Let's Talk About Sex, Baby...

(Is it totally cliche to use that as a blog post title? I think so. Just bear with me, I guess.)

Tonight, two of my volunteer worlds collided.


It was remarkably peaceful.

Actually, two members of the Planned Parenthood Teen Council (not including me), and Emily, one of the adult facilitators, came in tonight to Beyond the Birds and Bees, and the parents discussion group that I co-facilitate at my church. We acted as a sort of "teen panel" for the parents, fielding their questions for a little less than an hour and a half.

The parents at BTBAB are great, thoughtful adults, and I'm sure that they're good parents. But what I was shocked by tonight was how little they knew about STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections, formerly called Sexually Transmitted Diseases, formerly formerly called Venereal Diseases)! They had lots of questions related to STIs, most of them very concerned about specific facts, and almost all of it information that is findable online.

I was a little surprised that these smart, responsible adults didn't know this information that I think of as obvious. But then I thought about it a little more. It made sense when I was reminded by one of my co-facilitators that most parents were educated about STIs around the same age that I am now-- which, for many parents, was 30-40 years ago. A fair amount has changed since then, and I think it's important for parents to be available as resources for their kids.

So, if you're a parent, educate yourself! And if you're not a parent, this info is important anyway.

• Here's Planned Parenthood's resource center on STIs.

• Here is the Center for Disease Control's STI factsheet.

• Info from Mayo clinic-- their website is very straight-forward and clean.

• Last but not least, Scarleteen's STI article collection. Scarleteen is an awesome resource for sex-positive, medically accurate information for young people, and their articles are informative and fun to read. They also have a message board staffed with highly informed volunteers, who provide answers to the questions that are posted. They also boast a great texting service-- explained here-- where you can text Scarleteen your sexual health questions, and a trained, real live responder will give you an answer. (Again, parents: this would be a great resource to tell your teen about. They might be too embarrassed to ask you a nitty-gritty sexuality question, but texting a professional provides all of the info with none of the awkwardness.)