Ohio Republicans Want To Ban Sex Ed Classes From Talking About ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’

[mickeym]

During a debate over Ohio’s budget on Tuesday afternoon, Republicans in the House tacked on an amendment that would prohibit health classes in public schools from including any instruction on “gateway sexual activity,” which encompasses all sexual contact. The budget bill relies on the same definition of “sexual contact” that also appears in the

Comments

[beemo]

*unwanted babies

"pregnant teenagers" doesn't take it far enough, we must exclude the possibility of abortion!

[idemandjustice]

Honestly? Yes. I think what they want is for more people to get pregnant, to be unable to get abortions, and have their children adopted out into rich, white, christian families.

[kittenmommy]

But those families don't want to adopt anything but lilywhite babies! So...

[clevermanka]

[ellonwye]

People have sex, lots of sex, people enjoy sex and there are risks to sex so why not teach the goddamn risks and how to be safe and enjoy sex SEX SEX LET PEOPLE HAVE THEIR SEX SAFELY BECAUSE THEY WILL ALWAYS HAVE GODDAMN SEX

[beemo]

exactly!

plus sex ed is about more than just not getting pregnant/STIs... we need to be talking to kids about health, safety, identities, etc A S A P at home and at school.

[mickeym]

Because if we mention it, OMG, those crazy kids might think about doing it themselves!

*sigh*

I started my kid's sex ed early. I talked to him -- tailoring our conversations to his age and his questions -- constantly. We talked about how to be safe, what the risks were, having partners of different OR the same gender. We talked about masturbation, and porn, and how neither is the devil's tool, and on and on and on.

It's a good thing, too, because here where we are (Central Kentucky), his so-called sex ed class consisted of "don't have sex".

Yeah.

[skellington1]

tailoring our conversations to his age and his questions

First, awesome! Second: why don't more people GET this? It seems pretty simple. Kid asks question. Adult answers question. Kid now knows more than they did ten minutes ago. Since kids naturally notice stuff and asks questions, you get the whole sex-ed thing in age-appropriate doses through childhood. That's certainly how I learned it! Instead people have this idea of a monolithic Talk, which is awkward, useless, and waaay too late.

[lamardeuse]

Wow, there really are a scary number of American legislators who want to turn the country into a police-state theocracy, aren't there? "Gateway sexual activity" - like mutual masturbation is weed to full-on sex's heroin. JFC.

[katrinar]

American conservatives hate the idea of "socialism" yet want to create a fucking ignorant nanny state.

[shortsweetcynic]

mte.