CLEVELAND, Ohio —A group of professors at Cleveland State University say education and the way it’s presented usually changes with the times, but the way sex education is taught in schools hasn’t changed a bit. 

  • The THRiVE Research Collaborative at Cleveland State University has spent the last two years conducting studies on gaps that exist in sexual health information access for LGBTQ+ youth
  • Collaborative members say within a curriculum, LGBTQ+ students are not seeing their relationships or their identities represented
  • The experiences faced by the LGBTQ+ individuals included in the study will be highlighted during a community forum on Thursday

“Sex education has a heavy focus or emphasis on disease prevention, or risk prevention pregnancy prevention. That is definitely what we are finding in our analyses of textbooks, as well as our interviews with youth,” said Katie Clonan-Roy, THRiVE Research Collaborative.

The THRiVE Research Collaborative at Cleveland State University has spent the last two years conducting studies on gaps in sex education and gaps that exist in sexual health information access for LGBTQ+ youth. 

Katie Clonan-Roy says the collaborative has talked to countless youth members of the LGBTQ+ community, held focus groups, and collected data from community partners and organizations. 

“Within a curriculum, they're not seeing their relationships or their identities represented, and it's been this way, they're being kind of completely marginalized or excluded from the curriculum that they're receiving,” said Clonan-Roy.

The collaborative says youth in the LGBTQ+ community are turning to the internet and to each other to get information that’s not covered in schools.

“I think in some ways it's really great, because they're able to start finding identities that are actually similar to themselves, so they are reaching information, but it's really problematic because there's no consistency about what is actually being put online and what they're able to access, and there's no way to moderate that it's medically accurate,” said Kimberly Fuller, THRiVE Research Collaborative.

“I didn't really learn much until I was an adult,” said Clonan-Roy. “I learned a lot about sex, gender and are heterosexual sex for my friends so I could help and protect them, but I didn't really learn about things to help me until I was in college. So, I think that quote kind of demonstrates the exclusion that LGBTQ+ youth are experiencing within sex education.”

Kimberly Fuller, who is now an associate professor at Cleveland State and a member of the collaborative, says growing up, she experienced that same exclusion when it came to sex education.

“I remember a couple of organizations coming in, and the ones that did came in really abstinence heavy and just told us that, you know, abstinence was the only way, made us sign contracts, and didn't really talk to us about how to keep safe when we were going to have sex, even if it wasn't right at that time,” said Fuller.

Fuller's experience and the experiences faced by the LGBTQ+ individuals included in the study, will be highlighted during a community forum on Thursday. 

“By attending something like our community forum, that can build awareness within them, so that they can advocate for curricula or lesson materials that are more inclusive and supportive for LGBTQ+ youth specifically, but all youth more broadly,” said Clonan-Roy.

The two say the movement towards more inclusive sex education has to start with local support and partnership.

“It can be really difficult to make a lot of changes throughout the state, because the national health education standards aren't applied in the state of Ohio, and because there's actually legislation stating that we cannot have health education standards for the state of Ohio,” said Fuller. “We know that breaking into the schools and trying to piecemeal, it is going to be very difficult.”

Fuller says she’s hopeful that even those who aren’t and don’t have children in the LGBTQ+ community understand that reformed sex education can benefit everyone in the classroom. 

“You know, I hear, hear that, like I hear that it would be really scary for them to have their kids start learning information and not feeling like it's age appropriate or not sure that they know what to do with it,” said Fuller. “But on the other hand, it's also really scary to see people who are 20,30, 40, 50 years old who still have never gotten that information. Representation does matter for these kids, they don't see photographs of themselves in textbooks, are not seeing their relationships represented, they're not able to find information that is important for them, and representation can be the difference.”

The group say they plan to start developing resources to share with schools, health educators and parents.

They are also seeking funding to provide LGBTQ+ youth with internet-based tools that teach safe and comprehensive sex education.