What's Sex Ed like where you are?

Yeah... I can't really say that mine was heteronormative because it wasn't anything-normative, for the most part it focused entirely on puberty. When we talked about STDs it assumed heterosexual sex was all people did, but I still wouldn't call it heteronormative as it was all theory and individual-based.

 

My experience was pretty similar to a lot of other people's on here: the stuff about straight sex, puberty, contraception and STDs were okay, but I remember on one sex ed day we had a couple of years ago the only time anything regarding other sexual orientations came up was when I asked about it in a Q&A session. One teacher said at the time that they were already thinking of adding a section on that in the future, and I don't know if they did include that in the end but it was pretty encouraging.

On the other hand, I go to an international privately-funded school and from what I've heard the quality of sex-ed in 'local' mostly-Chinese-speaking schools is much worse because the local culture here tends to be quite conservative, especially towards LGBT+ people and activities.

My younger brother had his first sex-ed session a few months ago and he had some questions about gay sex that I felt awkward answering, and it occurred to me that we seem to have demonized or 'othered' homosexual activity to the point where it somehow seems more graphic and less appropriate than straight sex, and I feel bad for dodging by brother's questions. I hope that in a few years a new curriculum can be designed to make sure that LGBT+ people are respected and that kids can have more information about them.

 

there was a video we watched and that was the only talk about lgbt, and that abstinence was the only 'true' way.

 

I have taught young people sex ed and the lessons I was given on sexuality were...well...the ONE lesson was very basic and vague and looked at how we speak about homosexuality and the words that are ok and not ok. Nowhere in it did it say it is in fact ok to talk about and ok to actually be gay.
The stereotypes spouted and things some students have said shock me (some things seem very learned responses from other adults)

 

I have mixed feelings about it. I don't really remember hearing much about LGBTQ+ people when I was in middle school (if there was anything said I forgot about it). Last semester I took a class called relationships where sex ed was also taught and there was a day when the teacher wanted to go over the acronym, the LGBTTQQIAAP one. The class was told that transsexual (I honestly didn't even think that word was still used now that binary and nonbinary are a thing) means basically the nonbinary genders (although the word nonbinary was not used at all) and only one nonbinary gender was taught, genderfluid. Cisgender was mentioned but it was not the correct definition (I think the teacher thought it was what agender is. Awkward moment when cis people don't know the label for themselves). Aromantic was completely ignored and asexuality was first described with an okay definition but it ended up being "people with weird fetishes." Even though lgbtq+ sex was recognized we didn't really learn anything about it. I know in the parenting class that there is talk about raising a transgender child but I was not in that class so I can't give an opinion. Our school's GSA is pretty okay but they still learned the same things my class did about the acronym. Overall I'm disappointed. It is a step in the right direction but a lot of peoples identities were described wrong.

 

Almost non existent to be honest, I remember a few lessons and some freaky Video. but I had to learn it through talk and the internet. There was never a mention of anything LGBT Related in my school so sex ed wasn't any different.

 

Very little detail. Not very helpful.
Basically, most of my sex ed is self taught.

 

Sex ed hmm...well in 5th and 6th grade you had to have parent permission to attend the class, which was around 30 minutes long and only happened once a year. Of course, my dad never signed the paper, but he did give me and my brothers books to read to learn about sex. All approved by people from his church who pointed him to the Christian book store to buy them from.

In 7th grade sex ed was apart of health class, and would be till high school where health classes ended in 9th grade. Pretty standard stuff. Learn about STD, the process of how a baby grows and his born, and learned bout safe sex. That was it. No talk bout gender identity or sexual orientation. Sex ed lasted little under half a class.

 

Please. LGBT+ sex is ignored altogether. For some reason, though my school is very prestigious in everything else, our sex ed classes are ABSTINENCE based. Yikes

 

My school's pretty small and hasn't really had the resources for a good health class until recently. So most people in my grade had to take an online course, which was very probably a pretty poor quality health class. Half of it was on finance and relationships, some taught us street names for drugs, and then there was a little bit on different types of STDs. Nothing about homosexuality or really any useful tips pertaining to sex. It wasn't very helpful, but there's going to be a real health class next year that's gunna be really awesome because my friend is helping to create the curriculum and teach it!

In my state, most public schools as far as I know follow an abstinence-only approach.

---------- Post added 24th May 2016 at 09:29 PM ----------

Just to add to my rant for a sec:
This is kind of obvious, but also very sad, but in areas where abstinence-based health is taught, teens are far more likely to have STDs or to have an unplanned pregnancy than in areas where contraceptive-based health is taught.