Current LGBTQ+ Sexual Environment According to the Human Rights Campaigns’ most recent LGBT youth survey, over 1.3 million high school students in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+ (Human Rights Campaign, 2018). Yet, the number of sexual education programs providing relevant information for LGBTQ+ youth is significantly fewer than the programs that are suited for solely heterosexual students (Greene et. al, 2014). Effective programs cover topics from sexual safety, preparedness, and consent, to domestic abuse and emotional and mental health connected to sex, which have been proven to increase successful and healthy relationships between adolescents in an especially formative yet fragile part of their development (Greene et. al, 2014). Same-sex youths
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al, 2012). “Web-based sexuality education” has become notably popular in the United States regardless of gender, but it is used as more of a secondary source for cishet adolescents, but a primary source for queer youth (Bay-Cheng, 2001). The most common searches by LGBTQ+ youth are centered around STIs, HIV, and contraceptives (DeHaan, 2012). However, their higher tendencies to research these topics do not seem to help their actual sexual health, because as mentioned previously, consequences of unsafe sex are much more prevalent in queer …show more content…
and the role models it provides for all impressionable individuals, especially LGBTQ+ youth who live in a society where they are told that they are not normal, can often shape how they believe they should carry their identities and behaviors, including their sexual identities and behaviors (Gomillion, 2011). For instance, the portrayal of HIV/AIDS in the media as “gay cancer” caused it to be represented as a disease spread villainously by MSM, thus giving youth misconceptions about their sexual wellness regarding this issue without even providing examples of dealing with the issue in a safe manner like using condoms or getting tested for STIs (Gross, 2002). Even more so, women who have sex with women (WSW) have been influenced by lesbian porn and sex scenes in movies and television that display their sexuality as nothing more than a phase, that their sexual experiences are not valid without penile presentation or a man present, and that WSW sex acts do not require protection, which can lead to emotionally and physically damaging risky behavior in order to assimilate with the models represented on the screen (Gross, 2002). While these media effects were not expected nor desired, the Uses and Gratification Theory that supports Entertainment-Education can explain why any group, especially one that is in desperate need of models and representation to understand their own identities, would be so reliant on media portrayal of LGBTQ+ people (Communication for
al, 2012). “Web-based sexuality education” has become notably popular in the United States regardless of gender, but it is used as more of a secondary source for cishet adolescents, but a primary source for queer youth (Bay-Cheng, 2001). The most common searches by LGBTQ+ youth are centered around STIs, HIV, and contraceptives (DeHaan, 2012). However, their higher tendencies to research these topics do not seem to help their actual sexual health, because as mentioned previously, consequences of unsafe sex are much more prevalent in queer …show more content…
and the role models it provides for all impressionable individuals, especially LGBTQ+ youth who live in a society where they are told that they are not normal, can often shape how they believe they should carry their identities and behaviors, including their sexual identities and behaviors (Gomillion, 2011). For instance, the portrayal of HIV/AIDS in the media as “gay cancer” caused it to be represented as a disease spread villainously by MSM, thus giving youth misconceptions about their sexual wellness regarding this issue without even providing examples of dealing with the issue in a safe manner like using condoms or getting tested for STIs (Gross, 2002). Even more so, women who have sex with women (WSW) have been influenced by lesbian porn and sex scenes in movies and television that display their sexuality as nothing more than a phase, that their sexual experiences are not valid without penile presentation or a man present, and that WSW sex acts do not require protection, which can lead to emotionally and physically damaging risky behavior in order to assimilate with the models represented on the screen (Gross, 2002). While these media effects were not expected nor desired, the Uses and Gratification Theory that supports Entertainment-Education can explain why any group, especially one that is in desperate need of models and representation to understand their own identities, would be so reliant on media portrayal of LGBTQ+ people (Communication for