HIV and Sex Booklet

posted: 10/02/2011

The booklet HIV and Sex  for people living with HIV is now updated for 2011 by NAM. It's in three parts. The booklet has three parts.

• HIV, sex and the law
• How might you feel about sex after an HIV diagnosis?
• Dealing with sexual problems
• Relationships with an HIV-negative partner  

• Anal sex
• Vaginal sex
• Oral sex
• Other sexual activities
• Condoms
• Undetectable viral load and infectiousness
• Reinfection
• Using anti-HIV drugs to prevent infection – PEP and PrEP
• Contraception, conception and pregnancy

• Sexual health check-ups
• Sexually transmitted infections

You can download HIV and Sex free here

You can read the booklet online here

No Compulsory Sex Education

posted: 08/04/2010

A string of key education reforms – including compulsory sex education that deals with HIV and sexuality for 15 and 16 year-olds – were dropped after the Conservatives refused to back them.
 

Ministers tried to push as much of the Children, Schools and Families bill as they could through parliament before the general election. But most of the proposals were cut out because the two political parties could not agree.
 

The shelved reforms include a move to make sex education compulsory for pupils aged 15 and 16, even if their parents objected.  

Sex, relationships and HIV
Schools would have had to teach about contraception and the importance of stable relationships, including marriage and civil partnerships. Faith schools would have been free, as now, to express their religious views, but would have had to teach the national sex and relationships curriculum.
Mandatory sex education in schools would have helped reduce unwanted pregnancies and infections. It would also have corrected misleading notions about sex that teenagers sometimes pick up.
 

"There was massive support for its implementation from health professionals, teachers, parents and young people themselves. The loss of these subjects as core parts of the curriculum is catastrophic," said Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association. 

A Conservative spokesman said: "We supported having better sex education, but the government insisted on removing parents' rights to withdraw their children from classes they thought damaging. We think parents must have such a right". 
 

Disgraceful betrayal of young
Charities went further and said it was a "disgraceful betrayal of the next generation".
 

Lisa Power, policy director of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "The government does not have an excuse that they did not know the date that the election was coming. We will see the impact on young people who haven't had decent sex and relationships education: the girl who gets pregnant because the only education she got was in the playground, the people who use the word 'gay' as an insult. It's a disgraceful betrayal of the next generation. There's been very widespread agreement that young people need better sex and relationships education."
 

Julie Bentley, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, said: "We were on the verge of witnessing a historic breakthrough in the sexual health education of children and young people in England.
 

Balls said: "There is now widespread agreement that statutory PSHE (personal, social, health, and economic education) is essential to prepare young people for adult life, and our reforms would ensure that by reducing the age of parental opt-out to 15, all children receive at least one year of compulsory sex and relationship education. This is a very significant setback, which will deny many young people proper and balanced sex and relationship education."
 

Source - Sex and Relationship Education proposals dropped
Source - Sexual health charities' dismay at loss of compulsory sex and relationship education 

Compulsory Sex / HIV Education

posted: 06/11/2009

The government has announced that sex education will become compulsory for all schools, including lessons on gay relationships, and sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. But this will only be compulsory from age 15. Before that age, parents can stop their child attending any sex education lessons.

From September 2011, the law will change to make it compulsory for all young people in England to learn about sex between the ages of 15 and 16, even if their parents object. In religious schools the sex education the state requires to be taught to all can be contradicted by the religious teaching.

Learn from 5

Sex education will start from the age of five. Primary school children will learn about their bodies and puberty, along with marriages, divorces and civil partnerships. Pupils in secondary schools will learn about contraception, gay and lesbian relationships and HIV, as well as the emotional implications of having sex. Faith schools, like other schools, will be forced to teach about homosexuality, civil partnerships, divorce and abortion.

Religious spin and opt outs

However, faith schools, mainly Roman Catholic and Church of England, can teach this sex education in line with their beliefs and teachings. They are required to educate pupils about issues such as abortion and the tolerance of homosexuality, but may present them in congruity with religious teachings. Teachers in religious schools will still be free to tell pupils that sex outside marriage, homosexuality or using contraception are 'wrong', because the legislation will include a clause allowing schools to apply their "context" "values" and "ethos" to lessons.
 

One-third of schools in England are faith schools and this means pupils could be taught about same-sex relationships, while learning that they are against their religion. About 0.04% of pupils are withdrawn from sex education classes, usually on religious grounds.

Opt-out until 15
Currently, parents are allowed to withdraw children from sex education lesson up to the age of 19. This will now change to 15 to ensure that pupils have at least one year of sex education before they reach the age of consent.
 

Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said: “You can teach the promotion of marriage, you can teach that you shouldn't have sex outside of marriage, what you can't do is deny young people information about contraception outside of marriage. The same arises in homosexuality. Some faiths have a view about what in religious terms is right and wrong – what they can’t do though is not teach the importance of tolerance.”

HIV - welcome and disappointment

The National AIDS Trust welcomed the plans, saying that all young people have a right to information about sexual issues.
Chief executive Deborah Jack said: "We are pleased that discussion of same sex relationships and HIV is included in the PSHE education programme of study. HIV is a serious long-term condition and young gay men remain the group of young people most at risk. In the past young gay men have often been ignored in sex and relationships lessons in schools and the result has been a rise in young gay men being diagnosed with HIV.”

