Queering Sex Education: Young Adult Literature with LGBT Content as Complementary Sources of Sex and Sexuality Education

Abstract

This article explores the nature of young adult texts as complementary sources of informal queer sex and sexuality education, along with a close reading of a sample of this young adult (YA) literature. LGBT teens are often left out of discussions in sex education classrooms in the United States because of discriminatory curricula, ignorance on the part of some teachers and students, or fear of retribution from conservative political and religious activists. Young adult texts, therefore, have become popular objects of study within many educational fields, especially within the current socio-political climate in the United States, as they represent spaces for teens to explore sex and sexuality within a relatively safe environment, free for the most part from the oppression of homophobic or ignorant peers.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum
• LGBT
• sexuality education
• YA literature

Notes

1. My readings of each of the texts were inevitably influenced by my position is society as a younger gay male. My reactions to the sexual components within each of the texts is inextricably linked to my own views of sexuality and could, therefore, be seen as too explicit for some or not explicit enough for others. It is my argument within this article, however, that these three texts are suitable for a majority of queer teen readers who want fictional representations of characters who are also beginning to explore and understand sexuality in a real-world context as opposed to in a classroom, through clinical discourse and with an absence of the discourse of desire.