- US sex-education policy isn't federally mandated and often supports abstinence-only programs.
- This has resulted in many states promoting anti-LGBTQ programs and languaging.
- The
Sex Education Coalition is helping to reintroduce legislation to mandate comprehensivesex ed .
US sex-education policy is predominantly decided by state governments and has historically supported abstinence-only programs, which can create a hostile environment for LGBTQ students and threaten the health and wellbeing of young people.
The American Medical Association advocated for standardized sex-education curricula in the 1950s, but in 2021, we've still yet to see this kind of policy implemented.
"We dont have any federal mandate or provisions around comprehensive sex
Here's a look at how American sex education has evolved over time.
What the US government spends (and doesn't spend) on sex education
Conservative religious groups began treating sex education as a public threat in the 1960s, claiming that teaching children and teens about sex would encourage them to engage in "risky" sexual behavior.
Research shows that sex education actually delays sexual activity in teens, but their fear-mongering paved the way for abstinence-only-until-marriage (AOUM) education programs in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis.
Since 1982, the United States government has spent $2 billion dollars on abstinence-only education, which became even more prevalent (and more funded) on school campuses during the early 2000s under the George W. Bush administration.
In addition to being wholly ineffective, abstinence-only education endangers LGBTQ youth by barring conversations about their identities, actively stigmatizing their relationships, teaching medically inaccurate information, and failing to discuss ways to practice safer sex. But until 2010, these programs were the only sex-ed courses funded by federal dollars.
That year, former President Barack Obama introduced the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), which received $75 million in annual funding, and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP), which received $100 million in annual funding.
While federally funded abstinence-only education continued, these two federal programs aimed to provide science-based information to public-school students. The TPPP funded organizations that develop programs in and outside of schools to reduce US teen pregnancy and STI rates through contraceptive use, and PREP funded programs that teach both abstinence and contraceptive use to vulnerable student populations.
Cut to the Trump-Pence administration. Former President Trump tried to transform TPPP into an abstinence-only program, and in 2018, announced plans to completely eliminate it (though that never happened).
With President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris now in the White House, sex-education advocates and student organizers hope to develop new federal programs and increase existing TPPP and PREP funding - ideally by redirecting $110 million from abstinence-only funds into comprehensive sex education.
How sex ed differs across state lines
Because
In fact, since state and local governments decide how to allocate funding, sex ed isn't even prioritized in some school districts' budgets - so it's not taught at all.
According to SIECUS, 35 states teach abstinence-only education, 15 states don't require sex ed to be medically accurate or evidence-based, and eight states explicitly require teachers to use curricula that discriminates against LGBTQ people by banning words like "gay" and "transgender," referring to queerness as criminal, or writing anti-LGBTQ language into their sex-ed policies
Other states are moving toward more comprehensive and affirming programs. 29 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex ed, while eight require culturally responsive sex education, nine require lessons about consent, and seven include "affirming sexual orientation instruction" about LGBTQ identities and sexual health in their sex-ed policies.
As long as abstinence-only programs and anti-LGBTQ education persist across state lines, students have to organize to demand access to comprehensive curricula.
Armonte Butler, senior program manager of LGBTQ health and rights at Advocates for Youth, supports queer students as they fight for sex-education access and has worked with students at a Pennsylvania high school as they try to get a now-defunct sex-ed program reinstated following a principal's departure - the only sex-ed advocate on the faculty.
Other students, he said, plan letterwriting campaigns to demand districts fund sex-ed programs that provide medically accurate information and don't stigmatize people living with HIV. Students and groups like Advocates for Youth, GLSEN, and Power U are calling for districts to divest from bloated school police budgets and redirect money to resources such as inclusive sex education, trauma-informed school counselors, free menstrual products, pregnancy and parenting classes, and free contraceptives.
How legislation contributes to hostile school environments for queer students
Jaden Ziv, a 21-year-old queer college student and sex-ed advocate, went to high school in Tennessee, where teachers can be fined $500 per student if their lessons deviate from abstinence-only curriculum or they positively discuss queerness. "Legislators know that teachers need a secure job and aren't going to risk the fine," he told Insider.
When schools make it illegal for transness and queerness to be discussed - or just fail to provide education that doesn't stigmatize different identities - they inevitably contribute to issues like anti-LGBTQ bullying and violence.
GLSEN's 2019 National School Climate Survey found that the majority of LGBTQ students (86.3%) hear negative or harassing language from both students and educators - which additionally includes derogatory language around their race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, and disability.
