LGBTQ kids are missing out on sex education—and it’s up to schools to change that

by Ana Valens [L]ast year, California officially mandated LGBTQ history lessons in public schools, vowing to teach “the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans” and their impact on both the state’s and the country’s history. This was a victory for LGBTQ rights, because it’s a rarity; in most states—in all but nine to …

How to Talk Openly With Your Kids About Sex

By Michele Hutchison,Rina Mae Acosta [T]his spring, Rina’s four-year-old kindergartner Bram Julius will learn about colors, shapes, how to play nicely with other children, and take his first steps towards learning about sexuality at school. In these early sex ed lessons the class will discuss butterflies in your stomach, friendship, and whether or not you’re …

British Columbian study reveals unique sexual healthcare needs of transgender men

by Craig Takeuchi [W]hile HIV studies have extensively examined issues related to gay, bisexual, and queer men, one group missing from such research has been transgender men. Consequently, Vancouver and Victoria researchers undertook one of the first such Western Canadian studies, with the findings published on April 3 in Culture, Health, and Sexuality. This study …

Does Progesterone Influence Baby’s Later Sexuality?

By Rick Nauert PhD [A] new study addresses whether supplementing progesterone during pregnancy, a common practice to prevent miscarriage, could influence a baby’s sexual orientation in later life. Dr. June Reinisch, director emerita of the Kinsey Institute in the U.S., led the study. She found that bisexuality is quite common among men and women whose mothers …

Why men and women lie about sex, and how this complicates STD control

By Shervin Assari [W]hen it comes to reporting the number of sex partners or how often they have sexual intercourse, men and women both lie. While men tend to overreport it, women have a tendency to underreport it. Although the story is not that simple and clear-cut, I have discovered some interesting reasons why this …

High-risk sex, girl-on-girl experimenting linked among NYC teens

By Susan Edelman [N]early half the Big Apple’s sexually active high-school girls have had female partners — and many engage in behavior that endangers their health, an alarming new study finds. Researchers from New York University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine based their findings on a 2013 survey of public high-school students citywide …

Patriarchy 101

Consent can’t be implied, Michael Valpy writes. Why is that so hard for men to understand? By Michael Valpy [I] begin each university course I teach by stating that my course syllabus includes a website link to the campus sexual-assault centre and by explaining to my students what sexual consent means in Canadian law. I find …

The way we teach sex-ed is old and ineffective. Here’s how to fix it.

By Stephanie Auteri [I]n a predictable bit of news, the results of a study released this past September show that students consider most sex-education programs to be out-of-touch, outdated, and lacking in the information that might actually prove useful to them. Among the deficiencies reported by teenagers were a focus on fear-based lesson plans, curricula …

Worried your partner might have a bisexual history? Why?

Myths about LGBTQ sexual health need debunking – and healthcare professionals are part of the problem By Phoebe-Jane Boyd “Use a condom, the pill, or get an IUD – avoid pregnancy” was the drill from sexual health practitioners who came to speak at my comprehensive school in Kent. There wasn’t much detail or thought beyond, …