After Decades Of Hush-Hush Attitudes,We Can Do So Much Better.

The recent American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against Guam has highlighted that our community has some very antiquated and restrictive laws regarding abortion and access to reproductive health care options.

What is most perplexing is: If Guam makes it so hard for a woman to get an abortion, surely the community would be a huge proponent of safe sex practices, right? But the reality is quite the opposite.

We cannot address the issue of abortion, or of reproductive health care rights, without first talking about Guam’s unhealthy relationship with sexual health.

Guam has one of the highest rates of sexual assault and rape, per capita in the nation — and we are one of the smallest communities in the United States. Guam was also fifth highest in the nation for cases of chlamydia, according to a 2017 Department of Public Health and Social Services report. Guam has also seen an increase in other sexually transmitted diseases since 2017.

Those statistics reveal a community that does not promote safe sex practices and that barely talks about safe sex, consent to sex, or sexual assault.

For decades, mainly due to the conservative teachings of the Catholic Church, sex has been a taboo subject on this island – spoken about behind closed doors or not spoken about at all.

This attitude has rotted our community from the inside – a horrific example being how that “hush-hush” teaching gravely affected the men and boys who were molested by Anthony Apuron, and other members of Guam’s clergy, and how other church leaders covered up these crimes.

In listening to Archbishop Michael Byrne’s interview with K57’s Patti Arroyo on March 8th, he said he hopes that “with acts of love to make abortion unnecessary.”

If the church wants to make abortion unnecessary, then its acts of love need to go much further. Acts of love toward pregnant women will not solve the problem. Such acts, while loving, are short-sighted.

As a community, we can do so much better in educating about safe sex and preventing sexual assault.

If Guam wants to do better regarding reproductive health care, then let us use these acts of love to promote non-violence toward women in our homes and in other places in the community. Let us use these acts of love to have open conversations about sexual assault and harassment.

Good touch and bad touch should not just be taught at school. We should have posters and examples of good touch and bad touch at home and in the office. And if bad touch occurs – let us make it an act of love to report the offenders and defend the victims. Instead of shaming the victims and brushing the incidents under the rug.

Let us promote safe sex and sex health counseling in schools and at home. In health classes, let us teach students to use the scientific terms for their reproductive parts and explain how to have sex safe and plan.

Do not make the act of sex shameful – teach the truth: Unsafe sex and sexual assault are shameful.

Let us encourage people to talk to their partners about consent. And about STDs and ways to prevent them.

Let us, as a community, make it so that everyone has access to all the options they need to practice safe sex. Let us make it so they have choices between condoms, birth control, IUDs, non-hormonal options and, when needed, abortion.

Let us de-stigmatize the abortion option, so it becomes just that – an option. We cannot force others to share our beliefs, but we can fight to provide options for this community to practice safe sex and let them choose what is best for themselves.

With acts such as these, we can address Guam’s unhealthy relationship with sexual health, and take the first steps to heal it.

These acts are the goals of the Famalao’an Rights organization. The mission of Famalao’an Rights is to educate our community about reproductive health and women’s rights. This includes advocating for fair access to all reproductive options so that the right to choose is respected. This movement embodies our goal to heal Guam’s relationship with sexual health and help this community reduce, and someday eliminate sexual assault.

After decades of “hush-hush” attitudes, disturbing statistics and sexual violence, we really can do so much better.

Link: Guam Daily Post Article