Right-Wingers Freak Out Over Montana Sex Ed Curriculum

Photo Credit: Conspirator via Flickr

Gay slurs and erotic art.

These, apparently, are fighting words.  Educators in Helena, Montana are trying to stop elementary school kids from hurling hateful epitaphs at one another, and they’d like to use erotic art to help older teens learn about sex and relationships. This and more has local residents like Pastor Rick DeMato calling local educators ungodly, and claiming that the local school district has “been taken over by those in high places that wish to eradicate Christian morals in America.” More on the thinly veiled Obama attack later.

This new proposed curriculum is now fast becoming national news, largely the result of exaggerated claims, and opponents of sex education have succeeded in forcing a new review of the content at a hearing next month.

For example, kindergartners would learn that “family structures differ.” That prompted Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council to claim on Fox News that the proposed curriculum would, among other things, “teach first graders they might be homosexual.”  Author and educator Logan Levkoff shot back on Fox, saying, “This program is not teaching first graders if they are gay.  They are saying there are a lot of different kinds of families out there.  Some have a Mom and Dad, some have two Moms, two Dads, a single parent, all different kinds of family makeups…”.

Helena, Montana is just the latest community embroiled in a sex education fight. This summer, opponents in at least two other local communities have pushed back at attempts to provide comprehensive sex education in schools.  In late May, Johnson County, Kansas residents convinced local officials to withdraw a bid for federal funding for comprehensive sex education due to the involvement of Planned Parenthood as one of the participants.  In June, some schools in New Jersey disinvited Planned Parenthood educators from co-teaching sex education classes after some parents objected.

As the Obama administration prepares to announce new federal grants to localities to implement comprehensive sex education, these local flare-ups give us an interesting glimpse of the public discourse on the horizon.  The next set of hearings in Helena, scheduled for August 10, may be a valuable window into how the public discourse will evolve in the nation’s most embattled communities.

Some vocal opponents, such as Jim Sedlak, simply oppose any sex education in elementary school and describe sex education programs as “social engineering schemes.” The Associated Press describes the controversy this way:

Under the proposal for the Helena school district, kindergartners would be taught proper anatomical terms, first-graders would learn sexual relations could happen between two men or two women, and fifth-graders would learn the various ways people can have intercourse.

Here are highlights of some of the rhetoric, and the wording from the proposed curriculum:

Fox News:

“It includes teaching first graders that people can be attracted to the same gender”.

 

Actual curriculum for first graders:

“Recognize that family structures differ”.

Fox News:

“In second grade students are instructed to avoid gay slurs”.

 

Actual curriculum for second graders:

“Understand making fun of people by calling them gay (e.g., “homo,” “fag,” “queer”) is disrespectful & hurtful”

 

Fox News:

“By the time students turn 10 years old they are taught about various types of intercourse”.

Actual curriculum for fifth graders:

“Understand that during puberty, many people begin to develop sexual and romantic feelings. Understand that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration. Define STI & recognize transmissions (gonorrhea, syphilis, HIV infection, Chlamydia, genital warts and herpes) Understand abstinence from sexual activity is the only 100% effective way to avoid STIs. Understand anyone can get STIs if they exchange bodily fluids orally, vaginally, and anally. Understand barrier methods of contraception (e.g. male and female condoms, dental dams can greatly reduce but not prevent STIs)

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