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May is “Sex Ed for All” month and we at Scarleteen are reflecting on “ Queer Sex Ed For All” as a mission, a slogan and rallying-cry which we are proud to say originated with us. We are big proponents of broader access to comprehensive sex education and are no strangers to the fact that getting even the most basic, bare-bones accurate sex ed into certain places can be a massive struggle. However, here we believe in more than Sex Ed for All; we believe in “ Queer Sex Ed For All”. We started using the full phrase, in 2017, before ‘Sex Ed For All’ was a thing, when Heather and Isabella Rotman were working on our fundraising materials, and hit upon ‘Queer Sex Ed For All’ as one of the simplest descriptions of how we do and think about sex education at Scarleteen. So, what does ‘Queer Sex Ed For All’ mean? A lot of things. It means that everything we do here is informed by queer frameworks of sex, sexuality, relationships and identity , rather than by cis-heteronormativity or comp...

I’ve written a piece like this three times now. Every time I wrote one, I hoped with everything in me it would be the last time. That the people attacking trans youth and their families for political gain would get bored, or would see that their actions were only met with resistance and scorn. I hoped that cis people would listen to the trans people raising the alarm that the legislation, the hate, the backlash against the very existence of trans people was getting worse and do something . I hoped that people would use the power of “thinking about things for even ten seconds” and realize that young trans people just living their lives wasn’t, isn’t, and never will be a threat to anyone or anything. Silly me. Greg Abbot, the governor of Texas, will likely sign a bill very soon banning all gender affirming care for minors in the state. This is the same governor who, last year, along with Attorney General Ken Paxton, issued an order telling CPS to investigate families for supportin...

Hey, hey, May is National Masturbation Month! This is a great opportunity to talk openly about masturbation. There is so much shame placed on exploring your body, but masturbation is neither “disgusting” nor “sinful.” It’s completely normal and even healthy! In honor of National Masturbation Month, here are some more reasons to feel good about masturbating. Sexual Self-Care Many people masturbate, regardless of gender identity , sexual orientation , race, age or cultural background. Not only is it a great way to get to know your body and de-stress, it’s also a safe way to have sex without risk of pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. Self-pleasure is a way to give yourself some love . Think of it as sexual self-care. It Isn’t New Over the years, people have spread misinformation about masturbation. You might have heard that “masturbation will make you go blind,” or “lead to erectile dysfunction,” but these claims are not based on facts. These misconceptions lead peopl...

Author:  Sam Wall We’re big fans of young people taking sex ed into their own hands. So, it’s no surprise we were thrilled to interview Tara Michaela, who founded the Youth Sexpert Program (YSP) when she was nineteen. We’re big fans of young people taking sex ed into their own hands. So, it’s no surprise I was thrilled to interview Tara Michaela , who recently founded the Youth Sexpert Program (YSP) when she was nineteen. Young people remain a major source of information about sex for each other and her program takes inspiration from those informal, peer to peer conversations about sex. YSP wants to equip young people with information and skills to educate each other about sex and relationships well. Tara took time to chat with me about her own experiences with sex education, her process of becoming a sex educator, and her hopes for the organization she’s created. What was your own sex education experience like? I was raised in Massachusetts which is a notoriousl...

Author:  Sara Traynor Other people had to have been struggling with this, right? There was no way I was the only one. But if that was true, then why didn’t I – or anyone else I knew, for that matter – know about it? Why had I wasted years of my life pushing people away, feeling miserable, and not even understanding why? I’m going to make sure that nobody else has to go through what I did. Ever since I got my period at age 12, my pre- menstrual symptoms have been intense. It was like clockwork: for about a week and a half every month, I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t focus on the simplest tasks. Even the most minor inconveniences or disagreements could send me spiraling: my suddenly overwhelming anxiety made mountains out of molehills. And then, within the first couple days of my period, the cloud lifted. I could breathe again. At first, I thought this was normal. All the descriptions of PMS I could find described symptoms like the ones I was experiencing. ...

Author:  Gabriel Leão Caos.a (a play with the word “Causa”, Portuguese for “Cause”) began during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was created by television host Barbara Thomaz, with professor Ana Sharp, lawyer Natália Veroneze, advertising pro Flávia Zaparoli and actress Maira Dvorek. Gabriel Leão is here to tell you all about it. “Brazil is not for beginners,” legendary bossa nova composer Tom Jobim once uttered about our country. In Brazil there can be more lies than meet the eye. It is a very violent place, and is even worse for women, queer , trans and other marginalized people. This is all part of why television host Barbara Thomaz , with Professor Ana Sharp , lawyer Natália Veroneze , advertising pro Flávia Zaparoli and actress Maira Dvorek , decided to start the sexual education collective Caos.a (a play with the word “Causa”, Portuguese for “Cause”) in 2020. Brazil still has little sex education: it’s practically a foreign idea to ordinary ...