Colorado AIDS Project | Get Involved | Advocacy

House Bill 1292

At Colorado AIDS Project, one of the fundamental pillars of our HIV prevention efforts is education. We firmly believe that the more people know about all sexually transmitted diseases including HIV, the better equipped they will be to make positive healthy choices in their lives.

Seems like a pretty straightforward concept right?

It is, except for the fact that we live in a society where it is still not ok to talk about sex. I remember learning about STDs, contraceptives, and all sorts of things that I knew were a bit embarrassing but very important as a kid. But today, children are not learning that in our schools. Somewhere along the way, someone decided that by educating our youth about sexuality, we were encouraging it. They decided that a curriculum based on a particular set of morals would better serve our youth than a curriculum based on science. So recently some school districts instituted an “abstinence only” approach to sex education, utilizing federal funding offered specifically for this purpose..

So how exactly has this “abstinence only” approach towards sex education worked? Let’s put it this way. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every hour two teens in the United States become infected with HIV.

Something needs to change, and that is why Colorado AIDS Project, in its role as a founding member of Colorado Organizations Responding to AIDS (CORA), is officially supporting the comprehensive sex education legislation House Bill 1292.

House Bill 1292:

• Requires school districts, family resource center, and teen pregnancy prevention programs that offer instruction regarding human sexuality to adopt science-based content standards for such instruction. Specifies the minimum requirements for a school district curriculum concerning human sexuality
• The objective of this legislation is to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and abortion among teenagers by ensuring that school districts and teen pregnancy prevention programs that offer instruction and information concerning human sexuality provide teens the science-based information they need to make responsible and healthy decisions, with a primary emphasis on abstaining from sexual activity.
• For teenagers who become sexually active, school districts and teen pregnancy prevention programs that offer instruction concerning human sexuality will both encourage such teenagers to return to abstinence and teach the effective use of condoms or other means of contraception

At Colorado AIDS Project, we believe it is not just a good idea, but our obligation, to decrease the number of HIV infections among our youth and all populations. We believe it is important to emphasize that abstinence is the only absolute, full-proof method to keep from getting or sexually transmitting HIV.  But we also believe that this message needs to be supplemented with accurate and scientifically-based information about other methods where teens can make healthy and responsible decisions, should they decide to be sexually active.

HIV is a healthcare issue. It is not an issue of morality. It is not an issue of judgment. HIV is a disease. It is a disease that we know how to stop. And that’s the thing. There are so many diseases that are still in part a mystery…where we only have so much control. HIV and other STDs ARE preventable, and we know exactly how to prevent them. So why wouldn’t we do everything possible to prevent them in our kids?

To assume that all students are abstinent is naïve. To hide information from them because it makes us uncomfortable is irresponsible. To provide them with balanced education, to emphasize abstinence and other scientifically based methods to empower them to keep themselves safe whatever choices they make, is the right thing to do.

Ok, I know that I am preaching to the choir. So what can you do about it? The bill has passed the House and is going to the State Senate, so your can contact your State Senator and urge them to support HB1292. And keep your eye to our website at www.coloradoAIDSproject.org for updates on this vital legislation.

Click here to read the complete House Bill 007-1292