Rather than play to the mainstream, "Drag Race" is low-rent, intra-drag, and gleefully obnoxious, mingling dirty zingers with events that one-up "Queer Eye," like drag queens teaching straight men how to "tuck their junk".
If I'm teaching straight creative writing I try to flood the students with great fiction, from Jamaica Kincaid to Pam Houston, and essays on craft by folks like Samuel R. Delany (his "About Writing" is spectacularly useful).
I came to the UK in 1993 but I couldn't teach straight away with my teaching certificate so I did a year's diploma in pre-school education at Southwark college and worked in many children's settings, including the creche of a charity called Positively Women for women with HIV.
This week, Allure magazine drew criticism for posting a brief article teaching "straight haired girls" (ie: white girls) how to get an afro. .
Whereas an LGB-affirming sex education program would teach students that all sexual orientations are equally valid, prejudiced sex ed programs teach straight students that bisexual, lesbian and gay people are immoral and criminal or are at an extremely high risk for AIDS.
Some teachers teach straight from the book, some expect you to learn most of it yourself.
But I'll add that on the flip side, no matter how much I was taught about straight peoples' sexuality and reproduction in health class, I never wanted to become a straight man.
Similarly, when traveling by train the reins have kept my little train lovers from throwing themselves at their objects of affection, everything they have been taught going straight out the window at the excitement of seeing one up close.
Not enough people are teaching young straight women how to empower themselves in ways that don't rely on a very narrow form of approval from straight males.
But, as the proud member of a nine-year fully homosexual coupling, I feel I can offer a slightly more justified perspective (i.e. I have actually had gay sex with a gay man, loads of times) on what flawless gay relationships can teach you straight people about how to go out with each other.
