Lesbian Sexual Education Resources: Promoting Inclusive and Comprehensive Learning

For many, sex education is a crucial part of growing up, providing the knowledge and tools to navigate relationships, sexual health, and personal safety. However, this education is not always comprehensive or inclusive, often leaving out LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly lesbians, and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Gap in Inclusive Sex Education

Personal anecdotes highlight the lack of adequate sex education for certain groups. As one person noted, being disabled often meant being shielded from sex education, under the assumption that it was irrelevant. This lack of information can lead to experimentation without proper knowledge and understanding. The traditional focus on heterosexual relationships and procreation further excludes those who do not fit this mold.

It's usually taught, “You are going to grow up, you’re going to get married, you’re going to have a baby.”

The Importance of Comprehensive and LGBTQ+ Inclusive Sexuality Education

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are capable of understanding gender and sexuality. All people, including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, should have access to comprehensive and LGBTQ+ inclusive sexuality education. Just like other people, many of us want to be in romantic and sexual relationships. When we are denied sexuality education, we are prevented from reaching our relationship goals and we are at greater risk of being harmed. We should have access to sexuality education so that we can make informed decisions about our lives, be sexual self-advocates, and have healthy and happy relationships.

Principles for Accessible Instruction

Making sexuality education accessible requires a thoughtful approach that considers the unique needs of all learners. Several principles and strategies can help achieve this:

Universal Design for Learning

Employing universal design principles ensures that the curriculum is accessible to the widest range of learners, regardless of their abilities or learning styles.

Presume Competence

Start with the belief that people with disabilities are capable of learning about and understanding gender and sexuality. If a person does not learn something the first time, that does not mean they will never learn.

Direct Instruction

Structure lessons to gradually introduce new skills and concepts, building upon previous knowledge. Explain new vocabulary and demonstrate how to use new skills, providing opportunities for practice.

Addressing the Hidden Curriculum

Recognize that some information is learned through subtle cues that may be missed by some individuals. Explicitly address these topics in the curriculum. For example, sexuality education curriculum for learners with intellectual and developmental disabilities could address topics such as what attraction feels like, how to ask someone out on a date, and what sexual slang terms mean.

Plain Language

Use everyday vocabulary and less-complex sentences to make information easier to understand.

Read also: Preserving Lesbian History

Concrete Examples

Examples help to show what a concept means in the real world. When you give a few examples, learners can start to see the meaning of an idea.

Visual Supports

Use visual supports, such as drawings, pictures, and videos

Repetition

People are more likely to learn and remember new things when they have repeated exposure to concepts and multiple opportunities to practice.

Time to Process

Slow down and give people time to think about what they are learning.

Check for Understanding

Assessments and "teach-back" methods can help gauge comprehension and identify areas that need further clarification. You can ask learners questions and use assessments to see what they have learned. You can ask learners to “teach back” to you what they learned, so that you can see what they are understanding. This information will show you what you might need to revisit or teach in another way.

Make Accommodations

Provide necessary accommodations, such as reading words out loud, sign language interpreters, speech-to-text technology, communication boards, etc.

Teaching About Gender Identity

Here is one example of how you could use direct instruction, plain language, examples, and visuals to teach learners with intellectual and developmental disabilities about the meaning of transgender.

What to say: There are many different gender identities. I am going to explain what transgender means. Not everyone born female is a woman. Not everyone born male is a man. Some people have a gender identity that is different from their sex when they were born. Transgender people know inside that they are a gender different from the sex they were born. There are many transgender people who live as the true gender they feel inside. For example: [read the text on the slides]. Be sure to use gender-neutral relationship terms, such as “sweetheart” and “partner”, when speaking generally about relationships.

LGBTQ+ Inclusivity Throughout the Curriculum

Gender, sexuality, and the LGBTQ+ community should not be a separate topic that is taught during one class session. LGBTQ+ information, examples, and representation can be included throughout the curriculum, on all topics. For example, if you are doing an activity where learners are talking about consent scenarios, you should include some same sex relationships in the scenarios. When you show pictures of romantic and sexual partners, some pictures can depict same sex partners and transgender people.

