PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Yulin Zhao, Young Woman's Advisory Council Participant at Girls For Gender Equity
2:15:58
·
3 min
Yulin Zhao, a participant in the Young Woman's Advisory Council at Girls For Gender Equity, shares her personal experience with inadequate sex education to advocate for Resolution 94 of 2024. She emphasizes the importance of comprehensive sex education in schools to prevent risky behavior and empower youth to make informed decisions about their sexual health.
- Zhao describes learning about sex from peers rather than trusted educators, highlighting the gap in formal sex education.
- She shares her experience as part of the 42% of females aged 15-19 who have engaged in sexual behavior, stressing the potential life-altering consequences of uninformed decisions.
- Zhao urges support for Resolution 94 of 2024 to ensure future generations receive better sex education than she did.
Kid 6 in Shown Video
2:15:58
Hi.
2:15:58
Good afternoon, chair Joseph, chair Lewis, and the members and the staff of committees on education and women and gender equity.
2:16:05
My name is Yulin Zhao, and I'm a young woman's ad advisory council participant at Girls For Gender Equity.
2:16:13
GGE is an intergenerational organization based in Brooklyn, New York committed to the all around development of black girls and gender expansive youth of color.
2:16:22
GGE has been a leader in the conversation around gender based violence and ending school push out for close to 2 decades.
2:16:29
I would like to share my story in hopes that you would support resolution 0094 of 2024.
2:16:36
I always knew that I always knew what sex was at a beginning wait.
2:16:41
I always knew what sex was beginning at a really young age.
2:16:44
I was taught what sex was through word-of-mouth from my middle school acquaintances, but I was never taught what it really was from who it mattered the most and who I could trust the most, which was a teacher.
2:16:57
I never understood how much I could devastate people's lives, and I was uneducated and too young to understand what I was doing.
2:17:04
I'm a part of 42% of females, ages 15 to 19, who have engaged in sexual behavior.
2:17:12
However, I was never taught that having sex at a young age could completely change the future that I wanted for myself.
2:17:18
In fact, my experience with sexual education was not educating at all.
2:17:22
The teacher that taught me only taught me what our sexual reproductive body parts were, and that was that.
2:17:28
My living environment class in 8th grade has taught me more than my health class has, and I hope that explains and speaks for itself more than it does.
2:17:36
Instead of becoming a psychiatrist and going to college and making a difference, my lack of education could have led to pre to teenage pregnancy, and I would have been at risk of STDs.
2:17:46
But my story does not speak for every young female that has had intercourse.
2:17:50
I was lucky that during intercourse, I used the little knowledge I was taught, and I used contraceptives.
2:17:56
It was all I knew about sex.
2:17:58
And I was able to understand the basics of practice wait.
2:18:02
I was under to I was able to understand the basics practice of safe sex.
2:18:08
However, I was educated more than I was.
2:18:12
If I was more educated, I would not have had sex at a young age, and I would have prevented the risk entirely.
2:18:19
It is a fact that every single uneducated youth is not to blame, but instead, it is the teachers, the education system, and society to blame for not educating the youth and realizing the impact they have on students and the choice in their and the choices in their lives.
2:18:34
I was lucky enough to take health in middle school and learn about protection, and I was lucky enough to be educated and not have the future I have set for myself altered for the worst.
2:18:43
Although we cannot prevent the young from having sex, what we can do is educate them to prevent what could have possibly changed their lives entirely.
2:18:51
I want everybody to have a better experience than I did.
2:18:54
The youth of our future wait.
2:18:56
The the future of our youth is in your hands, and I urge you to support resolution 0094 of 2024, not just for me, but for the upcoming youth who deserve to tell a better story than I do.
2:19:08
Thank you.
