Abstract
The LGB+ community’s coming of age generation is the future LGB+ youth generation’s hope for better media and messages that will have a more positive and powerful impact than before. This current generation has grown up in the 2000s and while this was a revolutionary time being a new millennium there was still much to be desired in terms of queer sexuality acceptance and sexuality education in general (Nakatani, 2019). The purpose of this study is to examine messages the community receives in the media and therefore educate those on how to better move forward with the state of our media and relationship between sexuality and stigma. The goal is to help break the stigma and stereotypes sounding sexuality in the media that gets spread to youth during this vulnerable and confusing time in their lives.
This study utilizes the Memorable Messages Theoretical framework to look at the perceived influence media and memorable messages have had on LGB+ youth during their coming out experiences as well as their exploration and understanding of sexuality. College aged participants participated in a survey in which they were to retrospectively recount on their coming out experience and explore what media and memorable messages influenced their understanding of sexuality, as defined as sexual orientation and physical sex and education.
Keywords: LGB+, Youth, Sexuality, Sex Education, Memorable Messages, Media Influence, Perceived Influence, Sexual Orientation, LGBTQ+ Media