This article investigates educational experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) youth living in Northern Ireland (NI) through a mixed-methods research design and analytical framework of heteronormativity. It draws on large-scale survey data which, for the first time in NI, captured the experiences of 16 year olds who identify as TGNC. This provides a baseline for the demographics of TGNC youth living in NI and the levels of homophobic and transphobic abuse they experience in school. Survey data are triangulated with findings from five qualitative interviews exploring the subjective experiences of TGNC youth in educational environments. Interview data reveal how heteronormativity is embedded in educational policies and practices. This institutionalisation of heteronormativity was found to be linked to the influence of conservative Christian values, which inhibit open and positive dialogue about TGNC and non-heterosexual identities, in educational domains. We show how educational environments shaped by heteronormativity and conservative Christian values serve to undermine the self-determination and freedom of expression of TGNC youth. In conclusion, we offer practical examples of counter-heteronormative interventions that will assist educators and schools in NI to develop empathetic practice and supportive environments that will erode the inequality and injustice TGNC youth experience in pedagogical institutions.

To date there has been little research on young people and sexuality in Northern Ireland. This paper draws on the first major study in this area to analyse the delivery of formal sex education in schools. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to access young people's opinions about the quality of the sex education they had received at school. Overall, they reported high levels of dissatisfaction, with notable variations in relation to both gender and religious affiliation. In one sense their opinions mesh well with those of young people in other parts of these islands. At the same time the specificity of sexuality in Ireland plays a key role in producing the moral system that underlies much of formal sex education in schools. Underpinned by a particularly traditional and conservative strain of Christian morality, sex education in Northern Ireland schools is marked by conservatism and silence and by the avoidance of opportunities for informed choice in relation to sexuality on the part of young people.

This article reports on the results of a study on men who pay for sex across Ireland. In presenting a detailed picture of the diverse group of sex workers’ clients, their motives and attitudes, we debunk the prevalent stereotypes about men who pay for sex, as continuously used in the public discourse about sex work on both sides of the Irish border: we show that the majority of clients do not fit the image of violent, careless misogynists. We argue that these debates about commercial sex as well as the experiences of those who pay for sex are shaped and nurtured by the specific local context, by conservative Christian morals and the dominant sex-negative culture across Ireland. Finally, we argue that the criminalization of paying for sex which came into effect in Northern Ireland in 2015 and is being discussed in the Republic of Ireland will likely not stop the majority of clients from paying for sex and thus fail to achieve its aim to reduce or abolish sex work.