This week will kick off the third annual SexUality Week, put on by UNM’s Student Alliance for Reproductive Justice.
More commonly referred to as SARJ, the alliance is looking to help, educate and support UNM students with this week’s panels focusing on sexual health and education.
“We want to educate students on things you have to be aware of. We’re providing resources and information to do so,” said SARJ Co-President Dechellie Gray.
SexUality week starts Monday at 11 a.m. in the SUB, where panelists will be speaking on gender identities.
“What we hope for SexUality Week this year is to be positive,” said SARJ Co-President Lili Malkoski. “We’re going to be focusing on broadening people’s perspectives and teaching them.”
There will be a variety of activities across campus for this year’s SexUality Week, designed with the intent of educating UNM students on sexual health.
“What I really want is to reach the student body and help them learn something,” Malkoski said. “We’re trying to put out that it’s important to talk about sex and sexuality and gender, because it’s a topic that isn’t addressed, especially in education, media or even legislation.”
SARJ, however, does more than just organize SexUality Week.
The group has centered its efforts on teaching “inclusive, comprehensive and pleasure-focused sexual health information to the students and community of the University of New Mexico,” according to its Facebook page.
“A lot of people don’t receive comprehensive or accurate sex education,” Malkoski said.
For Gray, the annual event helps combat sexual education programs in schools that are lacking in depth and information.
“Our sexual education system has failed us,” she said. “When students get to college they don’t know a lot about sex and contraception.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
In 2008, New Mexico had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country with 93 pregnancies per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, according to Guttmacher, a nonprofit research institute.
In the state, teaching about contraceptives — like condoms or birth control — is required, but not until students reach junior high.
Abstinence education is required by law to be taught to schoolkids as early as the third grade as a method to maintain personal health, according to the New Mexico Department of Education’s standard for health education excellence, implemented in 2009.
Further, abstinence is required to be stressed as the only completely effective means of preventing unplanned pregnancy, a stigma that Malkoski hopes SexUality Week works to combat.
“I really want to help make campus safer and help students learn about themselves and other people,” she said.
Brendon Gray is a news reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @notgraybrendon.