As a result, LGBTQ students were more likely to miss school, develop depression, struggle academically, and express disinterest in attending college.
"LGBTQ students also face high rates of school discipline, including higher rates of detention, suspension, and expulsion than non-LGBTQ youth," Kinjo Kiema, an associate director of youth organizing at Advocates for Youth, told Insider. "Because schools are hostile environments toward queer and trans youth - especially Black queer youth and youth of color - schools effectively push them out, increasing their likelihood of dropping out and funneling them into that school-to-prison pipeline."
In recent months, an onslaught of anti-trans legislation across the country has targeted trans youth, attempting to cut off their access to gender-affirming medical services, ban them from participating in team sports, and mandate teachers inform parents if a child "exhibits gender nonconformity."
Some bills explicitly affect the classroom, while others impact social services, but the harm they cause trans students is the same. "These bills so deeply impact what happens with young people's lives, and young people's lives are in school," Diana Thu-Thao Rhodes, vice president of policy at Advocates for Youth, told Insider. "For a trans young person living in a state where their own identity and body is being debated as allowable to exist - that has a huge impact on mental health, suicidal ideation, and how safe they feel at school."
GLSEN, a national education organization that works to develop affirming learning environments for LGBTQ students, has honed in on four factors that determine safer school climates and student success: supportive educators, supportive policies, inclusive curriculums, and supportive peer-to-peer spaces, which includes campus organizations like gender-sexuality alliances (GSAs). When schools provide all of these resources, students can access the information they need to thrive and be healthy, in school and outside of it.
Brittany McBride, associate director of sexuality education at Advocates for Youth, trains sex educators and encourages them to work towards being affirming - not just inclusive.
"We need to make holistic, sustainable changes throughout the entire curriculum, from using language that's reflective of their experiences - like saying 'partner' instead of 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend,' and not assuming someone's gender identity during lesson examples - to ensuring that teachers are trained to actually understand these lessons," she told Insider. "And not just have one day in class when LGTBQ issues are addressed; that should be a normal part of every single interaction in the classroom so that LGBTQ students get the information they need to live the lives they want."
Ultimately, LGBTQ-affirming sex education contributes to the overall health of our society. "When you're teaching sex ed, you're not just teaching sex ed," Ziv said. "You're teaching consent, bodily autonomy, and how to be aware of yourself. And that's what they're stripping away with these anti-LGBTQ bills."
How policy change can improve the lives of LGBTQ students
"If abstinence-only education is the foundation we're operating from, then what we've been doing for the last 20 years is not really educating people adequately," Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of GLSEN, told Insider. Because of this history, even in states where sex-education policy moved forward after the Bush years, the majority of students were still without comprehensive, affirming programs, and were instead taught from a curriculum limited to avoiding pregnancy and STIs.
Willingham-Jaggers cited other recent federal-funding decisions like the Supreme Court's June 2020 Espinoza ruling, which decided that states must fund religious education, including anti-LGBTQ programs, with taxpayer money, as alarming. "Public dollars are being used to discriminate in schools, so that is a fundamental flaw and loophole that was expanded under the Trump administration and the Betsy DeVos Department of Education," Willingham-Jaggers said.
To expand and improve federal policy, the Sex Education Coalition - a group made up of several allied organizations including Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth, SIECUS, and URGE - is helping to reintroduce federal legislation to mandate comprehensive sex education.
H.R.5, the Equality Act, passed the House in March and, if signed into law, would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include non-discrimination policies around gender identity and sexual orientation, including in public education.
Thu-Thao Rhodes said the coalition is also working to reintroduce the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act (REHYA) by merging it with the Youth Access to Sexual Health Services Act (YASHS).
REHYA aimed to fund comprehensive sex-education programs that go beyond pregnancy and STI prevention, while YASHS aimed to fund sex-ed programs as well as sexual healthcare access for marginalized students. Combining these pieces of legislation would provide federal-funding streams for LGBTQ-inclusive, medically accurate, and age-appropriate sex ed and create a grant program ensuring young people's access to sexual healthcare.
On April 28, following several years of organizing by Alabama students and their allies in coalition groups like URGE, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill into law that will remove anti-LGBTQ language from the state's sex-ed policies. Previously, educators were required to refer to homosexuality as a crime and shameful lifestyle.
"While there is more work to be done, proactive policies at the state level do have an impact on congressional members as far as pushing forward more federal legislation," Thu-Thao Rhodes said.