For 90 years, the Sexual Education Resource Centre has supported reproductive and sexual health across Manitoba. The recent 90th-anniversary social on February 8th was a time for Co-Executive Director Gillian Roy to reflect on how the organization has changed over nearly a century.
“So one big change for us we saw was from being originally the Birth Control Society and then later on Planned Parenthood Manitoba and then now Sexuality Education Resource Centre. Even the name changes themselves are significant for us, and we’re really about how the conversations were changing in those moments.”
SERC is partnering with a professor at the University of Winnipeg to examine its origins in 1934.
According to Roy, in those early years, the Birth Control Society worked with suffragettes, helping women access birth control when it was illegal in Canada and much of the world. Roy notes that eugenics was part of that early history and says SERC has made efforts to acknowledge that history and continue to develop its service to ensure it supports everyone.
“We can see it in our history of SERC when we started talking about at the time gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues to now two-spirit, trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other identities. Even that change in language when HIV became something that people were talking about and even Aids back in the day. What was our position there? How did we pivot our programming and education? What was our approach? So it’s really interesting to look back and create that more fulsome research on the 90-year history of SERC and even the movement around sexual health nationally.”
That development in services has led to sexual health education, 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy, STI prevention, and community-driven initiatives.
Despite decades of progress, there is pushback against sexual health education. Roy says some of that pushback is for abstinence-only education and resistance to inclusive curricula that discuss 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, reproductive rights, and comprehensive sexual health. Misinformation surrounding sexual health, often amplified through social media, creates barriers to informed decision-making, especially among young people.
“Last year or a year and a half now, we worked really hard around that Parental Rights movement and the amount of misinformation that was out around that. We have an office in Brandon, and there was a significant amount of pushback. People were calling for a book ban and what was allowed in schools, and that actually helped rally a lot of support for SERC and organizations like ours and actually helped us to create better partnerships with people in the Westman Region because we were all able to come together on that issue.”
Manitoba is seeing a rising rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), particularly syphilis and chlamydia. These trends are preventable, says Roy, and that is why accessible, evidence-based education and services are a necessity.
While government support for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) access and buffer zones around abortion clinics is a positive step, cuts to essential programs continue to raise concerns.SERC has faced funding cuts, including the loss of federal support for its Our Families Talk About Anything program starting April 1st. For Roy, sustained investment in sexual health resources ensures communities receive the support they need. She looks to the impact of SERC’s Our Daughters program, which focuses specifically on female genital cutting (FGC).
“We are the one province in Canada that has an approach that is very community-driven. So, nationally, the approach to FGC is very different than ours. Ours is around relationship building and creating change internally from the communities impacted by FGC. And our wait list is over 200 people wanting to access that program. And we do get support from the province to try and reduce that waitlist.”
Looking ahead, Roy says SERC remains committed to strengthening community relationships and expanding access to sexual health education. Roy emphasizes that increasing access to sexual health services with fewer barriers will lead to better outcomes for people in Manitoba.
– Ryan Funk, U Multicultural
