Republican lawmakers in multiple states are pushing new bills aimed at keeping gender ideology out of sex education and emphasizing parental rights to make decisions on the information their child receives.
The bills come as Republicans have stepped up efforts to reform public school instruction since the pandemic, during which remote learning allowed parents to gain more insight into the sometimes sexually explicit or racialized curriculum their children were learning.
One bill making its way through the Oklahoma legislature would overhaul sex education for the state. If passed, it would not only require parents to “opt-in” for their child to attend the classes but also would ensure children are being taught that biological sex and sexual identity and expression are unambiguous.
Opting into the program is different from what many schools currently do, as many only allow parents to opt their child out of a program that would have taken place automatically.
“The difference is the requirement for positive affirmation for these children to participate in this type of education based on the parent’s willingness to let their child participate in that program,” said Republican state Rep. Danny Williams, author of the bill.
The Oklahoma bill would require sex education instruction to classify males and females based on biological sex, and it would ensure students are taught that reproduction roles are “binary, stable and unchangeable.” It also includes family-oriented information about abstinence outside of marriage being the “expected standard for all school-age students” and the way to avoid “out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS and other associated health problems.”
Other states have similar messages in bills that are related to sex education, such as an Arkansas measure that passed last year requiring schools to teach adoption awareness and “reasons adoption is preferable to abortion.”
Students in Oklahoma would also be taught about the “benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage,” and schools would need to recognize sex as an “immutable biological trait,” blocking the use of preferred pronouns.
The Oklahoma bill would also block instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as prohibit content that advocates “sexual activity that deviates from a traditional family structure,” the promotion of non-heterosexual orientations, and teaching sexual techniques or pleasure-based sex. Teaching about contraception would be prohibited as well, unless it comes with an emphasis on potential risks and failure rates, and abortion would not be presented as a “safe reproductive health care choice.”
One of the concerns about the Oklahoma bill from some Democrats is that it would prohibit the “teaching of consent and negotiation skills for sexual activity”
“Why are we taking away the empowerment of the student to learn in an educational environment? Not every child has a parent who’s teaching them this,” Democratic House Minority Leader Rep. Cyndi Munson said, according to KOSU. “Why are we taking away that empowerment from that individual student to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when someone is violating their body?”
The bill passed out of committee in a 4-3 vote in February and will be brought up for a floor vote.
Republicans in New Hampshire are also pushing an opt-in model for sex education that would block schools from discussing “gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation and identity, or any other lifestyle.”
Although tabled by the state Senate, Georgia had a bill proposing to block sex education entirely until the fifth grade. Missouri is still working through a bill that would block instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation through third grade.
An Idaho bill that passed last year defined sex education solely as “the study of the anatomy and the physiology of human reproduction.”
Other states are working through parental consent and notification policies as well.
In Kentucky, a bill introduced in January would require schools to inform parents if their child claims transgender identity at school, as well as if the student “requests or receives health services or mental health services related to sexual conduct or behavior, sexual orientation, or sexual identity.” Parents will also be given a list at the beginning of the school year of all the services provided at the school and must consent to their child using them.
“School districts and district personnel shall respect the fundamental rights of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of the student, and shall adopt procedures encouraging students to discuss mental or physical health or life issues with their parents and facilitating the discussion with their parents,” the Kentucky bill said.
Democrats, on the other hand, are pushing bills that they claim provide for “comprehensive sex education.”
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The Massachusetts Senate passed a “comprehensive sex education” mandate earlier this year, but observers say the bill is unlikely to get a vote in the state House. Despite that, the Healthy Youth Act, which is a model plan being pushed by abortion giant Planned Parenthood, would require districts that decide to teach sex education to teach about gender identity and sexual orientation.
Earlier this year, Wisconsin lawmakers decided to revive a bill that required schools to teach about contraception, modeled after a measure repealed by Republicans in 2012.