Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Bill In Utah Passes Senate, Prohibits Talk Of Homosexuality In Class (VIDEO)

The Utah state Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would allow schools to drop sex education, prohibit instruction on how to use contraception, and prohibit discussion of homosexuality in class,The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Legislators passed Senate bill HB363 19-10 after a short debate during which many senators expressed their belief that sex education is meant for the home, not school.

"To replace the parent in the school setting, among people who we have no idea what their morals are, we have no ideas what their values are, yet we turn our children over to them to instruct them in the most sensitive sexual activities in their lives, I think is wrongheaded," Republican state Sen. Stuart Reid said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

The bill lifts the current requirement that all public schools must teach sex ed in grades 8 through 12. Districts would decide whether to offer sex ed classes that teach an abstinence-only curriculum, or not offer the course at all.

Teachers would be barred from talking about homosexuality even if asked about it by a student, KTSU-TV reports. They also must restrict their sexual education curriculum to advocating abstinence before marriage and remaining faithful to your spouse.

Those who voted against the bill are concerned that without formal sex ed, students' lack of sex knowledge will spark higher rates of sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancies in the state.

"I believe knowledge is the most important aspect in anyone's lives," Democratic state Sen. Gene Davis said, according to the Daily Herald. "A child needs the right and correct answer."

Last month, Republican state Rep. Francis Gibson said that in the Utah school district he represents, the abstinence-only curriculum is not producing positive results, and that unexpected teen pregnancy is still a problem.

"I would hope as we make this decision, that we won't think if we say abstinence only, that fairy dust will have been sprinkled and that teen pregnancy will no longer be a problem," Gibson said, according to an earlier piece by the Daily Herald.

This decision by the state Senate to pass the bill comes after similar regulations have passed nationwide. Last November, the Wisconsin state Senate passed legislation requiring schools to promote abstinence in sex ed classes, but didn't prohibit lessons on contraception.

Comments

[Ausum]

09:34 PM on 07/02/2012

If you want the number of teen moms to go up, by all means just dropp sex ed.
But on another note, under my rights i can talk of whatever i want and if i read my rights correctly the right of freedom of speech should over ride that.

[ThomasRyanAlex]

09:32 PM on 07/02/2012

And the increase in teen pregnancies will explode.

[see-ellen2001]

10:46 AM on 03/14/2012

student "what about gay and lesbian relationships, Mr. Smith?" teacher " (crickets) "

[Kalib Butler]

04:09 AM on 03/14/2012

Teachers would be barred from talking about homosexuality even if asked about it by a student? Seriously? You know what that means? They'll ask the wrong people, search the internet and get their information elsewhere. Wouldn't it be better if you're children were getting their information from a source that you trust a bit more than the whole of the internet?

And I hate to burst your bubble, but "abstinence only" doesn't work. When you don't answer their questions, they'll get the information from other sources or just experiment, and BAM!, you've got teenage pregnancies. Hooray for letting organized religion make your decisions for you.
No go join the rest of the herd and move with the flow, "MOOO..." :P

[Chris VanAntwerp]

01:15 AM on 04/05/2012

Indeed. Bad call Utah.

[Randi Grogan]

03:15 PM on 03/13/2012

Shameful, SHAMEFUL, S H A M E F U L !!

[capercaper]

09:44 AM on 03/13/2012

These competing traditions assign radically different responsibilities to adults. In the classic model, adults are the custodians of the moratorium. They secure and maintain this special life stage by establishing familial and institutional controls over teenage sexuality. Indeed, this approach requires some measure of sexual restraint, or at least discretion, on the part of adults in order to set an example. In the contemporary model, adults have a more limited responsibility. Their job is to train teenagers in the management of their own sexuality and to provide access to contraceptives. In the new technocracy adults are called upon to staff teenagers in their sexual pursuits while teenagers themselves are left to decide whether or not to engage in sex. Refusing sex, no less than having sex, becomes a matter of following individual dictates rather than following socially instituted and culturally enforced norms...

Despite its confident assertions, comprehensive sex education implicitly acknowledges a lifting of the moratorium and a return to a more Darwinian sexual environment. What sex educators are offering now is training in sexual survival. Once the kids have been equipped with refusal skills, a bottle of body oil, and some condoms, "reality-based" advocates send them into the world to fend for themselves. Perhaps that is the best protection that today's school and health leaders are able to offer from a harsh and predacious sexual environment. But it is not realism. It is retreat.

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics/family/failure.htm

[Susan of Wales]

09:39 AM on 03/13/2012

"...They also must restrict their sexual education curriculum to advocating abstinence before marriage and remaining faithful to your spouse. ..." So, what the heck are they going to teach?

Back in the "olden days" - 1950s - they started with us growing a seed. They added a little every year until about 4th grade when we saw an animated filmstrip about cows having babies.

By 6th or 7th grade we were divided into boys and girls. The girls saw an animated filmstrip about having "your period". Don't know what they showed the boys. [It seems as though I remember a permission slip or something signed by a parent, but I don't remember anyone ever opting out. I think the parents were relieved to have the more formal/technical teaching done at school.] This seemed to coordinate with biology class where we learned about mammal's body systems - including circulatory, digestive, reproductive, etc.

