When Texas lawmakers have considered legislation promoting comprehensive, evidence-based sex education, religious-right groups have shamefully screamed that such classes will promote “recreational gay sex” and “drug-based sex education.” Unfortunately, those deeply dishonest arguments have been enough — so far — to scare legislators away from making responsible changes to sex education policies in a state with one of the highest teen birthrates in the country.
But a report from the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund last year showed that more and more local school districts are moving away from failed abstinence-only programs. Instead, those districts are adopting evidence-based, abstinence-plus programs that teach students about contraception and disease prevention as well as the importance of abstaining from sex. A Houston Chronicle article this week looked at Houston-area school districts making the change to one such program developed by the University of Texas Prevention Research Center.
So what are we hearing from religious-right groups? More lies. Here’s a tweet from the lobbyist for Liberty Institute, the Texas affiliate of Focus on the Family:
He writes about one school district moving away from abstinence-only programs: “Cy-Fair under fire 4 sex ed class teaching anal sex as ‘responsible.'” In fact, most parents who have spoken out about the change have been supportive. But he includes the date and time of a district meeting so that abstinence-only activists can register their outrage.
Except that their outrage will be based on a lie. The new program, It’s Your Game: Keep It Real, doesn’t teach students that anal sex is “responsible.” It does define practices like vaginal, oral and anal sex for students — it’s a sex education class, after all. But the program’s creators point to research that shows It’s Your Game actually succeeds in persuading more students to remain abstinent from all sexual activity — including anal sex. See here and here.
So advocates for a responsible sex education program can point to evidence supporting their approach. Activists and lobbyists for failed abstinence-only, pro-ignorance programs, on the other hand, are once again using misleading scare tactics to lie to parents.
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Get ready to spew your morning coffee!!!
What do we want to gain from Sex Ed? It is ignorant and morally repugnant to do it outside of marriage and it is moral perversion to do it with same gender.
It is slightly amusing to me that those people just don’t get it. Apparently, they went from the age of ten, fell asleep, and stayed that way until they hit 25 or 30 and let those infamous raging teenage hormones pass them by.
I’ve only two words for them: SEX HAPPENS!
Now the question is, will one of THEIR daughters become a teen mother? Will they then rant and rave that the boy have his sperm producing organs removed?
Boys are not the only ones who have sex in their teens. Girls who think they’re “in love” and want to keep their boy friends fall time and time again for the lies that boys put out when they say, “You can’t get pregnant your first time.”
I understand, to a certain extent, where their minds are…”if we tell them about s-e-x,” they’ll “do it.” Well, HELL, they’re going to do it anyway the only question is will they do it safely?
Kids do not come with automatic knowledge about things sexual. They’re either going to learn it on the streets–bad move–or in a place where they can ask questions. It IS gong to happen one way or the other.
Bah…I’m preaching to the choir.
Welcome to the 19th century, courtesy of the evangelicals. Their voice is disproportional to their numbers.
Frustation kicks in when I read comments like the one from rtrev