Teaching About Parts, Not Assumed Identities

Gender is not so simple! It seems easier to make general statements, such as “Men cannot get pregnant” and “Women menstruate,” but this information is not accurate, as it excludes transgender and intersex people. If we oversimplify and make generalizing statements about anatomy, then our learners will not be prepared to navigate the diversity of gender and sexuality that exists in the world. We recommend that you teach about anatomy based on body parts, instead of assuming the identity of those body parts. For example, if you first teach about reproductive body parts, then you could explain that anyone with a vagina and uterus might get pregnant if sperm goes inside their vagina. If it helps learners to understand, it is okay to say that many people with a vagina and uterus are women, but that it is not true for everyone. Then you can connect this to other lessons about gender identity.

LGBTQ+ Inclusive Topics

LGBTQ+ Inclusive Topics. We asked the 23 LGBTQ+ adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities that we interviewed about what people should learn about gender and sexuality in sexuality education classes. Here are some ways that they felt comprehensive sexuality education topics can address gender, sexuality, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Identity

Teach that gender and sexual diversity and LGBTQ+ identities exist, are valid, and should be accepted. Talk about how other identities interact with each person’s experience of sexuality (for example, disability and race). Body parts are not the ultimate destination. Sex ed is so much more. Asexuality is a spectrum like everything in the LGBT. A lot of asexuals are ashamed to feel some libido, but asexuals sometimes they feel some libido. It’s perfectly fine.

Consent

Teach that each person’s body is their own and each person has the right to make their own decisions about if and when to be sexual with another person. When I was growing up I was watching these movies where you just go and grab someone and make out with them, but you kind of have to have that conversation of consent.

Pleasure

Sometimes sexuality education for people with disabilities is all about avoiding abuse. That is one important topic, but people can also learn that sex can be pleasurable. People can have a pleasurable sex life with themselves and/or with sexual partners. Sexuality educators can encourage people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to figure out what they enjoy sexually to have a pleasurable sex life. Also, porn can bring pleasure to people’s lives. Some people learn about sex by watching porn. They might learn about what they find attractive. Porn can also be unrealistic, show stereotypes, and does not always show consent and communication. I didn’t even see two guys having sex until I was in my teens. And then when I finally saw two men, I was like, “Yes, this is reality. This is reality. This is, yes. Yeah, baby!” Listen, I’m gonna go off script here. I’m gonna get a little X-rated right now. When I saw two men for the first time. Oh, I was blown away. Doing it yourself is not bad. It’s more safer that way. I like doing it with myself now, more than anybody else.

Communication

People can have safer and more pleasurable relationships when they are able to communicate their sexual interests and boundaries to the people in their lives. Learning to communicate about gender and sexuality can help LGBTQ+ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities advocate for themselves and talk to their romantic and sexual partners about their relationships. There is more than one way for lesbians to be together, or for gay men to date, or for transgender people to have sex. These are all things that partners can work out in their relationships by communicating with each other. Speech is one way to communicate. People who use other forms of communication, such as sign language or assistive technology, can also learn to communicate about gender and sexuality. Don’t force the person to do what they don’t want to do. You have to talk to the person, make sure the person is comfortable.

Dating

Sexuality educators can provide information and resources to help LGBTQ+ people learn to navigate the dating world. People often assume that everyone is heterosexual, so it can be hard to meet potential partners who are also LGBTQ+. Also, sometimes LGBTQ+ people can be in danger if they flirt with someone who has negative feelings towards LGBTQ+ people. There are some subtle cues that can help a person figure out if someone is also LGBTQ+ and possibly interested in dating. There are also specific places and dating apps where LGBTQ+ people can find one another. Sometimes dating apps can be great, but it is important to learn how to spot people who are lying or trying to take advantage of others.

Sexual Acts

Sexuality education classes should not only teach about vaginal sex. There are many different ways that people are sexual, especially within the LGBTQ+ community. Learners should be able to learn about a wide range of sexual acts and how to navigate different types of sexual acts while protecting their sexual health. I wanna learn about kissing. I would like to kiss somebody, but not a housemate. Out there [pointing outside]. How to touch people, and hugging. I’m a hugger, not a fighter. I want to learn about touching private spots. They should show what the GLBTQ anatomy is all about. Like, a guy likes a guy and these are the things that a guy and a guy would do. And say it in a tasteful way that wouldn’t freak heterosexual kids out.

