When someone finds out I?m Sue Johanson?s daughter, their whole face lights up. Their whole body transforms and they?re like, Whaaat"! There is an amazing shift in energy. It?s quite extraordinary.
Everybody has a story about Sue, Canada?s best-known sexual educator. ?Oh, my goodness, Sue came to my school when I was 12,? or ?We listened to Sue on the radio in the car,? or ?I used to have the radio by my bed so that my parents couldn?t hear.?
Despite her outspoken public persona, I had a very normal upbringing. My dad was able to work from home managing a land development company, and Mum didn?t really get into her line of work until I was a teenager. When I was a kid, she made our clothes; she taught us how to knit and sew; and she baked so that we came home from school to the smell of cookies in the oven. When I was about 13, Mum opened a sexual health clinic for teenagers. Before she had us kids, she was a registered nurse, and she felt there was a lack of access to contraception at that time in our area; the location, in a local high school, was suitable for teens to visit anonymously. The idea came about because an acquaintance of mine from high school had become pregnant at a young age and had no one to turn to. She came to Sue for advice and that got the ball rolling. Sue felt that had there been a place for this girl to go, this unplanned pregnancy could have been avoided.
After the birth control clinic opened, it took off. Mum started teaching about sex and s...