I was taught HIV was from gay people putting things in the wrong places. I always got scared about having to shower my butt and junk because it meant I was touching one after the other and I could carelessly give myself AIDS. They never taught me if it was the dick touching the poo or the poo touching the dick that would kill me,.so I never knew which to clean first.
Partly bad info from the 80s and 90s. My uncle had HIV/AIDs in thr late 80s-90s. He wanted us all to get together for one last Thanksgiving before he died, but my dad said it was too risky for us kids. My uncle passed before Christmas in 93. My dad regrets it to this day.
What's insane is so many adults still believe AIDS is from being gay. I mean it takes a seconds to reason that any man is more likely to spread AIDS because, you know, they're shooting a bunch of bodily fluids into someone else. But no, the virus can sense the homosexuality.
I'm going to go on a limb and guess that the Catholic school system in Ontario is run by mostly laypeople and a few secular priests instead of one of the orders renowned for their teaching ministry, like the Jesuits.
It's so sad what parents and schools do to kids by withholding basic health info to keep them from being "promiscuous." I knew an older woman who told me when she got her first period that she didn't know what was happening and she was terrified. She didn't want to tell her parents, because they just didn't talk about body stuff, so she waded waist deep in a cold stream to try and stop the bleeding.
Fun fact, this is precisely why the first suicide hotline was implemented in the US.
A young girl killed herself because she got her first period and thought she had gotten an STD. She had no one to talk to and took her own life.
It’s story like this that make me viscerally angry at people who preach abstinence only sex education. You can’t just tell young people to ignore the changes happening to their bodies, it only leads to confusion, mistakes, and fear.
Actually, a small correction: the suicide hotline connected to the story is from the UK, not the USA.
It was actually one of the first crisis hotlines not just in the UK, but also in the world. It was founded in 1953 and the organization's name is the Samaritans. It was also founded by a priest!
When I was in school and we were doing sex ed one of the girls put up her hand and said, my sister does this. Which all the teachers look sort of awkward about. Later on I learnt that her sister was a prostitute and so, yeah, it was a relevant comment.
Sort of awkward though that are 13-year-old is aware of it