“Something That Is So Overlooked”: Exploring Queer Bodies and Sexualities in Sex Ed in New Brunswick, Canada, Through Participatory Art Production

• In Event: Reauthoring Queer Joy and Justice

Abstract

The sexual lives of 2SLGBTQI+ youth are often passed over in sex ed classrooms. We are interested in exploring how sexual and bodily diversity continue to complicate and refuse these normative and ableist spaces. Using participatory visual research methodologies, we create art alongside sex ed teachers in the province of New Brunswick, Canada and look at the ways queer sexualities and bodies are made possible and impossible in their practice. We find teachers negotiating and recognizing the presence of 2SLGBTQI+ sexuality, but also, we see a missing discourse of queer pleasure, as well as a lack of racial and disabled representation in their discussions. Ultimately, we see value in uplifting queer bodies as sites of desire in sex ed spaces.

Authors

• Casey Megan Burkholder, Concordia University - Montreal

• Melissa Erin Keehn, University of New Brunswick