Affective Sexual Education (ASE) is a right of the population, recognized by the WHO along with other sexual rights, and an essential and shared task. Those of us who have spent 40 years in the Canary Islands training teachers and families to address ASE in homes and schools, with absolute harmony and collaboration, cannot help but be outraged by the destructive capacity of right-wing political parties to, once again, instrumentalize Affective Sexual Education as an excuse to foster discord and hatred, to undermine plurality, diversity, and freedom of thought in schools; claiming a supposed right of families to censor the education of their children, preventing them from accessing activities programmed by schools that do not coincide with their moral views. A supposed right, which is not such, given that this approach goes against human and children's rights, international treaties, state and regional laws, regulations of the Ministry of Education, and even the Constitution itself. A supposed right that is nothing more than a direct attack on teachers, the public education model, and, above all, the rights of girls and boys.
The function of education is to form free citizens, people capable of thinking, speaking, opining, building their own lives, and participating and living in a democratic society, and this fundamental objective that the State has a duty to guarantee, must do so within the framework of a global, democratic ethic of universal values. Therefore, we are clear that the so-called "parental pin", which has no place in our laws, nor responds to the approaches of families, aims to attack this model of education and impose a culture of fear in schools, to lead teachers to inaction. The alarmism of the right, transmitting very dangerous lies associated with the supposed freedom of expression, education, and religion, seeks to combat policies of equality, diversity, and inclusion, approving measures to defend their indoctrination and curtail the freedom of students.
We celebrate that the Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands has spoken out against the "parental veto", ensuring that this measure "has no place" in the Spanish educational system as it violates current legislation. But we find this response insufficient. Once again, we insist that this Institution, and the government as a whole, must implement measures to ensure that the legislation is complied with in daily practice. We refer to the development of laws, such as the Law on Sexual and Reproductive Health, which indicates that "public authorities, in the development of their health, educational, and social policies, will guarantee information and affective-sexual and reproductive education in the formal contents of the educational system", or to the fulfillment of the PNL approved unanimously in the Parliament of the Canary Islands in October 2018 in which "the government of the Canary Islands is urged to implement comprehensive policies on affective sexual education and attention to sexual and reproductive health, adequately equipped with economic, material, and human resources, based on a positive concept of the human sexual act, sexual diversity, and affective bonds, that promote and guarantee that people are trained to live their sexuality satisfactorily and without risks, and to know how to resolve their affective, relational, and bonding needs within the framework of a relational ethic of equality, sincerity, respect, and responsibility".
It is true that given the harsh reality we are experiencing due to the lack of this Affective Sexual Education (increase in STIs, sexual violence, teenage pregnancies, emotional loneliness...) much is said lately about its necessity. But educational policies in the Canary Islands (and in the Spanish State) in relation to ASE have been characterized by their non-existence and/or ineffectiveness, given that Affective Sexual Education cannot be restricted to specific actions, voluntary workshops, nor can it be limited only to talks by some specialist or activist, as is happening.
Each person is unique and unrepeatable, does not belong to anyone, and has the right to receive Affective and Sexual Education from families, educational centers, health and social services, and the media. An education that puts their needs at the center and that enables them to build their affective and sexual biography, diverse in orientations (homo, hetero, bisexuality...), in identities (men, women, trans*, intersexuals...) and in desires; to build their life with freedom, without discriminatory gender elements and free of risks. An education that provides them with tools to build diverse relationships, guided by the relational ethic of pleasure and shared well-being. An education in good treatment, in respect, in care, in humanity.
These knowledge and tools must be offered in a structured and continuous way in the classroom, a space that, being compulsory schooling, can guarantee that all girls, boys, and young people, in their wide diversity, can access it. An Affective and Sexual Education that in educational centers can (and should) have time, materials, and teachers with skills to implement, in collaboration and coordination with families and health and social services, this comprehensive training. This development requires a determined and committed commitment from public authorities. The explicit inclusion in the curriculum is urgent, and personal and economic means and resources are needed for the implementation of comprehensive, biographical, intersectional education and care plans for sexuality, from a positive vision of the human sexual act, non-heteronormative, from equality and diversity, with the involvement of its protagonists, and as a shared responsibility by the different social agents.
But the truth is that in the Canary Islands, in practice, we do not visualize these comprehensive, community approaches, which are necessary. The current government of progress has not offered alternatives to the dismantling of plans, programs, resources, and services in the area of sexuality, which were carried out by several governments of the Canarian Coalition, nor to the model of Affective Sexual Education that they implemented, which continues to be specified in voluntary, specific, fragmented, and disjointed actions and measures.
The possibilities for educating are many, but they cannot remain in declarations of good intentions, nor be specified in patches or actions for photos, they require going to the root of the problem. Hence the urgency of addressing the repeated non-compliance with the laws, also by the government of the Canary Islands, which with its negligence, closing its eyes to the demonstrated insufficiency that entails carrying out a couple of talks or workshops a year in some educational centers, is harming the rights of the child and youth population. If comprehensive public policies are not developed in education and attention to sexuality, pornography will be allowed to fulfill this function, as the first way to access knowledge of erotica for minors, and media and social networks that are on the way to turning sexuality into just another consumer product.
Other models of life and relationships are needed that do not harm people, that dignify life and the human being. And this requires going beyond institutional declarations, it implies dedicating resources and having sufficient political will to place human needs at the center of political action. Will the "progressive" governments be able to do it?
