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The role of third party organizations in countering state gender-based negligence and violence remains underexamined. Particularly in the case of sex education where an ensemble of governance tactics both criminalizes and demands particular romantic and sexual arrangements as well gender performances from constituents. To better explore these dynamics I used qualitative data from a phenomenological study to answer the following question, “How has engagement with online queer affirming sex education through Scarleteen shaped participants’ identities, beliefs about sex education, and professional trajectories?” Scarleteen, a non-profit organization with grassroots origins, has provided queer-affirming sex education online since the 1990s and has 5 million readers annually. My analysis extends scholarship on queer affirming efforts within sex education policy and organizational practice by identifying the role of third party organizations in amplifying constituent agency.
Method
Findings derive from 25 participants across 12 focus groups. 66% of participants identified as gender diverse, over 90% identified as not straight, and 72% identified as white. Across the focus groups, Scarleteen readers expressed that access to queer-affirming, online education shaped their personal and professional trajectories as well as their beliefs about the role of government. After investigating the latter findings more closely using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, I recognized that Scarleteen readers trusted Scarleteen more than government sources relating to sex education. I approached this finding as an opportunity to extend existing theoretical insights on the role of third party organizations in countering government negligence and violence.
Findings
Three findings emerged: 1) access to medically accurate sex education amplified the long-term agency of queer participants, 2) Scarleteen readers responded positively to the discursive tone of Scarleteen’s education, and 3) Scarleteen readers desired Scarleteen to take on more roles of the state outside of sex education. The discursive tone of Scarleteen’s education, which participants described as a counter to governmental discourse aimed at criminalizing or erasing queer identity, established trust amongst queer constituents. Participants experienced Scarleteen as “filling holes” left by the government and families of origin. This “addressing the gaps” impacted how participants parented their own children and shaped how participants interacted with various arms of the state including public schools and government health campaigns. This trust in Scarleteen as a resource and belief in Scarleteen’s efficacy extended into a desire for Scarleteen to fill other roles of the state such as direct service delivery. Ultimately, participants desired Scarleteen to expand its organizational mission at the risk of organizational drift.
Conclusion
In this paper, I build on theories on non-profit management and the role of third party organizations in shaping society. Such scholarship has not sufficiently engaged with queer communities to understand how queer constituents engage with third party organizations nor to what extent queer constituents may feel represented by such organizations. It is not surprising that access to queer-affirming sex education enhanced the long-term agency of participants, but how queer constituents engage with and feel represented by third party organizations is an important contribution for policy and organizational scholarship to consider.