Youth as Knowledge Producers: Experiencing Home-Based Sexuality Education in LGBTQ+ Families

Relationship and sexuality education research has largely centred on adult perspectives, particularly in exploring home-based sexuality education. This study shifts the lens to youth voices by examining how adolescents from LGBTQ+ families in South Africa experience and actively participate in home-based sexuality conversations. Using arts-based collage-creating methods with the adolescent participants, youth interpretations of sexuality learning in LGBTQ+ family homes were explored. The findings reveal that youth are not passive recipients but active co-creators of family sexuality knowledge, developing critical literacies about heteronormativity through ongoing and responsive home-based conversations. Youth identified home as a distinct pedagogical space characterised by safety, personalisation, ongoing responsive dialogue, inclusivity of diverse sexual and gender identities, and responsiveness to their developmental needs. However, youth also navigate tensions between LGBTQ+-affirming home environments and heteronormative public spaces, developing sophisticated strategies for managing these boundaries. This study contributes empirical evidence for valuing informal sexuality education spaces and positions youth from LGBTQ+ families as knowledge producers whose experiences can inform more inclusive, dialogue-based approaches. The findings have implications for supporting family-based sexuality education and challenging adult-centric assumptions about youth capacities in sexuality learning.