Why LGBT Sex Education Needs to be a Reality | Teen Ink

Why LGBT Sex Education Needs to be a Reality

March 23, 2016
By MK.Dao SILVER, Ho Chi Minh City, Other
MK.Dao SILVER, Ho Chi Minh City, Other
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

First LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) has been a widespread topic since last year when the Supreme Court allowed gay marriage across the United States. The LGBT community had received a lot of support; however, teaching it in school is still somewhat a taboo topic. Some school communities are reluctant to educate kids about LGBT in sex ed even though it is important and something that they need to know.  There are many programs and organisation such as GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) sponsored by the government to educate kids about LGBT. Some parents may argue that teaching kids about homosexuality might negatively influence them later in life, however this argument fails to acknowledge the fact that if homosexuality is just like race, it is a very real thing in this world and children should be educated about it. Students should be taught about LGBT in school because it help promotes safe sex for LGBT students and helps students feels accepted.

Sex education is extremely important in teaching youths about puberty and the changes that are happening. Sex education begins in kindergarten and proceed all the way to 12th  Grade  according to EC Section 51933 with age-appropriate instructions. According to the Do Something organisation, annually US teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies more than any other developing country. Sex education programs also reduce teen pregnancy and promote safe sex. The United States has the highest rate of STDs in the industrialised world, 1 in 4 teens contract an infection annually. The LGBT community are more at risk of getting a sexually transmitted diseases than heterosexual therefor  they should not be deprived of sex education. A female high school senior once wrote, “ I had to find information on my own on the internet because non-straight students are ignored.”. This shows how schools fails to provide  LGBT students with sex education, leaving them clueless about safe sex and healthy relationships.

Imagine if you lived in a society where you can not related to? That’s how LGBT students feel when they aren’t taught about LGBT in school. If straight students get an education that is valid to them, shouldn’t LGBT students get the same? Are we not all equals? Students are taught about women struggles, people of color and disabled individuals then why shouldn’t they be taught of the LGBT community? It is knowledge that they will most definitely use when they finish school and step into the real world, because homosexuals are just normal everyday people in society.

Currently, LGBT sex education is not covered by many schools for many reasons. Teachers play an important role in this because individual bias of how this topic should be taught causes LGBT students to feel unaccepted. There are also parents pushback as well as conflict on whether or not kids should be exposed to LGBT in such a young age causing the disagreement. Some parents feel that their child should not be exposed to such things at school. School is about all about preparing its students for the real world, that’s why parents send kids to school in the first place. The truth is that homosexuality is a very real thing in this world with about 23% of the American population being either gay or lesbian.

 

In conclusion, LGBT should be taught in school because not only does it make LGBT students feel welcomed but it also provides other students with knowledge about a very valid part of society. LGBT students are just everyday people and they should not be deprived of being educated just because they’re not heterosexual.  Not teaching LGBT to students is an act of discriminating the LGBT community. After all, who wants to be treated differently and disadvantaged of learning just because they were born the way the are?


The author's comments:

Sex education is an important course that you should have the right to learn about at school. LGBT students are being deprived of this knowledge just because of their sexual preference and are left clueless about safe sex. 


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