Teen Advocate Shares Views on Black Teens and Sex

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FARAI CHIDEYA, host:

One of those teen educators is 17-year-old Shaquana Gardner. She's a high school student and a teen advocate for Planned Parenthood in New York City.

Welcome, Shaquana.

Ms. SHAQUANA GARDNER (Teen Advocate, Planned Parenthood): Thank you for having me.

CHIDEYA: So you obviously have a voice because you are speaking to peers all the time.

Ms. GARDNER: Yes.

CHIDEYA: What exactly is a teen advocate?

Ms. GARDNER: The teen advocate program is basically a group of teens that get educated about sexual reproduction and health. And we get educated in the summertime like through an intensive training and then throughout the year. We go and create skits and learn how to facilitate workshops, and then we go to different community organizations and we facilitate those workshops and build those skits in front of other teens.

CHIDEYA: What kinds of questions do people come to you with?

Ms. GARDNER: They range from a lot of questions. Some people come and they'll say, you know, I had unprotected sex. Do you know how I can get emergency contraception? Or other people say, you know, is it possible that I could have STD, you know, and they'll give me certain symptoms, like you know, burning while urinating or itching, that type of stuff. Or they'll be, like, I've had a lot of sexual partners, does that mean, like, is that bad or is that good, those types of questions.

CHIDEYA: Black youth are particularly at risk for HIV and AIDS. What kind of messaging do you do around HIV and AIDS? And also since you were with Planned Parenthood, I'm assuming that you're not giving them an abstinence talk, more of a different kind of talk that focuses on how to deal with sexual behavior in addition to abstinence.

Ms. GARDNER: We just tell them their options. We say, you know, the most protective method is abstinence, which is 100 percent. And then if you choose not to remain abstinent, then you should do this. You can get on condoms and birth control and that type of stuff. HIV is a major risk for black youth, and for Latino youth also, so like I'm really happy that we're in the Lower East Side where there are a lot of black and Latino youth.

And I try and give the information as best as I know it and tell them, you know, just stay protected because it really isn't that difficult to use a condom. So just stay protected. If you choose to have sex, just protect yourself because your life is worth a lot, so is your body, and you should try and protect both.

CHIDEYA: When you think about yourself as a 17-year-old, how has it changed your life being a peer educator? How has it changed your relationship to issues of sex and sexuality being someone who's out there talking to people your own age?

Ms. GARDNER: I would say that it's made me a major activist. And if you asked me, like, four years ago what I'd be, like, thinking in the way I think, I don't think I would have. Because becoming a teen advocate, it really opened my eyes to like so much - so what's going around, you know, the laws that are trying to keep teens from knowing this and knowing that. And I love to teach and I love to learn. And I feel like I get to do both of those. And I want everybody to know their options. Like, I think having options is the most important thing a person can have in their life.

CHIDEYA: Well, Shaquana, it sounds like you got a lot on your plate. Thanks for talking to us.

Ms. GARDNER: You're welcome.

CHIDEYA: Shaquana Gardner is a high school student and teen advocate for Planned Parenthood in New York City.

(Soundbite of music)

CHIDEYA: Just ahead, more news around the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys and a controversial new book explores what it calls racial cleansing in the U.S.

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