The condoms, the awkward questions, the detailed pictures of STDs—most students probably feel that sex ed covers more than enough. But while Gunn’s Living Skills class has a unit on sexual orientation, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community is not included in many sex ed programs throughout the nation.

Junior Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) officer Lee Friedman said one reason the LGBT community is not acknowledged in sexual education classes could be that it would make students uncomfortable. GSA Vice President Franzi Mayer agreed. “It’s an awkward subject,” she said. “Being straight is the social norm. People aren’t always ready to accept [that there are people with different sexual orientations]. Parents are like, ‘Do we really want our kids to start ‘believing’ in gay people?’”

Junior GSA President Jessie Belfer agreed. “I would say that it’s probably just because people only want their children to be educated about heterosexual sex because heterosexuality is the norm,” she said. “Parents may want their children to only be taught about reproduction because of their fear that learning about homosexual sex could ‘make their children gay,’ but that’s just not possible.”

However, Belfer also said that it is okay for LGBT issues to be glossed over in some instances, such as studies of reproduction. “If it’s a biology class and they’re teaching about sexual reproduction, then homosexual sex isn’t really relevant,” she said. “If it’s a sex ed class, homosexual sex should definitely be addressed because, frankly, sex isn’t limited to intercourse. Even more importantly, educating students about homosexual sex along with heterosexual sex will help to take away the ‘weirdness’ about it. If people are brought up learning about both heterosexuality and homosexuality, then they are far less likely to consider one of them ‘weird’ or ‘wrong.’”

Mayer noted that though some people may find talking about homosexual sex as something awkward, discussing straight sex is no different. “Asking about gay sex shouldn’t be any more awkward than any other question [about sex],” Mayer said. “I mean, it’s awkward talking about sex with a teacher in general.”

Other students said that incorporating information about the LGBT community in the sex education curriculum would promote awareness and acceptance of the LGBT community. “Some people might feel awkward at first but it might help people acknowledge that it’s there and it’s not just something that you just hear about,” Friedman said. “Some people aren’t going to accept it, but I think that it will benefit [the LGBT] community.”