Participants in the 2007 SEAT training gathered in Washington, DC.
"We were not only provided with skills, but with great information about the REAL Act. It was so invigorating to be around such a diverse, dynamic, exciting group of people. What a morale boost!" —a past SEAT trainee
UU women at the 2007 training prepared to visit members of Congress to lobby for comprehensive sexuality education.
Washington, DC, Training Focuses on Sexuality Education, Advocacy
March 11, 2008
Comprehensive sexuality education has been gaining rapid and widespread support from individual states and the general public. Recently, Iowa became the seventeenth state to reject Title V abstinence-only education funding. This news has arrived as the Unitarian Universalist Association's (UUA's) Washington Office for Advocacy prepares for the fourth annual Sexuality Education and Advocacy Training (SEAT).At the training, participants will learn how to organize and lobby for comprehensive sex education on the national and local levels. Participants will lobby Congress on March 17th in support of the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act. UUA President William G. Sinkford and a top official from the United Church of Christ (UCC) will lead worship at All Souls Church in Washington on Sunday morning and participate in the lobby day. Other workshops will teach participants about national and state legislation regarding sexuality education, how to address the media, and discussions of faith and spirituality, and will include anti-racism/anti-oppression work throughout.
SEAT began in partnership with the UCC and Advocates for Youth and has now grown to include the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). These partnerships have allowed participants to gain skills and connections that increase their ability to successfully advocate for comprehensive sexuality education. The goal is to bring together diverse teams of Unitarian Universalist (UU) and UCC youth, young adults, and adults from key districts who can start collaborating even before the event to build support for comprehensive sexuality education in their communities and Congressional districts.
The UUA is part of the Religious Advocates Working Group (RAWG). The RAWG was started by RCRC as a way for religious groups in Washington to get together and work on reproductive health issues. Each year the RAWG chooses one or two issues to work on within the reproductive health issue area. This year the focus is on comprehensive sexuality education. In coalition with the RAWG, the UUA is hosting a National Interfaith Call-In Day (PDF) in Support of Comprehensive Sexuality Education. The call-in day will be held on March 17th while SEAT participants are on capital hill lobbying for the REAL Act. The call-in day provides UUs who are not in Washington, DC, with an opportunity to support the REAL Act and comprehensive sexuality education from wherever they happen to be. Simply pick up your phone, call your Member of Congress, and tell them why you think they should support comprehensive sexuality education and the REAL Act. This is a time to let Congress know that, according to our religious values, young people deserve accurate and timely sexuality education and information!
This is the fifth in a series of articles UUA.org will feature from January through March which lift up the critical reproductive health-related work of Unitarian Universalist individuals, congregations, and the Association.
For more information contact la_womensissues @ uua.org.
Last updated on Monday, March 10, 2008.
