Sex Education is changing in a big way. A few months ago, President Obama officially cut the funding for abstinence-only sex education in public schools. Time after time it has been seen as ineffective and a waste of our money as taxpayers. The currently sexist sexual education programs promote ineffective solutions, increase rape culture, provide inadequate public information, and have been proven to lead to broken relationships. Hopefully, this change will lead to a healthier and more open society.

Change is on the way, and here's why this is a very good thing:

1. "Abstinence-only" education is sexist.

Current sex education has done nothing but shame women, and continues to push traditional views of women into our classrooms today. This program enforces the "American" ideals, which has done nothing but weaken, demean, and shame, women for their sexual activity. This includes tactics of virginity shaming videos that compare women to objects such as a dirty shoe. Videos like these are presented in schools everywhere for abstinence-only programs. This shaming quickly spreads from the classrooms to the streets (in the forms of sexual violence and increased rape culture) and even into the doctor's office. Several women have reported to have felt uncomfortable coming clean to a doctor about their sexual activity simply due to the shaming received in the presence of a medical professional.

Our society's behavior starts in the classroom, and for our sexual education programs to teach students (who are in key developmental stages) that women are seen as less, only enforces the sexist behaviors and rape culture we have developed over time. In the article, "Reconnecting Science and Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy Making," the authors state that, "schools are an important venue for the development of norms and values and for fostering positive self-concept and agency around sex, sexuality, and relationships." Women are not only demeaned in these programs, but are taught that they should be self-conscious about sex as well as fear it, because it is not normalized and seen as taboo.

All of this is being done while men do not receive the same shaming for increased sexual activity. This is completely unfair and, thankfully, these programs will be changed to prevent further sexist behaviors in our society.

2. The LGBTQ community is definitely missing out.

There is really no observation of LGBTQ sexual relations and safety in public sex education. For teens who can't come out just yet, the curious, or maybe even the judgmental, there is no understanding or factual information given. For example, last year there was a case in Mississippi of gay sex being taught as illegal during sex education programs. This law was luckily not enforced but included the act of beastiality ("having sex" with an animal, or really raping an animal because animals cannot give consent) which is majorly offensive to not only the LGBTQ community, but to literally everyone.

The current health programs focus on the heterosexual sex act that leads to pregnancy (or at least most do, as each state has altered what is allowed during their public sex education programs, even excluding information on sexually transmitted infections) and therefore do not recognize the spectrum which sexual orientation and gender both lie on for humans. Because there is no recognition of this, these programs (reportedly as of 2015) is non-comprehensive as it does not include all the necessary information that the public has a right to. You may disagree with the scientific complexity of the human sexual spectrum, but it's out there and as a society we need to recognize that it isn't fair to restrict a part of the population from important information that has serious consequences.

3. The growing rape culture and teaching "consent."

Because of the shaming and devaluing of women in abstinence-only education, women are seen as less and therefore are more likely to be exposed to sexual violence. Along with the lessening of women, men are left out of the equation and totally excused from their actions and the old time saying, "boys will be boys," comes into play. I'm gonna get super real right now: I want to know why how many centuries later men are fine with this. Why wouldn't you want to defend your self-control and your "beast-like" nature when women are taught rape prevention? Why aren't we, as a society, taught not to rape? Don't you want to be a part of the population who respects, appreciates, and honors, other peoples' bodies? Why is it you feel the need to dominate over (what is conditioned to be) the "weaker" sex? Lastly, why do you feel the need to go out of your way and make women uncomfortable by cat-calling and verbal harassment, which is also a big part of rape culture?

Rape culture also bleeds into other aspects of public schooling in the form of dress codes. When women are told they can't dress a certain way because they might distract the boys, young girls are immediately sexualized, boys are given the academic favor, and men are from then on declared sexually aggressive beings that can't handle the female anatomy for one day while they should be learning. Again, students are taught this during developmental stages and conditioned to view women as less, but strongly sexual, beings that can be controlled by societal constricts as they have been for years. This is not good and causes physical and psychological damages to a good portion of the population.

Lastly, but most importantly, consent is not specified in sex education programs. Mostly, "no means no," is expressed one or two times by the instructor, but there is so much more to consent than that. Amber Rose said this perfectly in a recent interview. After the host of the show Rev Run declared that clothing is a direct cause to sexual violence and possibly excuses the act, Rose clapped back with the definition of consent that should be taught in sex education everywhere. Amber Rose understands that there is way more than "no means no." What should be taught in schools is that consent is not automatic in relationships and that you can (always and at any point) change your mind and it still counts as giving consent or not.

If all of this would be taught to younger generations, statistics of sexual violence would decrease tremendously, which is exactly what we need.

4. Future relationships are in danger.

As mentioned before, the sexual education programs only emphasize the biological cause of pregnancy between two heterosexual people. This means there is no real discussions on relationships and what makes them healthy, unhealthy, or even dangerous. Because of this, there are higher numbers of sexual violence within relationships. Women have reported to feel uncomfortable talking with their partner about sex and therefore lack emphasis of overall communication between the couple. Also, with the constricts and psychological manipulation behind abstinence-only or other non-comprehensive sex education programs, more people become afraid of sexual expression and therefore lead to strained relationships. The further encouragement of the devaluation of women also creates more pressure for specific family units involving the homemaker, which some women just don't want to follow. There are many different kinds of relationships and there needs to be discussion about all of them within these programs to prevent relationship abuse (whether physical or mental).

5. Apparently consequence is preferred over practicality.

In abstinence-only education, the goal is to wait until marriage. This means there isn't any, "need," by the schools to supply real information around contraception or STI's (sexually transmitted infection). This is a very bad thing. The U.S is in the lead for teen pregnancies surrounding other developed countries like France or Canada. I'm pretty sure this is largely caused by the small fraction of programs that require information about condom usage to be taught. In a survey, as high as 75 percent of males didn’t even check for possible damages and about 30 percent had even put it on inside out.

If this is true, then they are most likely not aware of outside interactions with condoms, something that leads to breakage and other consequences. With little information out there, STIs are spreading like wildfire (which, just to put it out there, is not punishment for having sex, but rather a consequence of inadequate education). Even though condoms or other contraceptives aren't 100 percent effective, they still do a good bit of preventing many of these health hazards which makes the restricts on sexual education programs ridiculous. It is reported that 1 in 5 Americans have an STI. This is most likely because of the lack of condom usage, even though it is a very affordable and easy way to prevent pregnancy and STIs.

Only 13 states in the U.S. right now require correct information about sex when educating within the classrooms. This is terrifying, as this should be mandated as necessary public information. If not, our health, economy and general population are effected greatly.