George House Trust is very disappointed that all young people will not have an equal right to high quality accurate sex education. Some young people will have two-faced lessons (the national sex education curriculum, and their church’s teachings against this), and a minority will get nothing until they are 15, if their parents withdraw them from sex education. By that age much of the damage caused by ignorance and misinformation will have already been done.

The changes, due in autumn 2011, are better than patchwork mess we have now. The state believes sex education is serious enough to be a compulsory part of the national curriculum, but has allowed religious schools to contradict points being taught and pupils to be kept away until they are 15. This isn't an evidence-based sex education policy.

As a result of this half-hearted change, young people with religious backgrounds, especially teenage males, will continue to be far more vulnerable to HIV, STIs, and females will also face unwanted pregnancies.

Catholics respond

A spokesman from the the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales said PSHE was "vital". He said: "It enables factual information from reliable sources to be communicated and misinformation from peers or street culture or exploitation to be avoided. While disappointed that legal encumbrances mean that a blanket right of withdrawal can no longer apply, we are pleased that the government has recognised that the right of withdrawal in formative years is most critical and is therefore providing for the ability of parents to opt out of SRE up to the age of 15. We will continue to firmly uphold the position that parental rights remain vital, particularly but not exclusively in those most formative and critical years up until the age of 15. As age and growing independence brings young people ever closer to pressures, advertising and coercion to behaviour that can undermine the healthy life of young people, we are comforted in the knowledge that our schools and colleges will do an exceptional job in providing sex and relationships education, set within the teachings of the Catholic Church."

Poll backed compulsion

The review was followed by a government-commissioned poll of 1,791 adults and 1,661 parents into whether all pupils should be taught about sex, and consultations with faith groups. A fifth of the parents said parents should never be able to withdraw their children from sex education lessons, whatever age the children were. A third said parents should be allowed to exclude their children from sex education classes if they were aged 11 or under. As part of the legislation, children will also be taught about drugs and alcohol, how to tackle cyber-bullying, resist pressure to join gangs and manage their bank accounts.

The new sex education lessons will not begin for another TWO years.

Source 2
 

Joe Galliano, a gay man, talks about how these new sex education rules will help all children feel comfortable with their sexuality – except gay lads and lasses in faith schools.  

Action on Teaching HIV in Schools

posted: 17/07/2009

Earlier this week we asked you to stand up for the rights of children and young people to effective HIV education in all schools. One further simple step we ask is for you to give the same message to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Last October the Government announced it would make sex and relationships education (SRE) a statutory part of the National Curriculum by 2011. It has not happened yet - there are two consultations about it. Churches and schools opposed to teaching all children about HIV, sexuality and relationships are actively campaigning against making HIV and SRE compulsory.

Unless there is a strong show of support for making SRE part of the curriculum, the Government may decide not to make this change, and young people will then continue to miss out on basic information about how to protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
 

Tell the QCA we must have sex and relationships education in schools

As part of the review, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is consulting with a short questionnaire on PSHE. Please complete the survey, support making sex and relationships education part of the National Curriculum. There are only 10 simple tick-box questions. The more responses the QCA receives in favour, the stronger the pressure to act.

You can download the survey (in Word) and then email it to the QCA
 

You could simply copy the tickbox answers given by THT. They are listed here. You can see all of THT's completed survey here. Section 1 is the most important bit, where you vote for SRE. (Section 2 asks questions about specific areas of the curriculum, which you can ignore if you wish).
 

Making PSHE a part of the National Curriculum will be essential to improving the UK's future sexual health, we have already come a long way in campaigning for this, we just need one final push to make it a reality.

Suggested answers to tickbox questions

QCA PSHE Reform Survey (Word)

Demand HIV Education in Schools

posted: 15/07/2009

It's time to speak up for all children and young people's right to HIV information and other sex and relationship education in schools. Should Sex and Relationships Education (including information on HIV, sexuality, discrimination and harassment) be made compulsory in all schools?

The deadline is just days away (Friday 24 July) and it seems most  of the responses so far are from churches and schools which are strongly opposed to this. NAT (National AIDS Trust) are asking you to help - all it takes is an email of your answers to the key questions.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families is consulting the public about whether Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE), including Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), should be made a compulsory part of the National Curriculum.

NAT thinks that this is long overdue. Young people have a right to learn about HIV, and how to protect their sexual health. However, this is not just a sexual health issue, young people also need to be taught about social issues such as discrimination.

It is really important that as many organisations and individuals as possible respond to this consultation to show the Government that young people have a right to this education. There has been substantial lobbying against these proposals, therefore your response is absolutely vital.

Please take 10 minutes to answer this form - here's some hints

Please fill in this consultation form (in Word, rtf version below), and ask your colleagues and friends to do the same. It is in multiple choice form, and should only take ten minutes; if you are unclear or uncertain about any of the questions you can leave them blank. Please note that the consultation deadline is Friday 24 July.

The two most important questions are

• page 6, Section 1, 1st question 'PSHE education should become a statutory part of the National Curriculum'  - we strongly recommend Yes, and
• the next question 'Parents, carers and guardians should be allowed to maintain the right to withdraw their children from the sex and relationships element of PSHE education' - we strongly recommend No

Then please email your finished questionnaire,  

or post it to

Simon Watmough, Ipsos MORI House, 79-81 Borough Road, London, SE1 1FY

If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact Nicola Jacobs at NAT on 020 7814 6729, or by email 

Consultation questionnaire (Word version)

Consultation questionnaire (rtf version)