7 LGBTQ sex facts you probably didn't learn in high school sex ed class

Barriers like condoms are not just used to prevent pregnancy. They serve an important role in preventing the spread of STIs like gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV.

According to Flowers, they should be used regardless of you or your partner's genitalia. However, oftentimes condoms are framed as the only option. Dental damns, latex gloves, and other alternatives can better suit the needs of different people.

"If you or your partner has an enlarged clitoris from taking testosterone, you can create a barrier method using a latex glove by cutting off the fingers and placing it over the clitoris, or by cutting the glove or a condom into a dental dam that leaves extra space in the thumb for the clitoris," Flowers said.

Even if you're performing non-penetrative sex, these kinds of barriers should be used.

Barriers are important even if you're using a sex toy on a partner.

If you use sex toys on multiple people (like yourself and your partner), putting a condom on them can help keep everyone involved safe.

"Condoms can also be used on sex toys to reduce the chance of passing STIs between partners," Flowers said.

Sometimes, trans and non-binary people undergo Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), and take gender-affirming hormones like estrogen and testosterone.

While these hormones change the body, affect fertility and even eliminate periods for some, they are not a form of birth control. People on HRT can still get pregnant or impregnate another person.

"People taking gender-affirming hormones like testosterone and estrogen can still become involved in a pregnancy," Flowers said. "To prevent pregnancy, consider non-hormonal birth control options, including the copper IUD or barrier methods like external or internal condoms, which still work while taking gender-affirming hormones."

Oftentimes, sex and losing your virginity is framed as having penetrative sex between cisgender man with a penis and cisgender woman with a vagina.

But sex and losing your virginity can look like a variety of ways for people and certainly doesn't have to involve penetration.

In addition to penetrative sex being centered, sex in many sex ed classes is oftentimes from as a means to an end to have a child. Not only does this undermine the importance of pleasure in cisgender heterosexual sex, it completely erases many queer people who cannot have sex that results in a pregnancy.

"Too often, sex education casts all adolescent sexual activity in the narrowest, most sex-negative of lights: potentially dangerous at best, and catastrophic at worst," Desiderio told Insider. "This failure to integrate sex positivity matters to queer and straight, cisgender young people alike."

Desiderio told Insider instead educators should be openly talking about pleasure in the context of sex.

"Having frank, open conversations about sexual pleasure acknowledges people have sex for reasons other than reproduction, affirming the identities of LGBTQ+ people too often erased by curricula infatuated with the nitty-gritty details of when sperm meets egg," Desiderio said.

According to Flowers, dating violence is oftentimes mentioned in the context of cisgender and straight relationships, but it's crucial for LGBTQ youth to understand dating violence can happen to anyone, regardless of gender identity, presentation, or sexual orientation.

In fact, because LGBTQ people are at risk of being rejected by their family and facing homophobia or transphobia in their day to day life, they are more at risk of falling into toxic relationships.

"LGBTQ+ young people deserve sex education that helps them learn how to identify healthy and unhealthy relationships, teaches them about consent, and lets them know they deserve to be supported if they are in an unsafe or unhealthy relationship," Flowers told Insider.

While the decision to come out differs from person to person, having the proper language to talk about sexual orientation and gender identity is necessary for a young LGBTQ person to talk to their family.

"Including tips for coming out about gender identity or sexual orientation in classroom instruction is one way to de-center heteronormative relationships and ensure all young people are getting what they need from sex education," Flowers said.

Here are some tips Flowers suggested that can make you feel more comfortable and prepared:

• Choose a private location
• Plan what you're going to say ahead of time
• Prepare for questions about your sexuality or gender identity

The way we have sex, and access sexual healthcare, can be greatly impacted by our gender, sexuality, or race. For example, HIV/AIDs still disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx queer men in the United States.

That's why it's important to understand the challenges you personally face in life, beyond in the bedroom, according to Desiderio.

"These factors combined affect the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ and gender nonconforming youth, as evidenced by high rates of attempted and completed suicide, unplanned pregnancies, and HIV and sexually transmitted infection diagnoses," Desiderio said.

At school, Desiderio says, there should be open discussions about each child's identity, so they can be prepared for oppression and the barriers they may face in life.

"Institutions organized for the dominant population too often marginalize, ignore, or erase the LGBTQ+ experience and queer sex," Desiderio said. "Young people face vast systemic inequities and structural barriers to ensuring their health; affirming, inclusive sex education is one way we can support and empower young people to thrive."

• Read more:
• 7 myths about queer sex you should stop believing now
• 'The L Word: Generation Q' showed period sex between two women, breaking a sexual taboo in its first 30 seconds
• Merriam-Webster named 'they' word of the year because of the rise in people openly identifying as non-binary