Petrelis Files

UN HIV Report: Gay Youth
Sex Studies Omitted

The New York Times today is reporting on a controversial United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report on sexuality, and, of course, homosexuals are fodder for critics of the UN's effort proposing better education to reduce infections and death. From the Times:

A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V. infections among young people has provoked criticism from conservative groups that say the program would be too explicit for young children and promote access to legal abortion as a right. [...]

A draft issued in June has been attacked by conservative and religious groups, mainly in the United States, for recommending discussions of homosexuality, describing sexual abstinence as “only one of a range of choices available to young people” to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy, and suggesting a discussion of masturbation with children as young as 5. [...]

The agency has removed the June draft of the guidelines from its Web site, and delayed the release of the final document. [...]

While UNESCO may have taken down the 98-page draft, the Times dutifully saved it and has posted it on the paper's site. Here are the sections that delve into defining LGBT persons, which aren't shocking to us, but surely have upset political conservatives at home and abroad:

Homosexual: is an individual who is sexually and emotionally attracted to a person of the same sex. Homosexual people need not have had a sexual experience at all to identify as homosexual. [...]

Sexual orientation refers to the sex and/or gender of another person to which a person finds themselves emotionally and sexually attracted. The common terms for the variety of sexual orientations are homosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning and heterosexual.

What could be so wrong with explaining these facts to young people around the world, in projects designed to stop HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections, and keep people alive longer? I believe many critics of UNESCO's draft suggestions would rather young people or sexual orientations contract nasty STDs or die from them, rather than educate them properly about good sexual health principles.

I heartily approve of what's stated here, especially the last sentence:

The challenge for sexuality education is to reach young people before they become sexually active, whether this is through choice, necessity (e.g. in exchange for money, food or shelter) or coercion. Some students, now or in the future, will be sexually active with members of their own sex. These are sensitive and challenging issues for those with responsibility for designing and delivering sexuality education. Overlooking same-sex relationships is not a solution.

I hope it's not too naive of me to hope that final sentence makes it into the final version of the UNESCO report.

As if that were not good enough in terms of respectfully discussing gay relationships, look at this paragraph on the diversity of family structures:

Many different kinds of families exist around the world (e.g. two-parent, single parent, child-headed, guardian-headed, extended and nuclear families, same-sex couple parents, etc.)

What I found most troubling in the draft was the mention that studies of educational efforts targeting LGBT youth were omitted from the review of medical literature that contributed to the findings:

There were a number of limitations to the studies and, by implication, to the review [of sexuality education on sexuality behavior]. Too few of the studies were conducted in developing countries. Some studies suffered from an inadequate description of their respective programmes. None examined programmes for gay or lesbian or other young people engaging in same-sex sexual behaviour.

Kudos to the report's authors for the respectful tone when discussing LGBT youth and families, but a big thumbs down for not locating and examining studies related to young persons who have sexual relations with members of the same gender.

According to the Times, the latest draft will be released at a scientific conference in England next week, and the final version, said UNESCO, should be out at the end of the year.