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.
Y’all had sex ed? My class just played kickball instead because the guest speaker bailed and the actual teachers didn’t wanna teach us.
The most I got from school was: “hey, you have female reproductive organs! Here’s the cheapest maxi-pad! You’ll need it for when you start bleeding! That’s a totally normal thing btw!”
The thing is, I have endometriosis and a heart condition. I didn’t realize that the amount of blood loss I went through on a monthly basis was too much. Nobody ever told me that bleeding until you experience symptoms of bad blood loss isn’t normal. I also kept all the abnormal pain to myself until I was 23.