Around 10th grade we had actual sex-ed where everything was discussed. Our teacher was a nurse. If you were tooo embarassed to ask a question you could write it on a piece of paper and she would address it in the next class.

I don't remember any morality discussions.

[as-i-see-it]

08:37 AM on 03/13/2012

Good morning, Utah. Time to wake up and join the real world. You just can't count on parents to be responsible and talk to their kids about this stuff.
My daughter had sex education in 5th grade. It included EVERYTHING. I'm a good mom and had already answered questions she had about sexuality, but this class told her even more than I had shared. Guess what? She and her friends are not out practicing what they learned about sex in class. You can HOPE your child will be abstinent, but you had better prepare them in case they aren't.
As for homosexuality, teaching kids about it doesn't cause them to become homosexual. Homosexuals are born that way. There was a boy in my daughter's class who was saying he was gay before homosexuality was even discussed in their class. We can not put our heads in the sand. Sexuality is everywhere. Better our children learn about it correctly at school than from their peers.

[LJohns1216]

07:47 AM on 03/13/2012

Great...now kids will get MIS-Information.

Congrats Utah....the Louisiana of the West.

The cult lives on...

[Sheldon archer]

07:14 AM on 03/13/2012

Nothing like pushing a program that has been shown not to work.

[Eric Lawson]

10:24 PM on 03/12/2012

Gee, I wonder why the teenage birth rate of the US is the highest in the developed world.

[Brian1111]

08:46 AM on 03/13/2012

We pay women through government programs to have babies.

[Patrick Stewart]

01:46 AM on 03/15/2012

Sshh! Don't say it our loud! The aliens and CIA are listening!

[Lalathewonderllama]

09:26 PM on 03/12/2012

This seems like an underhanded effort to make more tiny republicans.

[trussia1]

08:26 PM on 03/12/2012

You know, I saw a great sex education program on TV. It involved teens who thought they might like having a baby and a mechanical baby. The baby is given to the teen for over the weekend in order to let her have real time knowledge about what it's like to care for a baby. In the end, none of the teens wanted to have a baby or even sex. A real teaching moment for them and I'll bet that this works better than parents, or even legislators for that matter.

[BadKitty]

07:49 PM on 03/12/2012

Pathetic. Too many parents don't bother with educating their kids about sexuality. Too many parents have narrow viewpoints, homophobic agendas and/or are too unsettled about discussing the subject of sex and sexuality with their kids. Expect an increase in the rise of teen pregnancy in Utah. Also expect a rise in STDs. Expect an increase in the demand for abortion and social assistance. Expect that the legislators behind this will shrug and say 'meh' when all of the above happens. They'll say "You can't have an abortion!" They'll say that video games and television must be responsible for the rising incidents of STDs and teen pregnancy. They'll say "Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!" when a rising number of single teen moms need food stamps and housing and support for themselves and their children.

You pompous, arrogant, homophobic fools.

[capercaper]

10:33 AM on 03/13/2012

Girls' sexual conduct, unlike that of boys, is governed less by hormones than by social controls. But in a cultural climate of sexual freedom, girls have lost much of their authority in boy-girl relationships. Until quite recently girls organized, managed, and regulated the social pursuits of their peer groups, with the strong support of adults. In romantic relationships girls exercised their power by withholding sex, keeping boys in the role of craven sexual petitioners. At the same time, they moved their boyfriends in the direction of commitment and monogamy...

The sexual revolution overturned this system of social controls by giving women technological control over their fertility. .. it tilted away from women's goals of intimacy and commitment in the direction of what one sociologist has aptly called sexual "freedom with a male bias": no holds barred and no strings attached.

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics/family/failure.htm

Kudos to the parents and legislators who represent them who are stepping up to the plate to reclaim protection of their children (especially their daughters) from mandated public endorsement of premature and emotionally inappropriate sexual relations. Nothing pompous, arrogant, homophobic or foolish about that.

[BadKitty]

12:51 PM on 03/13/2012

I really must suggest you dig a little deeper into the subject where you will find meaningful statistics. Citing one article from nearly ten years ago does little to bolster your suggestion that abstinence only education is beneficial.

ALL of what I noted above is most certainly going to happen. You simply cannot turn back time. You CAN, however, educate and empower teens by teaching them to be responsible. To pretend that they will ignore ther hormones, that they don't have a world of misinformation at their fingertips or aren't barraged with endless sexuality on a daily basis is, at best naive.

My daughter will learn, first and foremost, that SHE holds all the power. But she will also learn about human sexuality with a balanced view aimed at helping her to develop the knowledge required to make smart decisions when she does decide to become sexually active.

[Bigcatch22]

07:28 PM on 03/12/2012

I heard this week Chastity referred to as a "lost art form". Whats so artistic about pleasuring yourself? If this is true and it is an art form then when I was in high school I could have been Picasso. No better, Leonardo Di Vinci. I could have painted the Sistine Chapel...literally!