During my health class, my teacher showed us how to properly put on a condom. She put the condom on a condom demo model, so that the whole class could see her demonstration. She knew that one day when we eventually decide to have sex, we would need to know how to put a condom on. It was an exciting day of health class, and it was all made possible by the New Jersey Department of Education!

The New Jersey Department of Education requires that comprehensive sexuality education be taught in New Jersey schools. Comprehensive sexuality education includes information on  birth control, sexual orientation and protecting yourself from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV. Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, on the other hand, which have received over $1 billion of federal and state  funding, focus solely on just saying “no” to sex and the failure rates of birth control and condoms. This year, the federal government finally listened to the research and created the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), which for the first time ever provides $75 million a year for five years for comprehensive sexuality education! However, the legislation includes $50 million of continued funding for ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs

Personally, I find abstinence-only-until-marriage programs so upsetting, because when teachers only discuss the failure rates of birth control and condoms, it means that teens may be less likely to use birth control because they have been misinformed and led to believe that it does not work. These teens will have sex one day, even if it is many years later, so shouldn’t they have honest, medically accurate information—comprehensive sexuality education?

My support of comprehensive sexuality education is just one of the reasons why I vote.

Be Heard

Every election is an opportunity. I definitely will not miss my chance to be heard, and you shouldn’t either!

The upcoming election is just around the corner, and there are issues, like comprehensive sex ed, that are just too important for us to ignore. If you want our government to fund comprehensive sexuality education—not just pregnancy and STD prevention, then you need to get involved.

Teens (and adults) sometimes forget that many of the issues politicians make decisions about directly affect teens right now. What issues affect us? Sex education funding, HIV prevention, anti-bullying legislation, alcohol and smoking laws, gay marriage laws, driving laws, abortion laws, funding for free or low-cost confidential clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, access to emergency contraception…the list goes on. And since we are young, the bills and laws that are passed today have an impact on us for many years to come.

But before you go supporting a candidate, you first need to know where he or she stands on issues that are important to you. There is plenty to learn; check out which candidates share your views on issues that are important to you! And if you're 18, commit to vote.

Support your candidate! Whether you can vote or not, you can get involved by helping candidates with their campaigns. Just go to their Web sites for information on how you can get involved.