Skip to Main Content
It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

Faith Formation: Sexuality & Gender Identity

Resources including: Children & Family Curricula & Storytime; Confirmation/Affirmation of Baptism; Denominational Resources; Tween & Teen Mental and Spiritual Health; Sexuality & Identity; and Online/At-Home Tech

Welcome

Welcome to The Ministry Lab's curated list of resources for conversations about Sexuality and Gender Identity with Tweens and Teens. Here you'll find:

  • Books and Downloadable resources that support conversations of depth and breadth
  • Websites, Curricula and Video suitable for sharing via online platforms, with or via parents, or for young peoples' personal learning and growth
  • Organizations through whom parents or youth can find - or lend - support
  • Judicatory and other guidelines, faith statements and other resources appropriate to the conversation from denominational perspectives

If you don't find a resource to fit your need, don't hesitate to consult with The Ministry Lab's director, Emily Meyer, who is happy to assist you.

Books & Downloads

     

one for teens and one for adults: these companion books affirm young people in their questions and explorations and empower mentors and care-givers to have open and informed conversations

Ace     All Boys Aren't Blue     Continuum     Evelyn Hooker and the Fairy Project          Hola Papi     LGBTQ     Made, Known, Loved: Developing LGBTQ-Inclusive Youth Ministry     Modern HERstory     Mother God     Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story          Still Stace: My Gay Christian Coming-of-Age Story | An Illustrated Memoir     Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different     Swinging on the Garden Gate          

  • book and website built on the conviction that "all people have the right to healthy and safe relationships"
  • also see The Power of Me

Austen Hartke, author of Transforming: the Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians, offers a Trans Faith Resource list, including:

  • hotlines and support groups
  • trans 101
  • writings by and for trans folks
  • books for family members
  • children's books
  • resources for faith communities and ministry professionals
  • additional supportive organizations and videos.

Websites, Curricula & Video

Teaching Outside the Binary

Teaching Outside the Binary is a collection of resources, blog posts, and reading lists to help leaders deconstruct the gender binary, support LGBTQ+ students in learning settings, and create a more inclusive environment for students.

Safe and Healthy Relationships - Youth Guide

This four-session guide is for middle- and high school youth (confirmation classes or youth groups); for exploring safe and healthy relationships and imparting lifelong skills to make safe and healthy choices.

Sessions include:

  • Healthy Relationships
  • Online Safety
  • Understanding and Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking
  • Making a Safety Plan and Resources

Teenage Archetype Card Deck

10 nonbinary people

Jennalynn Fung explores What It Means to Be Nonbinary in TeenVogue.

Hope Church (UMC) offers a great list of resources for parents, faith formation leaders, clergy, and allies to create justice, hospitality, and study.

Sparkhouse's Dialogues On: Sexuality

TransMinistry Collective is an online community of transgender and gender-expansive Christians committed to growing our faith, supporting each other, and healing the world.

With resources for Trans People, Family Members and Ministry Professionals.

has youth-, parent-, and educator-based sites including short youtube videos on a number of sexuality and gender topics, including for people with different abilities

is a free online sexual education curriculum that meets National Sexuality Education Standards.

Kate Ott’s youtube videos cover a lot of ground from gender equity to dating to language and consent.

Scarleteen’s home page is all about coping with COVID-19 from the perspective of sexual and mental health for young people. They have free text, message board and live chat options for immediate help for kids suffering abuse (which is likely compounded in these stressful and isolating realities), or those feeling depressed, anxious or confused.

is for teens, by teens, with topics ranging from talking about sex in an immigrant family to dating abuse; from abortion to pregnancy; from condoms and safer sex practices to how to talk with doctors or parents – among many others.

UW Milwaukee's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Plus (LGBTQ+) Resource Center shares this excellent primer on pronoun arenas nd usage.

Support & Volunteer Organizations

Mental, chemical and sexual health services for the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV. Their Behavioral Health Clinic offers:

Committed to improving health care access and the quality of health care received by trans and gender non-conforming people through:

Judicatory & Other Denominational Resources

It's Perfectly Normal | Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health (Harris)

Many judicatories are urging an avoidance of intimate and/or confidential conversations on many online platforms to safeguard vulnerable individuals and maintain healthy boundaries.

The Inter-Group Association of AA for New York, Inc. offers some best practices suggestions here.