Sexuality

Sexuality is a contentious and overly sensitive subject to discuss nowadays, and everyone seems to have his or her own interpretation of it. However, sexuality is a broad topic that is linked to other big topics like sexual orientation and sexual/reproductive anatomy. To me, sexuality is being able to be a sexual being and to engage in sexual behavior. It also ties into how you identify your gender and your sexual orientation. Most teenagers have a hard time explaining or even identifying their sexuality; some don’t even find out until much later on in life.

Genetics also plays a big role into identifying your sexuality. Teens have issues with how to identify their gender because of their genetics or being born one gender, but developing into another. Also, there are other additional genders rather than female and male; they include intersex and transgender. Intersex is when a person has genetics that state them as neither female nor male because of their “X” and “Y” chromosomes. Transgender is when the person identifies himself or herself as female or male, but it usually doesn’t match up with what their genetics say. Without knowing your gender based on your chromosomes or the gender you choose to identify yourself as, can make it very complex to decide on what your sexuality is.

Lastly, sexuality is also a part of who you are and what you will become. It is definitely not stressed a lot in schools either, especially in high school. To me, in high school, you are supposed to find out who you truly are and how you identify yourself. But if there aren’t any curricula that discuss this very important topic, many students won’t find out their sexuality until they reach or graduate from college. Finding out your sexuality can add extra unnecessary stress on you when you already have enough to stress out about in school. Schools need to have more classes on sexuality, or include sexuality with any sexual education classes to help those students who don’t know theirs yet.

YAC member age 14