Inclusive Sex Education for LGBTQ Youth in Arizona

The goal of this paper is to examine sex education in Arizona, its heteronormative nature and the structure of the curriculum that marginalizes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) student populations. Previous research has established the heteronormative practices and language used in sex education classrooms can be damaging physically and psychologically to LGBTQ youth. There has been a recent push for comprehensive sex education across the nation that has begun to tackle some heteronormative practices that we see in sex education. This research focusses on examining the sex education legislation in place in the state of Arizona and how it compares to the comprehensive sex education seen in the state of California. Additionally, an international perspective of sex education was researched in order to identify the practices used in a country known for its progressive and effective sex education program, the Netherlands. Furthermore, this paper takes into account the need of LGBTQ students in Arizona as it pertains to their sexual development and the missing discourse of desire, pleasure, and sexual fluidity in sex education that may play a role in the sexual development of adolescents. LGBTQ students deserve the opportunity to be healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally. The purpose of this research is to ensure this by developing LGBTQ specific sex education curriculum recommendations based on research and ultimately recommend Arizona to not only adopt a more comprehensive sex education curriculum but also consider the perspectives of its marginalized LGBTQ youth.