Olly Alexander, lead singer of the UK
band Years & Years, talked about his sexual experiences during a
panel on sex education.
Alexander was joined on the panel by
transgender rights activist Paris Lees and Deborah Gold of the
National AIDS Trust. The event was organized by Student Pride.
The 26-year-old Alexander said that
“gay people did not exist” in his school's curriculum on sex and
that he first learned about gay sex from the British drama Queer
as Folk.
“Gay people didn't exist in our sex
education,” Alexander
said. “I had no idea how men even had sex with men. The first
time I saw it was on Queer as Folk. And when a guy spat into
the hand I couldn't believe it. It just wasn't spoken about. It was
hidden away. You could only guess just by talking with friends.”
Alexander's lack of sex education led
to “huge anxiety” over STDs, HIV in particular, he said.
“I had a huge anxiety about getting
HIV,” he said. “I don't know where that came from. I just
didn't have a positive relationship about sex for a long time.”