I don't know how I did it. I think it was the anger, the indignation. I couldn't stand to live in a community were homophobia was considered natural and was promoted. But I soon discovered that homophobia wasn't the only thing being promoted in my social environment. In a broader sense, sexual ignorance was the problem. Teachers in my school never talked about sexuality and when they did, it was from distorted and non-scientific point of views. My fathers, as good heirs of the mexican tradition, never spoke about that either. Instead of a place where I could talk about my sexual concerns with confidence, I was surrounded by silence, a frozen and terrible silence. Freud was one of the first scientists who discovered the healing power of talking; of talking about traumas, experiences, doubts. When I was a 16 year old student at the Williams School of Cuernavaca, my doubts led me, perhaps uncounsciouslly, to develop a project for a Social Studies Class about unprotected sexual relationships among mexican youth. Through this project, I discovered Psychology and Sexology, and immediately knew they were going to be a very important part of my life.

The knowledge I acquired through this project also made me more conscious about sexual health issues, so I started talking with the School's Director about the lack of sexual guidance and homophobia I witnessed daily, and managed to convince him on the necessity of having exclusive spaces for scientific sex education. To proof my point, I decided to conduct a research to measure my classmates' knowledge on human sexuality and their attitudes towards sexual diversity. I elaborated a sex education questionnaire that encompassed many topics, from basic definitions to biological, psychological and social issues of human sexuality. Inspite of the opposition of some faculty members, more than 70% of the High School population (172 out of 244 students) answered the questionnaire, and the results supported my initial hypothesis. After I finished the report on the results, the next step was obvious: something had to be done to counter the misinformation and negative attitudes. It was then when I decided to propose the "Williams School's Human Sexuality Conference", and with the support of the school authorities, I managed to successfully single organize the event in February 2007 while being an 18 year-old senior. For the first time, my high school classmates received lectures on many sexual topics from the hand of experienced sexologists belonging to the Mexican Association for Sexual Health. Movies like Normal, The Matthew Shepard Story, Ma vie en Rose and Philadelphia were also projected to illustrate the lectures on sexual diversity. As with the questionnaire, there were some negative reactions from conservative members of the school's community, but in general, the impact of the Conference was huge and mostly positive. Therefore, after I finished High School, I wanted to continue and expand what I had initiated at the Williams School.

As the American Psychological Association, the World Association for Sexual Health, the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization and many other international agencies, I strongly believe in the importance of scientific and human rights-based sexuality education for human well-being, so I was determined to create awareness among Cuernavaca's schools and society. I had a strong desire of shaking ignorance out of the minds of the people that surrounded me. Consequently, it was in September 2007, as a 19-year old youth, when I decided to create the "Congreso Morelense Interescolar sobre Sexualidad Humana" (www.sexualidadmorelos.com), a Human Sexuality Conference that would gather high schools of Cuernavaca to promote scientific and human rights-based sexuality education. Aided with a single Power Point presentation, I started presenting my project to the authorities of many private institutions. At last, four schools (the Williams School, the Lancaster School, the Hellen Keller School and the Tec Milenio University) decided to participate in (and fund) the First Congress, which took place at the Tec Milenio University, March 3rd-March 7th 2008. Eusebio Rubio-Aurioles, President of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) and David Sánchez Camacho, a federal deputy, inaugurated the Congress. Over 450 students attended lectures on themes related to the components of human sexuality: Parenthood, unwanted pregnancies, birth control, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), erotic alternatives for teenagers to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STIs, sexual dysfunctions, human sexual response, transsexualism, gender equality, "machismo", sexually diverse families, homosexuality, bisexuality, teen dating violence, love and limerence, romantic relationships, etc. Lecturers included top specialists, like Marina Castañeda Gutman (a Harvard graduate and author of The homosexual experience), Juan Guillermo Figueroa, (a researcher who obtained a PhD at the University of Paris and focuses on masculinity and reproductive health), Luis Perelman Javnozon (President of the Mexican Federation of Sex Education and Sexology), María Sánchez-Cordero Dávila (President of the Mexican Association for Sexual Health) and Alma Aldana (past Coordinator of the Program of Sexual Diversity of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, CONAPRED).
Fortunately, the Congress was a complete success. It showed young people's necessity to have exclusive spaces to talk and learn about their sexuality.

