Our sex-ed programs aren't working because they only teach us about heterosexual relationships and how to be safe in those relationships, but they also just teach us about safe sex not about how to have a healthy relationship period or the red flags that show up way before you even enter the relationship. Now girls and guys are getting themselves in relationships that they cannot handle or don't know how to get out of. They also don't teach anybody about gender identity, sexual orientation, or how to be safe in homosexual relationships and prevent STI's from happening to the kids who are LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.) The kids and teens who do identify as being queer means that they don't want to put a label on what they "identify" as. They believe that they shouldn't be repercussioned for being themselves and loving who they want. The politicians believe that we shouldn't teach in sexual-education but instead abstinence-only programs. Which according to the teen pregnancy rates it concludes that teens who go through the abstinence only programs have a higher rate of getting pregnancies a 2003 Pennsylvania evaluation found that the state-sponsored programs were largely ineffective in delaying sexual onset or promoting skills and attitudes consistent with sexual abstinence One study found that the onset of sexual activity was delayed 18 months among pledgers; however, the study also found that those young people who took a pledge were one-third less likely than their non-pledging peers to use contraception when they did become sexually active. Only fifteen percent of American adults believe that schools should teach abstinence from sexual intercourse and should not provide information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraception, which I think that if teens are going to be sexually active they should know the proper fundamentals but then there are the Americans who want their kids to know how babies are made, how to use any contraceptives and how to get tested for STI's:

99 percent want youth to get information on other STIs in addition to HIV.

98 percent want youth to be taught about HIV/AIDS.

96 percent want youth to learn the “basics of how babies are made.”

94 percent want youth to learn how to get tested for HIV and other STIs.

93 percent want youth to be taught about “waiting to have sexual intercourse until married.”

83 percent want youth to know how to put on a condom.

71 percent believe that teens need to know that they can “obtain birth control pills from family planning clinics without permission from a parent.

Some people claim that condoms have a high failure rate in preventing unintended pregnancies, which isn't true. If we are taught how to put on a condom properly and if we use them regularly, it shows that if we use them correctly and consistently then a woman's chance of becoming pregnant Is less than 3%. But there are the couples that do use them sometimes and then they also don’t use them and when they don’t use them consistently the woman's chance of getting pregnant in one year jumps to 15%. Then there are the couples that don’t use protection at all and the women's chances of getting pregnant within one year jump to 85%. People also say that condoms do not prevent the spread of STI's which Condoms are a highly effective public health tool in the fight against HIV infection...

Some people also claim that contraceptive is unreliable and ineffective. Yet again if it is used consistently and correctly it can be EXTREMELY effective. There is failure rates and here are the different forms of contraceptive. The implant has a 0.5% Depo-Provera (also know as the shot): has a 3% rate and then 8% for the patch, ring, and the birth control pills. Then the number jumps up more to 16% for the diaphragm and then all the way up to 29% for spermicides (used alone without condoms or another method). So some contraceptives can have a high failure rate and they can also have a low failure rate. In all honesty you should be on some type of birth control and then on top of that use a CONDOM that is what they're made for and if you use both then your chances are lowered significantly.

The sex-ed programs are working more significantly than the abstinence-only programs, the teens who are in sex-ed programs showed a 50% rate of being safer when it comes to having sex. Since they don't talk about being safe in a LGBTQ relationship studies show that they have a higher risk of contracting an STI rather than teens who are in a heterosexual relationship, and to be in an abusive relationship than those who identify as heterosexual or questioning. We need to educate all of our youth no matter their sexual orientation so that they can be safe and healthy. For the future of our kids I want them to be taught about sexual orientation, birth control, relationships, and safe sex to be taught in a safe positive environment where they can be open about things and ask questions.