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. 2013 Dec 1;10(4):10.1007/s13178-013-0134-5.
doi: 10.1007/s13178-013-0134-5.

Creating comprehensive, youth centered, culturally appropriate sex education: What do young gay, bisexual and questioning men want?

Emily Sweetnam Pingel  1 , Laura Thomas  1 , Chelsea Harmell  1 , José Bauermeister  1
Affiliations

Creating comprehensive, youth centered, culturally appropriate sex education: What do young gay, bisexual and questioning men want?

Emily Sweetnam Pingel et al. Sex Res Social Policy. .

Abstract

We examined young gay, bisexual and questioning men's (YGBQM) experiences with school-based sex education as they sought to learn about sex and sexual health, and their suggestions for improving same-sex education resources. Thematic analysis of 30 in-depth interviews with YGBQM (ages 18-24) underscored the discrepancies between the existing school-based sex education curricula and YGBQM's perceived sex education needs. Our results show that many youths' sexuality and same-sex sexual behaviors are excluded in sex education lessons; however, YGBQM noted that they sought out other resources (e.g., websites) to answer their questions. We discuss YGBQM's ideas for the creation of a sex and sexual health website that would be tailored for youth like themselves, including topics and features that an ideal website would contain. In addition, we present recommended changes to existing school-based sexual education curricula.

Keywords: Internet; LGBT; emerging adult; sexual health.

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