What I didn’t learn in Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum

Teachers and LGBT former students share what they learned about sex ed in Ontario under the old curriculum

Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants to scrap the province’s updated sex-ed curriculum and go back to a version from 1998 — before marriage equality, sexting and PrEP, and before federal human-rights protections for trans and non-binary people.

But how would a repealed sex-ed curriculum affect LGBT youth? And what is its legacy on LGBT former students who learned from the old version?

Xtra talked with students who got sex ed in Ontario under the old curriculum, as well as teachers who taught the old and updated versions. Here’s what they had to say.

Read More About:
Video, Ontario, Sex education, Canada

Keep Reading

Supporters of HIV AIDS research participate in the 2025 Toronto Pride Parade

Toronto man set to be the first Canadian cured of HIV

The patient received a stem cell transplant for his cancer that acted as a “double cure” because it contained a rare genetic mutation resistant to HIV
A photo of the outside of the New York Times building in New York City

Only 1 in 5 ‘New York Times’ news stories about trans issues quote actual trans people: report

A new 'Assigned Media' report found that the 'New York Times' rarely cited trans people in coverage about trans issues
A side by side of images from On Our Backs, a lesbian magazine.

The radical legacy of ‘On Our Backs’ magazine

“On Our Backs” filled a void by authentically documenting—and celebrating—lesbian sexuality
A side by side of two black and white photos by photographer Peter Hujar, one a self portrait and the other his piece Orgasmic Man.

The haunting photographs of Peter Hujar

Photographer Peter Hujar’s work revelled in eroticism, pain and the thin line between life and death
Advertisement