What do kids really know about sex?

The last time I had sexual-education was in grade 9. The curriculum I had was the very same one that students use today. Incidentally, it was the first year the curriculum had been applied enmasse. 1999.


But what do I really remember from health and sex-ed?

DON'T DO DRUGS

WEAR A CONDOM

DON'T HAVE SEX

DRUGS ARE BAD

What the Ontario sex-ed curriculum really said

I love research. Some would say I'm addicted to researchahol. (Seriously, I need a 12-step program.)

Before I begin my interviews and before I can even begin generating a source list, I need my fix.

But I tend to get carried away.

Reading articles, studies, court-documents, text-books, websites and government documents gives depth to a story. But I want to read everything. Everything.

And the sex-ed story was no exception.

I had many questions to answer: why did the Ontario government withdrawl the proposed changes to the sex-ed portion of the health and physical education curriculum? What was so controversial? What were the timelines? What did the curriculum look like prior? What did the proposed chages really say?

Empowering Torontonian women to talk about sex and sexuality

By Vanessa Brown

My beat members and I have noticed that, more than anything, most of our stories have the importance of communication in common. And last Saturday was no exception. The Empowering African Immigrant Women to Become Leaders in Raising Sexually Healthy Children workshop was open and honest dialogue in action.

It wasn't the first time the program's been offered. Last year, Toronto Public Health facilitated a similar education series. However, the co-ordinator's noticed that it was being taught from the top-down. The curriculum didn't leave enough room for participants to voice their own opinions on sexual-health information. So it didn't take.

This time around, Toronto Public Health teamed up with Africans in Partnership Against AIDS (APPA), which provided a social worker to help with the workshops. Even better, the social worker knew the participants personally.

I walked into the narrow basement of APPA last Saturday and was immediately overtaken with the warm voices of nine recent immigrants to Canada. They spoke primarily in French. Thinking the language barrier might hinder my ability to get the story, and get it right, I sat down with caution.

Sex is my Profession!

I read erotica. I said it; I'm not ashamed! I think it is so much better than pornography. I get to fill int he gaps in my head, whereas in film there are very few gaps. That became more sexualized than I wanted it to. Anyway, I think it is difficult to picture the people who make this kind of writing their job. So I wanted to show the world that the people who do this, are normal everyday people. They have children, spouses and soccer practice to take the kids to.
As I expected, it is not something that many writers tell their fellow soccer moms.
Dar Mavison's children went to an alternative school, she accidentally told one of the other moms and at first the other moms were shocked, but quickly decided it was really cool!
It seems like a strange thing, but she started writing erotica and porn so she could spend more time

STI test at the Hassle Free Clinic

Today I got up early to go to the Hassle Free clinic to get tested for sexually transmitted infections. My partner asked me where I was going, so I told her. It shocked the hell out of me when she asked if she could come. She had never been tested either and thought it was a good idea.
Strangely, I didn't wonder if she NEEDED one. We've only been sleeping together for a few weeks...frankly only dating for a short time more than that.
I wondered if it would be awkward to get tested with a new lover. That seems to be backward thinking to me.
Regardless, we went together. The Hassle Free Clinic is right on the corner of Church and Gerard. I went to Ryerson for four years; I lived not two blocks from that clinic. I had no idea it existed. I had been to the copy place below the Hassle Free to buy boot legged photocopies of text books. Why didn't I know that clinic exited?

Lesbians and Safe Sex

I'm a lesbian, nice to meet you.

It's always awkward to put that out there and I wouldn't if it wasn't a large part of this experiment.

Let me explain from the beginning.

When I was asked if I wanted to help develop a magazine about sex I thought I should because my sexuality, my experience and my contacts would diversify the magazine. I didn't think about how deep I would have to delve into my own sexuality, until I started to do research this story.

I always hear about using condoms. Make sure you use a condom, make sure you don't get pregnant. I'm not going to get pregnant, so why bother with a condom?

I could get diseases, yes, but I won’t.

It was my fellow editor Veronica Blake who asked me why I didn't think I would be afflicted with an STI.

I said what a lot of people say. "I know who I'm sleeping with."

Veronica pushed and asked who my partners had slept with, did I know them? Did I know they were STI free?

I didn't.