Blindfish RSE

Today I read this article by Louise Tickle   "Does Sex Education exclud e young gay people?"   Personally in my work I have always tried to be gender and sexuality neutral in all my lessons. I always use the term "partners" or using the full phrase "a boyfriend or girlfriend" in every sentence to any gender student. But sometimes I still find myself falling into hetronormative language. It is not a choice but an unconscious accident.  For example I had a interesting situation doing a condom demonstration in a school with a girl constantly talking over me (which I find so annoying).  I asked  " Please listen for a few minutes then you could speak with your friends."    She replied.  "But I don't need to know this"   I replied "you never know what might happen in the future and it both a male and a females  shared responsibility to know how to minimize risks" ...

A single  research  project can be reported on in  different  ways depending on what you want to do. Take the following two articles both reporting on the same research by the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. The research shows how many girls in the study thought the HPV vaccine also reduced their risk of catching other STIs. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083260/One-teenage-girls-thinks-HPV-vaccine-cuts-risk-contracting-STDs.html http://www.healthnews.com/en/news/Some-Girls-Overestimate-HPV-Vaccine-Protection/3hFUdOev1E8wSjg313QPZq/  The daily mail report  emphasis  1 in 4, I  believe  this is because they are trying to show how it is a big problem. Where as Health News states "show that a small percentage of girls" I believe this is because they are trying to  show  it is not a big problem. Both quoting the same study with the same figure of 23.6% of girls having the HPV vaccine  bel...

Working as a sex and relationship educator means I am always learning new things. I was reading this article  on the BBC website looking at  several new outbreaks of syphilis among heterosexual teenagers in the UK. For me this is an especially worrying development because this is not the only STI that is getting ready for a come back. It has also been recorded that gonorrhea  is becoming resistant to antibiotics . HIV also seems poised for a resurgence  in the EU. If STIs continue to develop and return bigger and badder then before the role of sexual health workers could become more vital then ever.  In my work we focus on both the emotional, social and physical aspects of both sex and relationships. It is a key unique theme of our work to help young people deal with the emotional side, an element that some providers skip to target the biological risks. Whilst I feel this is damaging in the long term I can see the point in r...

Just wanted to post a quick link to a fun little flash game I found today. It's from Canada on a interesting   website (sexualityandu) made by the SOCIETY OF OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNAECOLOGISTS OF CANADA (SOGC). I like this game because it covers sex attitudes and sexual health questions. Sex Education game http://www.sexualityandu.ca/multimedia/games/sexfu/index_e.asp