Sex education and the promotion of heteronormativity

Abstract

This article examines the promotion of heteronormativity (defined as monogamous, marital, middle class, and white heterosexuality) in US school policy, and argues that sexuality education policies, standards, and curricula demonstrate ambivalence towards LGBTQ individuals and families, and recirculate and reproduce racialized, gendered norms about what forms of desire and familial attachment are appropriate and healthy for American citizens. The author analyzes federal- and state-level sexuality education law and demonstrates how they are linked to the racialized regulation of individuals and populations, as well as how they link heteronormativity with positive affects and non-heteronormative families with negative affects. The article also takes Virginia’s Family Life Education Curricular Standards as a case study of the promotion of heteronormativity and the regulation of affect and intimacy. The author argues that the state’s promotion of heteronormativity in education policy and curricula both enacts and legitimates homophobia in schools.