Citizenship Lessons in Abstinence-Only Sexuality Education

Abstract We examine abstinence-only-until-marriage education as part of a broad effort to reassert the primacy of conventional (hetero) sexual norms. While all sexuality education offers students lessons in “good sexual citizenship,” abstinence-only-until-marriage education reserves the rights and responsibilities of membership and belonging for those who are willing or able to conform to expectations of heterosexual marriage and excludes those whose sexual lives are routinely cast as suspect and excessive by the prevailing rhetoric. We advocate policies and curricula that recognize the citizenship stakes in sexuality education's lessons and that foster inclusive models of membership and belonging.