Co-President, Welfare & Diversity, Laura Lewis discusses the recent changes to sex education announced by the government this week.
In February, the Students’ Union ran the infamous SHAG week – designed to provide you with information on all things related to sexual health. During the week, I teamed up with National Student Pride and the NUS LGBT+ Campaign to send Valentine’s Day cards to our local MP, Philip Hammond, calling for compulsory, LGBT+ inclusive Sex and Relationships Education (SRE).
When society’s conversations about sex are dominated (excuse the pun) by questionable book and film trilogies (I’m looking at you, 50 Shades of Grey) and young people are turning to porn to educate themselves about sex, it’s clear that something needs to change in the way we talk about sex and relationships.
But it’s not all bad news! This Wednesday, the government announced their plans to make SRE compulsory in all schools in England. This is a huge win, and I’m proud of RHSU for backing this much needed campaign. It’s time to put a stop to dodgy Sex Ed that either looks like a scene from Mean Girls or teaches people how to put a condom onto a banana and very little else. It’s finally time for age-appropriate SRE in schools.
However, the campaign doesn’t end here.
Terrence Higgins Trust found that 75% of young people were not taught about sexual consent. The NUS I Heart Consent campaign is designed to educate students about consent and combat rape culture – but we can’t leave these conversations until people arrive at uni. We need to fight for compulsory SRE that is centred around consent, so that young people are empowered to have positive relationships and establish their own sexual boundaries when they need to.
Why should we wait until people come to uni to have these conversations? If you’re interested in taking part in an I Heart Consent workshop, contact me here: vpwelfare@su.rhul.ac.uk.
We need to fight for LGBT+ inclusive SRE. 95% of young people had not been taught about LGBT+ sex and relationships. Imagine being young, gay and unaware that there are other people like you in the world. We need to educate people about LGBT+ identities, to make sure LGBT+ people are given the advice they need to stay healthy, both sexually and within relationships. The best way to eradicate LGBT-phobia is to educate people; showing LGBT+ young people that they’re not broken, and normalising queer identities.
So, we can celebrate this win, but the fight continues for LGBT+ inclusive, consent-focused SRE!
Laura Lewis
Co-President, Welfare and Diversity