The Second Congress, Learning for new realities, developed through March 9th-13th 2009 at the National Institute of Public Health with the participation of three schools and two NGO's (the Mexican Association for Sexual Health and CIDHAL, an association that focuses on gender equality and women rights).
The Second Congress was very innovative, as students attended 5 different lectures according to the school year they belonged to (15 lectures in total). For 10th Graders: Eroticism in romantic relationships, Birth control, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), In equality or inequality: ¿how do men and women learn to live their sexuality?, and Introduction to the science of homosexuality and homophobia. For 11th Graders: Psychological tools for a functional romantic relationship, Violence in romantic relations, Birth control, condom use and STIs, Media and gender stereotypes, and Introduction to the science of homosexuality and homophobia. For 12th Graders: Psychological tools for a functional romantic relationship, Infidelity, Masculinities: The diversity of being a man, Mysogyny and the sexualization of girls, and Sexual Diversity in Foreign Countries: Public policies and Media (I delivered the two last lectures).
Apart from these lectures that varied in complexity, students attended 3 movie debates (about unwanted pregnancies, HIV/Aids and homophobia), 4 real life testimonies (unwanted pregnancies, HIV/Aids, sexually diverse families, and abortion) and 1 structured debate on abortion (based on a model of the General Assembly of the United Nations). In the afternoons, there were 12 lectures for general public: History of sexuality in Mexico, Eroticism in the mexican cuisine, HIV/Aids: A psychosocial perspective, Anorgasmia in women, Erectile dysfunction, Andropause, Violence in romantic relations, Infidelity, Divorce, The new homosexuality, Sexually Diverse Families and Legislating for the transgender community in Mexico. The Congress ended with a Symposium on abortion and a monologue about abortion too. Among the lecturers that I invited to participate were Rolando Díaz Loving (a distinguished professor and researcher of the National Autonomous University of Mexico who obtained his PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Texas), José N. Iturriaga (historian and Past President of the Mexican Gastronomic Association), Nadine Terrein Roccatti (current member of the Advisory Committee of the World Association for Sexual Health) and Víctor Hugo Flores Ramírez (the first lawyer to defend a case of the legal identity of a transsexual person before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation). The Congress was inaugurated on March 9th by Laura Magaña (Academic Director of National Institute of Public Health), Eusebio Rubio-Aurioles (President of the World Association for Sexual Health), Luis Perelman Javnozon (President of the Mexican Federation of Sex Education and Sexology) and Alfonso Alcalá (Director of Morelos' HIV/Aids Program). In the speech I gave in the inauguration ceremony, I urged the mentioned specialists to retake advocacy actions to demand the creation of a National Institute of Sexuality Education that would depend on the Ministry of Public Education. In relation to this matter, the fact that Dr. Mario Henry Rodríguez, General Director of the National Institute of Public Health, allowed me to use the auditorium of the Institute as the Congress venue was one of the biggest accomplishments, because the Federal Government got involved in the project.

The last day of the Second Congress I was really exhausted and satisfied. The door for scientific and human rights-based sexuality education had been opened in a group of schools in Cuernavaca and, most importantly, in the minds of 14 classes of high school students. I had managed to shake some ignorance out! My anger and indignation had made a positive impact, as the anger and indignation of scientists and advocates that for decades have contributed to a change of sexual mentalities around the globe.

In June 2009 I had the opportunity to travel to Gothenburg, Sweden, to the 19th World Congress for Sexual Health of the World Association for Sexual Health, where I presented a work entitled: "CONGRESO MORELENSE INTERESCOLAR SOBRE SEXUALIDAD HUMANA". PROMOTING COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION AT HIGH SCHOOLS IN CUERNAVACA, MORELOS, MEXICO: THE EXPERIENCE OF A 20- YEAR OLD PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT. In that oral presentation, I pointed out the necessity of creating school networks that would support scientific and human rights-based sexuality education at state, national, and international levels. If sexuality education is not completely institutionalized, from kindergarten to high school, with the adequate methods of teaching and result evaluation, a greater sexual health among population will continue to be utopical. Homes and schools constitute the two primary places of sexual learning, but the changes in the later one have a direct impact in the first one, as children and teenagers eventually become adults and form families of their own. If the government of a specific country hasn't initiated the institutionalization of scientific and human rights-based sex education, school networks as the one I created in Cuernavaca represent a perfect path for doing so. School authorities, parents, teachers and teenage students who are experiencing the type of anger and indignation that I felt when I was 16, would do well to start breaking the ignorance around them, but mostly the silence…