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Sex education talk attracts Iqaluit youth

Weekend workshop produces teenage intimacy ambassadors

SARA MINOGUE

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Planned Parenthood conference delegates (from left to right): Steve Carroll, Erin Levy, Ulayuq Peter, Aideen Reynolds, Emily Hanson, Christine Bilinski, Courtney Seguin, Anthony Tootoo, and Jessica Black. Kneeling are Henry Kadluk, Alex Anaviapik, Nastania Mullin, and Sam Gilhuly. Missing are William Alainga and Alexia Cousins. (PHOTOS BY SARA MINOGUE)

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It's Sunday afternoon and ten teenagers are sprawled over the sofas and cushions strewn about the living room at Accommodations by the Sea, talking to a lesbian.

For some, it's the first time, and these kids are taking the opportunity to ask questions they've been curious about.

Debbie Paquette is a seasoned workshop leader, but this is her first time that she's used her sexual orientation as the subject. She takes each question in stride.

Sam Gilhuly, 17, sits on the end of a sofa, directly below a festive line of themed Christmas lights covered in opaque plastic penis heads.

He asks Paquette whether she would be married already if same sex marriage had been legal 10 years ago. Paquette carefully explains that she would not, though she respects the institution and the choice of those who do get married.

Jessica Black, 18, wants to know how Paquette dealt with her friends and family when she first came out, or whether she went through a period of finding new friends.

Just about anything goes in this forum, whose purpose is to develop a set of kids who can serve as sexual ambassadors to their peers.

I'm for Y.E.A.H. North: Sam Gilhuly, 17, Nastania Mullin, 17, Jessica Black, 18 and Anthony Tootoo, 18.

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All of the teenagers are members of Y.E.A.H. North, or "Youth Educating About Health," a new organization modeled on a similar peer-education program pioneered by the Planned Parenthood Federation in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Planned Parenthood is a national federation that views sexual health as a fundamental human right and seeks to educate youth and others on subjects such as birth control, sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and homosexuality.

Paquette was invited to speak by the conference organizers, Iqalungmiut Erin Levy, 24, and Courtney Seguin, 25.

The pair first joined the project as part-time employees in February of 2003. In February of this year, the two traveled to a youth seminar on sexual and reproductive health in Regina.

Since then, they've been working with students at Inuksuk high. Every week, the group meets at the high school during lunch to talk about a sexual health issue, and usually discuss a current event. Typically, about 15 kids show up.

"Who doesn't want to talk about sex for an hour?" Levy asks.

The forum is also a place to talk about current events, such as the supposed "sex bracelets" that recently made headlines.

The jelly bracelets are a revival of an Eighties fashion fad, but media reports suggest that each color represents a different sexual act, to which any boy who breaks the bracelet is entitled. The story may be more myth than fact, but that's part of the discussion too.

From Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, the kids covered a range of sexual issues.

In addition to a real live lesbian, Levy and Seguin invited a teen mother to talk about teenage pregnancy. Public health officer Mary Potyrala did a workshop on sexually transmitted disease.

Sheila Levy, the guidance counsellor at Inuksuk High School, along with an RCMP officer, spoke on the topic of sexual violence.

Levy says the group is a complement to a good sex-education curriculum available in all Nunavut's schools.

"It's a difficult topic to discuss," she says.

In a classroom setting, it's hard to know what the kids are getting, Levy says, and some teachers are not all that comfortable with the topic.

If funding comes through, these 10 kids will be traveling to Arviat, Rankin Inlet and Cape Dorset to teach other kids about what they've learned.

Meanwhile, the kids in Y.E.A.H. North are wasting no time in mastering the topic at hand: homosexual relationships.

"Who's the butch and who's the bitch?" Nastania Mullin, 17, finally asks.

Without a pause or a blush, Paquette sets out to explain how she and her partner share household chores in their relationship.

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