{"id":3861,"date":"2021-08-02T14:09:46","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T18:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=3861"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:53:08","slug":"deborah-roffman-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/deborah-roffman-68\/","title":{"rendered":"Deborah Roffman \u201968"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deborah Roffman \u201968<\/span><\/strong> talks about sexuality in ways that are radical to a post-Comstock American (see our feature Still fighting<\/a> for more on the outdated laws). Gender and gender roles, sexuality, reproductive health, sexual pleasure, and consent are all in Roffman\u2019s curriculum. Her expertise is highly sought after in classrooms\u2014for students and parents\u2014around the country. She has written three books about sexuality education for parents (a new book for young children, The Science of Babies<\/em>, is due out soon) and has been interviewed as an expert source many times, including for an HBO documentary and a feature in The Atlantic<\/em>. She\u2019s the Sex Lady.<\/p>\n

\u201cI often joke that I don\u2019t recall my mother ever suggesting that I become a sexuality educator,\u201d Roffman says. \u201cI fell into this work purely by accident, which is how many people ended up in the field at that time.\u201d In the early \u201970s, sexuality education was in its infancy, which is maybe why Planned Parenthood hired Roffman despite her lack of knowledge and experience in the field. When her Planned Parenthood supervisor left for the Park School of Baltimore, a progressive private school, Roffman followed. She continues to be a sexuality educator at Park and consults with other schools across the country. \u201cWhen I came to Park in 1975, I was told, \u2018We only have one requirement for you. And that is to listen to your students first and lesson plan later,\u2019\u201d Roffman recalls.<\/p>\n

But many schools lack comprehen\u00adsive sexuality education. Roffman says the more typical \u201cstay out of trouble model\u201d goes like this: \u201cHere are the body parts that you have. Here\u2019s what they do. Here\u2019s the trouble they can get you into. And here\u2019s how you can prevent that.\u201d Sex education across the U.S. varies greatly. In 37 states, educators must talk about abstinence, and only 15 states mandate medically accurate information. Only nine states require the inclusion of people who identify as LGTBQIA+; seven states prohibit educators from talking about sex from an LGTBQIA+ framework or require educators to frame LGTBQIA+ identities and relationships negatively.<\/p>\n

However, that isn\u2019t the case everywhere. Roffman teaches sexuality education to keep her students safe\u2014but also to support them in becoming healthy, happy, and ethical human beings. Her approach is holistic and nurturing. It goes far beyond condoms and STDs to discuss healthy relationships, the expectations and realities of sexual behavior, and how gender, gender roles, and sexuality are essential to one\u2019s identity. \u201cIn evaluating a curriculum I look to see if it is body-focused or whole person-focused.\u201d Roffman asks. \u201cIs it a broad based enough that everybody understands how pervasive issues of sex, gender, and reproduction are in our lives?\u201d<\/p>\n

Roffman started at Park teaching elective classes to juniors and seniors and expanded sexuality education to middle and elementary grades, including a semester-long human sexuality course for seventh graders that she started in 1977. As of this year, Roffman has stepped down from the upper-level classrooms to work exclusively with elementary-aged children and to create a curriculum that could be used by teachers and parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in attitudes and beliefs and how they affect behavior and society, and there\u2019s so much to unpack in regard to sexuality,\u201d Roffman says. \u201cAnd of course, it\u2019s very healing to be in this field for people who grew up the way I did\u2014with absolutely no education, no support\u2014and to suddenly realize that it\u2019s okay to talk about sexuality. It\u2019s okay to think about it. That is truly liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debbie Roffman \u201968 is a sexuality educator, one whose expertise is highly sought after around the country\u2014both in classrooms for students and in books for parents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":3903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[54973,56332],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87521],"class_list":["post-3861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","category-women-of-goucher"],"yoast_head":"\nDeborah Roffman \u201968 | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Debbie Roffman \u201968 is a sexuality educator, one whose expertise is highly sought after around the country, both 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