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Life Kit

The sex ed most queer students never got

Life Kit

NPR

Education, Business, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Health & Fitness

4.54.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

School health classes in the U.S. rarely include instruction about sex for LGBTQ students. Here's what it could look like if they did. (This episode originally aired in April 2021 and was updated in August 2022.)

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This message comes from how to be a better human, a podcast from TED.

0:04.4

Even if you're a self-help skeptic, you'll find inspiration to improve your life from fascinating in-depth conversations with TED speakers.

0:13.0

Find how to be a better human wherever you listen.

0:16.7

A heads up, this episode includes discussions of sex.

0:20.6

My name is Lily Kuros. I'm a producer and journalist at NPR, and this is Life Kit.

0:25.9

During the pandemic, I spent a lot more time hold up inside my house.

0:30.0

I was really bored, so I did it. I downloaded TikTok.

0:34.2

I didn't know what I'd find, but I didn't want to end up being another millennial

0:38.3

fumbling my way through Megan V. Stallion's Savage Remix or Benny's Super Lonely Dance. My 4U

0:44.5

page landed me on Alt TikTok, where I found a fun LGBTQ plus community, something that I really

0:50.9

missed from not being able to see friends or go to gay bars.

0:58.6

I'm not sure what the algorithm was getting at when one day it started showing me TikToks of queer people giving tips on how to have sex with someone with a vulva.

1:02.4

But there I was wondering, where was this information when I needed it?

1:08.7

It's possible you took sex ed years ago, so you may not remember it well, but even if you

1:13.7

do, did you come out feeling like you learned much?

1:17.3

I went to school in Texas where the approach, to this day, requires educators to emphasize

1:22.3

abstinence until marriage, and that's even if the school chooses to teach about sex.

1:28.6

Growing up, sex was talked about as something that exclusively happened between a cis man and a cis woman. It was all very

1:34.3

heteronormative. Now, fast forward a bit, I'm thinking about having sex for the first time

1:41.2

with someone who has a vulva. I'm excited, but I'm also a nervous wreck

1:47.0

because I have no clue what to do. So, in an effort to save you from that panic, I present this

1:53.4

crash course on how to have better and safer sex, regardless of who you're into.

...

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