BAD EDUCATION

Utah’s New Sex-Ed Policy In Schools: Abstinence Only, Don’t Say Gay?

An abstinence-only sex education bill that also bans discussion of homosexuality passed the Utah legislature earlier this week.

Wait, isn’t Salt Lake City is supposed to be the gayest city in America?

The Deseret News reports:

Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden, sponsored the bill in response to what he viewed as inappropriate material being presented in classrooms, specifically materials produced by Planned Parenthood. Throughout the course of the legislative session he said that sex education should take place in the home and was pleased to see the bill pass in the Senate…

“A lot of our districts are already teaching abstinence,” he said. “This will help us set a path in the future where our curriculum doesn’t get hijacked.”

Wright says he wants sex ed to take place in the home, not in schools. State Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said that sex ed happens at school because parents don’t always do the job themselves.

“We’ve been discussing this as if every child has the benefit of two loving and caring parents who are ready to have a conversation about appropriate sexual activity, and I’m here to tell you that’s just not the case,” Romero told the Salt-Lake Tribune.

Republican governor Gary Herbert has not said if he will sign the bill, seeing as some changes were made to it in the legislative process, but is widely expected to sign it.

Did that change include tacking on a don’t-say-gay amendment to the bill, which focuses mainly on making sex education about preaching abstinence and not discussing condoms or STDs?

What do you guys think: could you be okay with a sex-education program that advocated for abstinence only and, however shortsightedly, did not provide instruction on how to use condoms, but did say it’s okay to be a (celibate) homosexual?

It’s an interesting thought experiment—which is more important: safe sex for all or making sure gay teens feel comfortable in their own skin?

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