Education for all: Experts debate the failure of schools to provide relevant sex and relationships eduction for LGBT pupils
My sole memory of sex education is learning the apparently vital life skill of how to put a condom on a banana. While it’s great that so many pieces of fruit are practising safe sex, I’m not even sure how many straight women have ever had to sheath one of their five-a-day. As a teenage lesbian, this particular parlour game was irrelevant to my personal development. The lesson was made all the more ironic because at that time, whenever we got the chance, me and my best female friend would sneak off to secretly snog each other in the PSHE (Personal, Social & Health Education) room.
In that one painfully inadequate but undeniably fruity sex ed class, there was no discussion of same-sex relationships, bisexual identities or trans issues, yet the all-girls school I attended (I know, jackpot right?) turned out to be a breeding ground for lesbians and bi women, as most schools are – we’re here, we’re queer, please stop ignoring our Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) needs.