We’ve Gotta Talk About Sex!
Honest, fact-based, comprehensive, developmentally appropriate, inclusive conversation about healthy sexuality
Our new volunteer team member, Dr. Joanna Palmieri, she/her, is a dedicated Obstetrician/Gynecologist bringing a wealth of experience and compassion to her work in the medical field.
Read MoreIt’s a rough time to be transgender (trans) in the US. It’s not that it hasn’t been before, but these last few years have made it particularly difficult (especially if you live in a “red state,” and even more especially if you’re under 18). Trans rights, and queer rights in general, are under attack to an alarming degree. More than 500 bills targeting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people were introduced in 2023. And seeing the direction things have been going, there’s so much at stake for queer rights in 2024.
So much of this recent wave of trans panic stems from disinformation about trans and queer people.
I love what I do. I’m grateful every day to have meaningful work that I know benefits young people, even when it’s hard. Sometimes it can be challenging to have such a short amount of time with a class; relationship building is immeasurably valuable to education, and we often don’t get to know the students the same way their regular teachers do. But it’s beautiful to see the impact we can have, even with just a few sessions, and to know that those messages will last for years—even decades—after we’ve left their campus. Here’s a short list of some recent highlights from the classroom:
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 MorePlease join us for a donation yoga class benefitting More Than Sex-Ed on Saturday, November 18, 2023. The class will be taught by Advisory Board Member and certified yoga instructor Alix Kelsey.
Read MoreJust a couple of weeks ago, I got the chance to take part in a virtual conference hosted by AMAZE, and have nothing but positive things to report back.
For example, in a breakout session, we were given some valuable tools by Jess McIntosh when it comes to defending against disinformation. Jess guided us through building your message to support your values for your sex ed curriculum in the face of adversity.
I am feeling equipped with lots helpful resources and am thankful to the AMAZE team for organizing such an awesome event.
We at More Than Sex-Ed enthusiastically plant the seeds that start conversations about sexuality. We work in partnership with young people and the adults who support them in order to nurture a healthy start in which relationships can grow and thrive.
When we started in 2015, we were a small organization providing sex education for youngsters in just a few middle schools, and that effort has now bloomed with programming in over 45 schools in pre-K through12th grade!
We are grateful for your support in our growth.
Our impact has been unmistakable and the numbers speak for themselves.
#GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement, unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.
October 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/
Wendy Sellers, sexual health educator, founder of Health4Hire, Inc., and author of Puberty: the Wonder Years recently chatted with our very own Emmalinda MacLean about the challenges of teaching puberty education. We are delighted to see Emmalinda receiving the recognition she deserves for her outstanding work as an educator.
Read more here: https://pubertycurriculum.com/educator-spotlight-emmalinda-maclean/
The American Sexual Health Association, ASHA, is a trusted, non-profit organization that has advocated on behalf of patients to help improve public health outcomes since 1914. They are a highly respected American authority for sexually transmitted infection information.
The information you find on their website is based on well-researched and documented medical facts and follows approved treatment guidelines as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read More
We’ve certainly had plenty of conversations over here about the Barbie movie. Lots of feels. Lots of quotes flying between our team members. Lots to think about when it comes to gender roles, patriarchy, inclusion, justice, and identity. Actually we could probably explore the whole More Than Sex-Ed curriculum using Barbie as the discussion starter.
So I was really happy to find this blog post by gender specialist Rebecca Minor, with such great discussion questions that you can use to start your own conversations with the kids in your life.
Rebecca holds a master’s degree in social work and works extensively in the field of gender identity. You can subscribe to her blog here:
https://www.autostraddle.com/barbie-review/
https://www.them.us/story/barbie-movie-allan-michael-cera-gay-queer
https://www.autostraddle.com/barbie-is-right-heterosexuality-is-goofy/
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-08-04/beyond-being-feminist-barbie-preaches-more-kenpathy
The More Than Sex-Ed team is enthusiastic about reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. This novel is an adventurous and fantastical story from beginning to end! This book came recommended to us by a handful of our trusted queer young adult readers.
So pick up the book and start reading! Then…
Read MoreIt’s been a very busy year for More Than Sex-Ed as you can see by the numbers. Reaching 49 hundred people with 8 hundred hours of comprehensive, inclusive, and affirming sexual and relationship health education is a big milestone for us. And we are poised to reach so many more in the coming years. We are so grateful for your support!
Read MoreMay is “Sex-Ed For All” month, and when we say ALL, we mean it! All bodies, all identities, and even though the thought makes some people uncomfortable—all ages.
More Than Sex-Ed is proud to deliver classes for kindergarten through twelfth grade, and we’re used to getting surprised reactions when we tell people about the age range we serve, too. But everybody has a body, and feelings, and relationships with others, from the day we’re born until the day we die, and there are age-appropriate ways to talk about all those experiences with people of every age.
So how do we determine what info is “age appropriate”, and what may be “too much, too soon”?
Last month we asked for your help in identifying unmistakable examples of consent from your favorite movies, TV shows, and music videos.
It took a huge amount of digging to come up with 7 examples that were both enthusiastic and explicit and not merely inferred/implied. Sometimes the actual enthusiasm doesn’t show up until the kiss. And often the moments of consent are surrounded by sketchy behavior or circumstances that call into question whether consent can legitimately be given. Our hope is that consent conversations become common in both real life and fiction.
Here’s our picks:
Read MoreConsent, or permission/agreement for something to happen, is one of our favorite topics to cover in More Than Sex-Ed programs. We use consent in our daily lives; it’s More Than just interactions in sex (see what we did there?)
You can get involved! We are looking for examples of ENTHUSIASTIC, informed, freely given consent in modern media. These can come from your favorite movies, TV shows, music videos (preferably something we can cite in a clip) and more. We will post some of our favorites on our social media during mid-late March, so keep an eye out!
Read MoreAt 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 MoreIt’s that time of year when visions of hearts and flowers dance in our heads, and pop up in ads, and store windows. Certainly love is a spectrum of strong, positive emotional and mental states; from the most sublime virtue, to the deepest interpersonal connection, to a good natured everyday pleasure. But romantic love dominates in our culture when we talk about love. Social pressure prioritizes romantic love above all others, as it’s considered a rite of passage from puberty into adulthood to feel intense attraction for another person. For so many of us the passion and intimacy of a “first love” is significant in our personal development, but tingly feelings and obsessive crushes are clearly not the only way to experience love.
And for that reason, we want to point out that Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week is February 19th - 25th, 2023. We’ve got lots to share about this, so please
read on.
Unsurprisingly the new year tends to inspire a bit of reminiscing and reflection upon the past. I recently checked in with Holly Novick, Head of School at The Country School in Valley Village. Holly was the first school administrator who opened the door and gave me a chance to pitch the idea for a comprehensive, inclusive, fact-based, affirming sex ed program facilitated by professionals.
At that time More Than Sex-Ed was still just an idea
MORE 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.
PMB #265
Buena Park, CA 90620
909-257-8714
Community Partners EIN: 95-4302067
