ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Renewing our Commitment to Comprehensive Sexuality Education

By Brian Ackerman, August 12, 2008
Posted on RH Reality Check

In his address during the closing session of the International AIDS Conference 2008, young Mexican gay rights and AIDS activist Rodrigo Olin spoke in Spanish, his native language, so that his fellow people of Mexico would hear and understand his message. During his several minutes on stage, he took the opportunity to challenge the country of Mexico to do better in its fight against HIV and AIDS and all the social inequities that fuel the epidemic.

Rodrigo began his speech by noting that the people of Mexico must hold the government accountable to meeting goals, in particular, universal access to prevention information, treatment, and care. After all, while it has been an incredible accomplishment for the country of Mexico to host the International AIDS Conference, "after the conference ends, almost all of the delegates, organizations, and people from around the world will leave, and Mexicans will remain." Rodrigo emphasized that although the countries of Latin America had come together to sign the agreement to provide comprehensive sexuality education to young people, the test now will be in the effective implementation of this agreement.

"In a country so rich and with so many natural resources," he said, "it is a crime that organizations and individuals that fight homophobia and discrimination do not receive the support from the government that they need." Rodrigo's words particularly resonated with me, as I am both a young gay man and one of those returning home to another country, also rich in wealth and natural resources. In my case, I return to the United States, where I advocate for better policies surrounding HIV and AIDS both within the U.S. and in internationally under my country's global AIDS policy.

Rodrigo's charge to his fellow Mexicans was a charge to all of us sitting in the audience to hold our governments accountable to the promises they make toward achieving better outcomes in the fight against the AIDS pandemic. The disturbing rise in HIV infections in my own country is a theme that was highlighted throughout the International AIDS Conference and a cause for a sense of urgency. Moreover, in the case of the United States which controls the purse strings for many other countries' funding in the fight against global HIV and AIDS, we must also hold our government accountable to the needs of the people whose lives depend on whether or not that funding supports evidence-based programs, best practices, and most importantly, human rights.

Under the Bush Administration, the United States continues to support failed abstinence-until-marriage programs for young people at home and abroad. Numerous reports have documented the limitations of these programs in helping to curb the rate of new infections domestically or globally versus more effective prevention programs for young people that include information about and access to condoms. The expectation that people of my generation have is that educational systems around the world will normalize sexuality and provide young people with the information they need to make healthy and informed decisions about their sexuality. In fact, the end of the HIV/AIDS pandemic may well depend on it.

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