“If I had premarital sex, all my ancestors would watch and go snitch on me to God.”

"The information I was given wasn't wrong (they didn't go around saying kissing would get you pregnant), but it was lacking. We weren't taught anything about birth control, masturbation, the actual mechanics of sex beyond 'penis enters vagina', etc. They also kept it purely clinical. There was absolutely nothing about the emotional or social side of things – we didn't learn about consent, arousal, foreplay, etc.

One thing I did appreciate: the abstinence-only part was state-mandated (thanks for nothing, Virginia), but my teachers clearly thought it was stupid and made sure we knew that. We had three sex education units across three years, and all three teachers began the unit with some version of, 'The state of Virginia requires that we only teach abstinence. I'm therefore not legally allowed to tell you about condoms or other forms of birth control, so definitely don't research those in your own time if you're curious.'

"Had a woman come in to teach basic sex education, but only to the girls, when I was 10.

According to her, abortion wasn't real, and she showed us wildly inaccurate models of babies' growth stages. The models showed that the second the baby was conceived, they were a tiny, perfectly formed baby, and they just got bigger over the nine months.

Oh, and she also tried to teach us about periods in such vague terms that no one had a clue what she was on about."

"Basically, these bodybuilders did stuff like rip phone books in half while preaching.

I remember this one story he told about a girl who was saving herself for marriage and her boyfriend kept pressuring her. Eventually, he proposed, then kept pressuring her. She figured that since they were engaged, it would be OK, so she had sex with him and got AIDS. He kept saying that if she had waited, she would not have gotten AIDS, but I was pretty confused by this because if she had married the guy, she would have still gotten AIDS.

That was 30 years ago, and I still think about it sometimes."