Interpersonal Violence

When teaching about preventing, recognizing, and responding to abuse and assault, people should know that interpersonal violence can occur in all different types of relationships between people of all different genders. No matter the gender or relationship, sexual abuse and assault are not okay and are not the fault of the person who was assaulted. Access to comprehensive and LGBTQ+ inclusive sexuality education can prevent people with intellectual and developmental disabilities from experiencing or perpetrating interpersonal violence.

Sexual Health and Contraception

Sexual health education includes learning about annual sexual health screenings, methods of contraception, and disease prevention, testing and treatment. Teach about STI and HIV prevention for a wide variety of sexual acts and about STI and HIV testing, without shaming or stigmatizing sexual activity. Learners should know that there are treatments for STIs and HIV, and that people with STIs and HIV can still be sexually healthy and have pleasurable sexual relationships. You can also teach about medications that prevent HIV transmission, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Many LGBTQ+ people participate in sexual acts that can lead to pregnancy, and people should have information about pregnancy and pregnancy prevention. There are different forms of contraception that may be a better fit for each person, and that can depend on their gender and sexual identities. When LGBTQ+ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities understand their own health and have access to a healthcare provider they trust who is knowledgeable about LGBTQ+ health, they are morely likely to communicate openly with their provider about sexual health and get the healthcare they need.

Families

Sexuality education can include information about many types of families, instead of including only heterosexual couples with biological children. Everything, man! I really think it is important to teach about attraction, touching, consent, safe sex, recognizing abusive behaviors and people, dating, mindfulness with interacting with someone else, STIs, family planning, resources for getting help in an abusive situation, different types of relationships, anatomy, hygiene. I think those are good places to start.

Resources for Inclusive Sex Education

Several organizations and programs are working to fill the gaps in sex education and provide inclusive resources for LGBTQ+ youth and individuals with disabilities:

Queer Youth Assemble (QYA): A collection of young queer people who curate events, resources, and professional development opportunities.
Seen Sex Ed: A sex ed show by young people fighting misconceptions about bodies, sex, and sexualities.
The Youth Sexpert Program: A nonprofit training program that empowers young people to act as experts on sexuality.
Sex, Etc.: Sex education by teens and for teens, providing information, a sex terms glossary, and a state-by-state guide to teen's sexual health rights.
The Queer Sex Ed Community Curriculum: A free, open community curriculum that reflects the experiences of many communities.
The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center: Provides educational programs, resources, and consultation to healthcare organizations.
El Camino: An adolescent sexual health program that employs a positive youth development approach and is inclusive of LGBTQ+ youth’s identities, needs, and experiences.
AMAZE: Video on ConsentIntroduction to the basics of understanding consent.
Primer on Porn Literacy: Porn Literacy: Asking questions to help us better understand the porn we use and how we use it.
Yes/No/Maybe List from Autostraddle/Scarleteen: Guide to talking with partners about things that turn us on/off.
T.S.O.B. Podcast on race and sexuality: A weekly podcast that offers intellectual table talk about race and sexuality.
Women of Color Sexual Health Network: Network of WOC sex therapists, educators, and counselors
Planned Parenthood: Is Masturbation Good for You? A resource for young people.
CDC resource on STIs: CDC guidelines on STI prevention
Planned Parenthood HIV/AIDS page: Updated info on HIV/AIDS
The American Sexual Health Association (ASHA) Safer Sex Tool Box: Details on STIs and prevention
5 ways to normalize STI testing: From the Body is Not An Apology, a radical sexuality and wellbeing platform.
Safer Sex for Trans Bodies: Must-see guide for including broader understanding of sexual contexts and a diversity of bodies.
Living Positively: Your Roadmap to Living Positively , San Francisco AIDS Foundation: Comprehensive Guide from progressive HIV+ rights organization.

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