- cross-posted to:
- health
- cross-posted to:
- health
In fifth grade, Stella Gage’s class watched a video about puberty. In ninth grade, a few sessions of her health class were dedicated to the risks of sexual behaviors.
That was the extent of her sex education in school. At no point was there any content that felt especially relevant to her identity as a queer teenager. To fill the gaps, she turned mostly to social media.
“My parents were mostly absent, my peers were not mature enough, and I didn’t have anyone else to turn to,” said Gage, who is now a sophomore at Wichita State University in Kansas.
Many LGBTQ+ students say they have not felt represented in sex education classes. To learn about their identities and how to build healthy, safe relationships, they often have had to look elsewhere.
As lawmakers in some states limit what can be taught about sex and gender, it will be that much more difficult for those students to come by inclusive material in classrooms.
New laws targeting LGBTQ+ people have been proliferating in GOP-led states. Some elected officials, including candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, have been pushing to remove LGBTQ+ content from classrooms.
My sex ed classes taught me that gay sex was a sin and condoms don’t prevent the spread of hiv among other things. None of this helped me. Even though I thought I was probably cishet in high school I knew it was bullshit and the only thing that helped me in my sex ed was teaching us to label detailed anatomical diagrams of reproductive biology, which was actually extremely helpful.
I shouldn’t have had to learn safe sex from the queer community. Nobody should have to learn from social media.
The thing about teenagers is that they’re people. Not person-lite, just full on people. And they deserve to know the realities of an important aspect of life the best we can teach it
This is why LGBT+ centers are so important. Even though it’s not their responsibly, they’re doing a great job picking up the slack
It’s also why our history is important. The gays currently coming of age didn’t grow up with a big gap in their elders to make clear what aids is. I didn’t learn I could get hiv from lesbian sex until I read some scathing essays about the lesbian aids epidemic. Our history informs our survival
At least you had some sex ed. We were always self-taught, and learning from the hub isn’t most healthy.
The only thing that really helped me was that my first serious gf went to a different school district and knew some basics.