LGBT sex education is a type of sex education that explores the sexual practices of LGBT people.
Contents |
In many countries, homosexual, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) youth, and those with other sexual orientations or practices, are often ignored in sex education classes,[1] including a frequent lack of discussion about safer sex practices for manual, oral, and anal sex with regards to the different risk levels for contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Supporters of including LGBT issues as an integral part of comprehensive sexuality education argue that this information is still useful and relevant and reduces the likelihood of suicide, sexually transmitted disease, 'acting out' and maladaptive behavior in these students. In the absence of such discussion, these youths are said to be de facto forced to remain in the closet, while youths are left without guidance on dealing with their own possible same-gender attractions and with their LGBT classmates.
Supporters of comprehensive sex education programs argue that abstinence-only curricula (that advocate that youth should abstain from sex until marriage) ignore and marginalize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, who are often unable to marry a partner due to legal restrictions. Proponents of abstinence-only education often have a more conservative view of homosexuality and bisexuality and are against them being taught as normal, acceptable orientations or placed in equal footing to heterosexual acts/relations, and so they generally do not see this as a problem. Supporters of comprehensive programs feel that this is a major problem as it could lead LGBT youth to feel even more alienated and ashamed of their sexual orientation.
Some people do not agree with comprehensive sexual education that references or discusses such practices, believing that including this additional information might be seen as encouraging homosexual behavior. Proponents of such comprehensive curricula hold that by excluding discussion of these issues or the issues of homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgenderism, feelings of isolation, loneliness, guilt and shame as well as depression are made much worse for students who belong or believe they may belong to one of these categories, or are unsure of their sexual identity.
In 2009, the European Committee on Social Rights found several statements in a Croatian mandatory Biology course textbook, including that “Many individuals are prone to sexual relations with persons of the same sex (..). It is believed that parents are to blame because they impede their children’s correct sexual development with their irregularities in family relations. Nowadays it has become evident that homosexual relations are the main culprit for increased spreading of sexually transmitted diseases (e.g. AIDS)”, or “The disease [AIDS] has spread amongst promiscuous groups of people who often change their sexual partners. Such people are homosexuals because of sexual contacts with numerous partners, drug addicts (..) and prostitutes” to be discriminatory and in violation of Croatia's obligations under the European Social Charter.[2]