First it should be said that before the sexual identity of people, there is sexuality as a structuring element of the psyche and inherent to all people, from birth to death. Human sexuality encompasses the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values and behavior of individuals at the sexual level. Its dimensions include the anatomy, psychology and biochemistry of the sexual response system. Also identity, orientation, functions and personality, and thoughts, feelings and relationships. Ethical, spiritual, cultural and moral values influence the expression of human sexuality. The science that studies it is Sexology.
Child sexuality is one of the doors through which children develop their personality and their relationships with affectivity. Sexuality must be linked to the pleasure and well-being of all people, accepting diversity, play, communication and love, where the condemnable (sexually speaking) is coercion and the abusive use of power (male violence but also other types of violence).
Types of sexual diversity
The sexual diversities of people are still a new subject of study in the Health Sciences and in the Social Sciences. So-called “scientific” discourses are still maintained and are based on prejudices and errors. Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia are still too deeply rooted in our culture and our social structures, being a source of discomfort for too many people, due to ignorance, prejudices, stigmas and taboos about human sexuality.
Myths or erroneous beliefs about sex are abundant in all ages and societies. They are the result of inadequate sex education. Through Comprehensive Sexuality Education (ESI), the aim is to review the false beliefs about sexuality present in our context, focusing on the most frequent among children, adolescents and young people.
The importance of education and sexual health
Education takes place mainly within the three institutions in charge of educating people. Human sexuality is symbolic and fundamental for the constitution of a balanced and autonomous psychic structure.
Sex education becomes one of the essential contents of health education, since the need for contact, sexual activity, and intimate interpersonal relationships are some of the basic needs on whose satisfaction depends, to a great extent, the well-being of people”. Félix López, 1994.
Thus we see how Sex Education is linked to another fundamental concept: Sexual Health, which is an indicator of people’s quality of life. Since 1974, the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined it as an integral part of the health of all people and as a world of possibilities for communication, pleasure and love.
Adolescence, a time of identity construction
Adolescence is a critical time in the formation of identity. The representation of oneself becomes a fundamental issue. Adolescents have a great need to be recognized and accepted in order to form a positive and realistic self-concept. At this stage, there is a tendency to construct one’s own behavioral structure based, above all, on socialization among peers.
Anxiety, stress, more intense intergenerational conflicts, rejection by mothers/parents, suicide, addictive behaviors, school abandonment and/or failure, bullying, are pathologies that occur with greater frequency and incidence in adolescence, especially among young gays and/or lesbians, simply because of their sexual orientation. An Adult, Democratic, Plural society cannot and should not accept that the difference of sexual orientations and identities of people, even today, are the cause of a greater number of pathologies and diseases than for the rest of the population.
“There is no subversive form of sexuality per se: it simply happens that, by virtue of the oppression suffered in certain cultures, a given sexual behavior may clash with the sexual norms in force. “J.A. Nieto