Notes on Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Homophobia in Higher Institutions of Learning

Let’s talk about C - S - E! Let’s talk about you and me! 

Did you sing that? I can only hope so, because that was the point. I really thought I did something with that one. Anyway, hi Community! I’m in good spirits today for some reason. I hope it rubs off on you. 

Let’s pretend today’s Thursday. Remember this?

Today we’re throwing it back to our Second Information-Sharing Meeting held on 31st July. Our most recent quarter meeting happened just last month, but I’m going to make you wait to read the writeup on that. In case you didn’t know, our meetings always feature a presentation by our Research Team. The topic for the 2nd Information-Sharing Meeting was Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Ghana and homophobic violence in educational institutions. Let’s begin. 

UNESCO in 2016 defined Comprehensive Sexuality Education as a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and voila aspects of sexuality. CSE is scientifically accurate, age-appropriate and developed for in and out of school use. In spite of the new and very much manufactured outrage against CSE, it’s nothing new — even to Ghana. 

According to research by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation, here’s the timeline of Comprehensive Sexualith Education in Ghana: 

1957 — CSE is incorporated into the Civics and Hygiene Syllabus, covering aspects of personal hygiene and human biology 

1972 — CSE is introduced as part of the Social/Environmental Studies syllabus under reproductive health, family, and sexuality, with emphasis on abstinence.

1987 — CSE is included in life skills syllabus

1998 — CSE scope is broadened to include HIV/aids and social studies 

2000 — The Government of Ghana publishes its first Adolescent Reproductive Health Policy which addressed adolescent reproductive health issues

2013 — The national HIV and aids, STI policy advocated for the inclusion of sexual reproductive health education in the school curriculum with lessons on HIV and other STIs

2015 — The Adolescent Reproductive Health Policy is renamed Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy for young people in Ghana

2017 — The KnowItOwnItLiveIt CSE manual is launched by the Minister of Education as a result of UNESCO and IPPF’s 2012 global CSE assessment

Ghana saw a coordinated campaign against CSE by media houses, the leading opposition party and religious leaders. CSE was framed by the media as LGBTQ education. The minister of education and the president were regularly referred to as LGBTQ advocates as a result of this, and apparently that’s one of the worst things you could be called in this country. 

We don’t need to think too far to know the effects of limited or lacking comprehensive sexuality education; we only need to look around: sexual assault, rape and rape culture, Consent, education, homophobic, violence, and teenage pregnancies, and untreated STDs that lead to avoidable health complications and diseases. Did you know that certain shades of HPV and cervical cancer, chlamydia pelvic inflammatory disease, which can cause infertility? Precisely. 

Yes, CSE includes information on LGBTQ+ identities and gender theory. Why wouldn’t it? It all falls under sexual sex and reproductive health. Politicians oppose scientifically accurate sexuality education because once students realise queer people aren’t that much different from cisgender heterosexual people, it’ll be harder for them to weaponize homophobia against their opponents and use it to beg for votes. With bold, queer inclusive and truly comprehensive sexualith education, the media, Foh Amoaning and co will have very little to do with their time as their money and relevance depend on their desperate homophobia. 

I’m convinced that homophobia is as prevalent as it is now because of this lack of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in sexuality education and why homophobia is so normalized in society, especially in higher education. Remember the story of the queer person who was attacked on the University of Ghana campus? Did you know that the university has an anti-discrimination clause that clearly mentions sexual orientation? Precisely. 

I’d like to believe that when we think of sex education, we think of consent education and we know that sexual violence can be significantly reduced as a result of this. I want us to think of LGBTQ+ people as well. Shoutout to the Research Team for the Digital Archive Project for their presentation on this topic, and shoutout to me for this writeup :) 

Try not to miss our next quarterly meeting, and stay tuned for Community Chat 2. Will it be on our Twitter? Instagram? Facebook? Stay tuned and you’ll know. 

Thanks for reading! Talk to you later!