Welp. We survived the first month of 2021. Hooray? Unfortunately, it didn’t go as smoothly as many of us had hoped, as our outgoing president encouraged white supremacists to attempt an overthrow of the government. To be quite honest, I was nervous as hell on Inauguration Day, holding my breath in the expectation of further outbreaks of violence and hate.
Still, some things are looking up. The other week, I spoke to some of the folks at Power to Decide, and they mentioned the sense of relief they felt — and the sense of excitement — because they would no longer have to play a constant game of defense in a lopsided game in which we were constantly losing our rights and our access to reproductive health services (Domestic Gag Rule, anyone?).
Onward to the news!
- On January 28, President Biden signed a presidential memorandum to rescind the global “gag rule,” a policy that blocks U.S. aid to nongovernmental organizations overseas if they conduct abortion-related counseling, referrals, or advocacy.
- A new study out of Australia concludes that universities should supply pre-service teacher training in sexuality education across all degree programs, and that new sex ed teachers should receive early professional development in order to enhance their overall comfort with the material, and to facilitate a higher quality of sex education in schools.
- SIECUS has released their latest State of Sex Ed Legislative Overview. I’ll be updating Guerrilla Sex Ed’s state legislation pages over the coming month.
Action Items
- AMAZE is offering a six-day newsletter program (called the #AskableParent Challenge) that provides parents with free resources to help them navigate kids’ questions as they adjust to more time at home and social distancing.
- February 2 is International Sex Education Day. Parents are encouraged to carve out time on this day to talk to their kids about sex and relationships, using age appropriate language; share age-appropriate books about sexuality with their kids; and to tweet to their local legislators about the importance of comprehensive sexuality education.
- Sex educator Cassandra Corrado is adding a virtual-only option for those interested in her sex-positive book club.