About Your Sexuality, or AYS, was a comprehensive
sex education
Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduc ...
course published by the
Unitarian Universalist Association in 1970, with further revisions in 1973, 1978 and 1983. The course materials were originally developed by Deryck Calderwood. Although made available to other organizations, the materials were primarily used in courses taught to youth ages 12–14 (in mixed-gender groups) in
Unitarian Universalist
Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to:
Christian and Christian-derived theologies
A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism:
* Unitarianism (1565–present) ...
congregations.
AYS covered many topics including anatomy, gender identity, relationships, sexual intercourse and intimacy; as well as covering sexually transmitted diseases and birth control. AYS was based on the assumption that sexuality is a natural and healthy part of being a human. It considered the wide range of sexual feelings and behaviors as normal. AYS was unique among sex education courses because it used visual materials that depicted human sexuality in a realistic and graphic fashion. For example, film strips used in the course showed images of real
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" ...
and
homosexual encounters, and
masturbation.
Other media used in the course of AYS included audio tapes of interviews with
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
, homosexual, and heterosexual men and women speaking about their sexuality.
AYS was replaced by
Our Whole Lives
Our Whole Lives, or OWL, is a series of six comprehensive sexuality curricula for children, teenagers, young adults and adults published by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries. P ...
in the 1990s. It was also featured in the book ''
Harmful to Minors'' by
Judith Levine as an example of complete sexual education.
See also
*
Unitarian Universalism and LGBT topics
References
External links
Our Whole Lives roots{{Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist topics
Sex education
Unitarian Universalism