many forms
Child sexual abuse often occurs after building trust or grooming a child and the abuse can span over years, often starting subtly
Survivors of childhood sexual abuse have rights and options, and many states are lifting or expanding the statute of limitations
How to Talk With Your Kids About Porn is a book all of us should read. Although the term “porn”, referring to pornography, is in the title…and we do learn a lot about the current state of porn…the most important takeaway from this book is its emphasis on the need for communicating with young people. This is a book that’s accessible, non-judgmental, inclusive and fun to read. It offers a how-to format that guides us step-by-step toward becoming better communicators about sex, sexuality, media literacy and porn, describing different ages and stages and the topics and approaches that work best at each age. It helps us think, broadly, about online safety and general sex education while honing in on the topic of porn.
Read MoreWe help children develop an understanding of autonomy so that they recognize that they are unique, independent and capable.
Children have a right to live free from physical acts, such as touch, to which they do not consent. And to reinforce the right to bodily autonomy in all the spaces that children exist, we make it clear to the parents, caregivers and educators that bodily autonomy requires respecting boundaries, affirmative consent, and self-defined personal comfort with affectionate touch.
Read MoreOctober is “Talk with your kids” month, and we encourage you to consider the wide number of intersecting topics that affect our understanding of human sexuality, and how we communicate these complexities to our children.
In order to be comprehensive, sex education needs to cover many, many subjects, but we can’t do it all at once. And it’s okay to focus on one thing at a time. A focus is not an exclusion. Just because we might be thinking and learning about Intersex Awareness issues on Oct 26, for example, doesn’t mean we can’t make connections between intersex identities and what we know, or want to learn, about mental health, or periods, or vasectomies, or AIDS, or menopause.
read on for a list of awareness days in the month of October that could inspire a conversation:
Since its debut in September 2016, AMAZE has published well over a hundred educational videos on topics including puberty, gender identity and expression, pregnancy and reproduction, healthy relationships, STIs and HIV, sexual orientation, and personal safety, to its YouTube channel and website.
To reach youth, educators, and parents, Amaze content is published on five social media platforms: YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.
Parents and caregivers can preview every video and curate a playlist of videos they want to share with their kids. It really is an incredible resource!
Check out this series for parents and caregivers on “having the talks”. https://amaze.org/having-the-talks/
At More Than Sex-Ed, we recognize that there are many ways in which people become parents, including adoption, pregnancy, fertility treatments, sperm donation, and surrogacy. We support each person’s right to choose to have children or not. And we are grateful that MTSE Advisory Board Member Cara Quant, MD, is sharing her story with us here:
I’m a Black female physician in a same sex relationship, and I often find myself checking off many diversity boxes. My wife and I have come to the point where we desire children and know that the journey we are about to embark on is one not encountered by many. This blog post is about the beginning of our unique journey to conceive a child and our goal in sharing our story is to empower other same sex couples who want to have children.
Read MoreWe debuted a brand new workshop this month for a school whose elementary teachers wanted to get on the same page about young children with crushes, and healthy ways to respond. Lots of parents, caregivers, and educators have seen this social development, somewhere between preschool and 5th or 6th grade: having a crush, liking someone, maybe wanting to marry them, and then frequently a change of feelings and a new interest. It’s perfectly normal, at any age, and yes we agree that it’s often unbelievably cute. But the feelings are real and can be potent, so it’s important for trusted adults to not dismiss or minimize them—take advantage of the opportunity to affirm, normalize, build trust, and teach consent.
Read MoreMy first reaction to finding out about the fantasy suites on The Bachelor was disbelief. It was the late Spring of 2018, and I was in a hotel room in Detroit at a Planned Parenthood conference. I was reeling from a breakup and had only recently decided to throw myself into the arms of the 14th Bachelorette, Becca Kufrin. My assigned roommate, a stranger, asked if I was looking forward to fantasy suites in the upcoming episode. I didn’t know what she was talking about-- I was not yet the Bachelor historian that I am now.
I was floored when she explained fantasy suites as “the place where the contestants have sex.”
More Than Sex-Ed gives students the opportunity to ask questions anonymously after each class session. Sure, there’s always a fair number of troll questions, but most of them truly show the different ways young people are learning to move through the world. Below, we explore the kinds of questions students are asking by grade level and why it’s important to pay attention to what they want to know.
Read MoreThanksgiving is coming! Grammy, Grandpop! Aunties, Uncles, Cousins! Yay! We love those big, boisterous family and friend gatherings! Hugs and all the feels throughout the winter holiday season! Yay! Right? Of course we want our kids to have warm and loving relationships in our circle of friends and family. Of course we want Auntie Lou and all our venerable elders to feel honored and respected at these important get-togethers. But,
Read MoreI’m turning 32 tomorrow, and all I want for my birthday is for children to learn about consent and bodily autonomy. You can help make my birthday wish come true by clicking on the link here and purchasing this beautiful and empowering read-aloud for a child in your life, or a school in our community!
Read More“Everybody, Every Body” is a colorful picture book that explores what it means to live in a body, and celebrates—in a child-friendly way—the range of wonderful feelings and experiences our bodies can give us. It also gently nudges adult readers to support their child’s developing sense of bodily autonomy, consent, and the right to personal space.
Read MoreReview: Beyond Birds and Bees, Bringing Home a New Message to Our Kids About Sex, Love, and Equality By Bonnie J. Rough, Seal Press
Read MoreA central part of More Than Sex-Ed’s mission is to support parents in providing their children with the healthiest possible messages about sexuality—and we know that even the most caring and open-minded parents can struggle with this. The good news is, no single “talk” will make or break your teen’s self-confidence or decision-making skills; the best thing you can do is cultivate open, honest, ongoing dialogue about everything. Sex talk, when your child is ready, will grow out of that. Here are some tips we hope may be useful:
Read MoreIt is abundantly clear that as a society we still have lots of work to do on the topic of Consent.
We really love this article by Caroline Bologna in the Huffington Post: "How Sex Educators Talk to Their Sons About Consent", and highly recommend you give it a read.
No matter the gender of the kids you may or may not have, the advice is spot on. Here's a couple of important points:
Read MoreBay area Health-Connected.org is a Northern Californian health and education organization that has been doing fantastic work for 20 years. They have just rolled out a bunch of new resources on their website for parents that we know you are gonna love!
Read MoreMany parents worry about “screen time”. Health risks, developmental impact, and privacy/safety concerns all loom large over the negotiations between parents and kids about media use.
Read MoreMORE THAN SEX-ED is an educational outreach initiative. Our goal is to partner with groups in our community who already serve youth, in order to create and implement sexuality education programs based on guidelines set by the Sexuality Information Education Council of the United States.
a Los Angeles area non-profit project of
Mailing address:
7439 La Palma Ave, Box #265
Buena Park, CA 90620
Community Partners EIN: 95-4302067
