Among Disenfranchised Youth 2 Sexual Health Disparities Among Disenfranchised Youth

A lthough sexual development is a life-long process, youth/young adulthood is typically the time of sexual debut and the beginning of sexual exploration. Pro-moting good sexual health should therefore be a priority during this developmental period. To that end, in 2009 Oregon published the Or-egon Youth Sexual Health Plan (OYSHP), which suggests taking a holistic approach to ensure the sexual health of youth through the reduc-tion of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection (STI), and non-consensual sexual behavior rates. Additionally, Oregon saw the need to offer its youth effective sexuality edu-cation and, also in 2009, passed legislation mandating that students in middle and high school be informed about contraception, the prevention of STIs, and healthy relationships. While all young people need sexual health in-formation and services, there are some youth who would perhaps benefit from greater ac-cess to these. Sexual health disparities exist among certain subpopulations of youth; in fact, one of the primary goals outlined in the OYSHP is to eliminate such disparities. Youth populations known to have sexual health dis-parities include