Avoiding my Sex Education Bias

For my midterm assignment story, "Report brings Utah sex education and STD prevention into the spotlight," I decided to elaborate on a story I read in the tribune by Heather May called, "Silence, no match for increasing STD rate."
I had the opportunity to take sex education in two different states. I first took a sex education class in Washington at Gig Harbor High School, and then moved to Utah my Junior year where I learned that Lone Peak High School wanted me to take their sex education class too. The difference between the two was staggering. I had gotten all the details at my school in Washington, a comprehensive program, and felt that Lone Peak's abstinence based instruction was too vague. To be honest I felt that I didn't even really learn what sex was other than I shouldn't do it. Lone Peak didn't tell me what happens before or after sex, they just let me know that if I did in fact have sex, which should be only after marriage, then my eggs would be fertilized by his sperm. Where were the condoms and birth control talks? What about information on Oral sex and how that transmits STDs, and by the way, what is oral sex? Oh you can't tell me? I see...Not everyone is going to wait until they are married to have sex. Only 51% of Utah is of the LDS faith, it is unrealistic to think that abstinence only education is going to prevent people from having sex. Not only did they not teach me this information in ONE DAY, oh no, I also had to have a permission slip. They crammed all the sex education instruction into one day, and for the other 60 days I learned about who I was emotionally and mentally, and don't forget the career packets we worked on for 3 WEEKS!
Now just to clarify, I am LDS, I am not having sex until I get married because I realize the ramifications of sex, and believe that procreation is the number one reason for sex. I don't believe in sex before marriage, but I am also a realistic person, and realize that half of the state of Utah does not share my values and beliefs. Teenagers are going to have sex, they are curious, they will find it whether you try to hide it from them or not, so you might as well help them learn to do it safely.
Needless to say, I was grateful that I had learned sex education outside of Utah, because I sure didn't learn it in Utah. So with this background information, and my obvious bias, this piece was very difficult for me to write. I had to be extremely careful about leaving my opinions out of the paper, and overall I was very pleased with the way my article turned out. I think from reading it, without knowing me, it would be very hard to tell which way I leaned on the issue, but in closing, all I have to say is Knowledge is Power.