Challenging STI Stigma: Relearning What You Were Taught About Sexual Health
We are educated and socially conditioned as a society to see STIs, and those with STIs, as dangerous others.
STIs aren’t relationship death sentences. You were taught that they were.
Sex with multiple partners is still possible for people with STIs, you just didn’t receive that narrative.
You can’t tell that someone has an STI by looking at their genitals, but your sex education trained you to look at sexual partners based on this criteria.
You can still engage sexually with someone with an STI and never test positive yourself. Your sex education didn’t give you the tools to communicate with your partners about safer sex.
Engaging in this space and with my work is hard, especially if this is the first time you’ve confronted STI stigma.
It’s not your fault for how you were taught or raised, but it is negligent to take no action upon confrontation of these inadequacies in sex education.