Peer sexuality educators' accounts of their work reveal two approaches to empathy with their students: affinity and alliance. "Affinity-based empathy" rests on the idea that the more commonalities sexuality educators and students share (or perceive they share), the more they will be able to empathise with one another, while…

Using collaborative performance ethnography in community- and school-based settings, sex education has the potential to challenge at-risk narratives for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) youth. This paper problematises the youth-led drama project "Epic Queer" to test the "queer" potential of…

Heterosexism and heteronormativity are pervasive in the South African society, but to what degree are they present in Life Orientation (LO) textbooks? This question, explored through a content analysis of widely used Grade 10 LO textbooks, was framed by queer theory. The paper quantitatively examines the coverage of sexualities, and qualitatively…

In countries such as the UK, schools have a responsibility to prevent all forms of bullying, including those related to sexual orientation. However, relatively little is known about how schools go about this work successfully. This study aimed to identify how three secondary schools in south London, England, were addressing homophobia. Three…

This study investigates the perspectives of service providers working with Chinese lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) young people in Hong Kong secondary schools and maps the relationships between same-sex sexualities, religion, education and self-harm. Sixteen service providers, including secondary school teachers, social workers based on and off…

Research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning (LGBTQ) and genderqueer (GQ) students has highlighted the links between school-based marginalisation and decreased school outcomes. This paper applies stage-environment fit theory to an investigation of school 'gender climate', the official and unofficial policing of…

This paper offers an examination of gay-straight alliance (GSA) members' engagement with sex education, sexual health, and prejudice and discrimination in Canadian public high schools. It explores how five students' (four straight and one gay-identifying) participation in GSAs served as a springboard for learning about and challenging…

A Family Life Education (FLE) curriculum was introduced in Fiji schools in 2010 in response to concern about increasing teenage pregnancies and young people's vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections and other health and social problems. However, conservative and suspicious parental attitudes towards FLE have been an obstacle. The…

In the context of changes in UK public discourse concerning sexualities over the last decade, this paper compares education in the field of sexualities equality, enquiring how teachers, doctors and clergy are being prepared for their professional lives. Data from a qualitative study using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are analysed…

Through an analysis of gay protest music (1975) and an educational kit for students (1978), both sponsored by the Campaign for Homosexual Equality in the UK, this paper brings into focus a history of gay rights activists' efforts to marshal popular culture in the development of informal sex education for young people in the second half of the…

This paper examines the "coming out" decisions at work of four lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) teachers in England. It argues that such decisions are complicated by heteronormative discursive practices within schools that render LGB sexualities silent while simultaneously demanding that they are spoken. This double bind for LGB teachers…

The "bullied" gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and otherwise Queer (GLBTIQ) student is a fairly recent figure in the sexuality education research literature. GLBTIQ students have previously been problematised by sex education research in a range of different ways and have been the subjects of varying methodological…

Homosexuality is widely perceived among many Muslims as a "western disease", a natural outcome of the West's secularity and cultural degeneracy. In spite of the emergence of more liberal attitudes towards sexual differences in modern times, moral issues have not lost their relevance in polemical discourse against homosexuality among…

Lesbians and gay men have historically been derided, harassed, silenced and made invisible in Australia. This prejudice and discrimination has been reinforced structurally through social, cultural and political institutions. Although sexual orientation is now included in state and territory anti-discrimination legislation, and recent federal…

For many lesbian teachers and students there are issues and dilemmas that challenge them being "out" in school environments. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explore the experiences of two lesbians in this context. This is a descriptive case study involving semi-structured interviews and conversations. The teacher and a student in the…