A campaigner for mandatory LGBTI-inclusive education in schools told MSPs he wanted to take his own life as a pupil due to a lack of support.
Jordan Daly said his sex education was so poor he left school believing that HIV was curable.
His Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign found nine out of 10 LGBTI students experience homophobia, biphobia and transphobia at school, according to the group, with 27% having attempted suicide as a result of bullying.
Giving evidence to MSPs on personal and social education (PSE) classes, he said his experience was that they were a "waste of a subject".
PSE is taught in most secondary schools in Scotland. The class content is optional and can cover subjects such as sex education, healthy living and careers.
Mr Daly said: "When I was in first year of school, I wanted to kill myself because of the way that I felt and the lack of support available at my school.
"I had been through five years of supposed sex and relationship education in my school and at 17 I thought HIV was curable.
"I thought HIV was like gonorrhea or chlamydia where you could treat it with pills."
The TIE campaign wants a statutory duty on schools to be LGBTI-inclusive.
Mr Daly said: "We do need to do more from a national approach and stop saying it's the local authority's responsibility or it's the school's responsibility when it comes to things like equalities and human rights and the treatment of LGBTI young people, it is actually the responsibility of our government."
Clare Clark, from student charity Sexpression UK, told Holyrood's Education and Skills Committee that she backed calls for mandatory, consistent PSE lessons across Scotland.
She said: "Teachers have a kind of fear of talking about LGBTI issues in case they offend. They don't know what to say to children about safe sex and contraception.
"If it was something that was mandatory, people would be more confident and there would be less of a fear and stigma about talking about this."
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