The recent passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that forbids the discussion of non-normative genders and sexualities in the classroom reinvigorates discussion around the adequacy and efficacy of sex education in public schools. This is particularly true where in some states, “abstinence only” is the preferred—or required—method of sex education. While a chorus of critics have challenged abstinence only education, some have also called attention to the disproportionate inclusion of gender and sexual minorities in schools’ sex education curriculum. Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill throws into relief systems of inequality, discrimination, and marginalization built into public schools in the United States.

This study therefore explores the contours of sex education in the United States by focusing on how college students narrate their sex education experiences, especially from high school onwards. In particular, this study will investigate how queer college students learn to be queer in high school given the barriers and systems of inequality and marginalization that exists for them as gender and sexual minority youth. By focusing on college students, this study aims to compare narratives of high school experiences to their college experiences at a liberal arts university with a dedicated LGBTQ+ center, women’s center, and intercultural center. The effect of this comparison lies in the ability to trace change over time: this study ventures to explore how college students learned over time about their sexualities.

Comparing high school and college experiences also invites another comparison: formal, institutionalized sex education versus informal sex education systems and networks. If formal, institutionalized sex education proves inadequate for youth—especially programs that teach abstinence only and/or lack inclusive sex education for gender and sexual minorities—then what informal networks, connections, and modes of learning do youth use, if any, to understand their own sexualities? What role does the college experience and college resources play in this process? In short, how do youth, particularly queer youth, learn about their sexualities betwixt and between formal sex education programs?