The state of sex education in America is a shame. Only 13 states require that sex-education be medically accurate, which has led to an explosion of inaccurate, and sometimes even bizarre, sex education courses throughout the country. The main point of most of these classes is “abstinence only,” which has been proven to result in in higher instances of sexually transmitted infections, domestic violence, and teen pregnancy.
A recently introduced bill in the U.S. Senate, called the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act could change all of that. If made into law, it would provide grants for sex ed programs and would prohibit funding programs that “promote gender stereotypes, suppress information about HIV/AIDS, teach any medically inaccurate information, or do not include accurate, sensitive information for LGBTQ youth and survivors of sexual abuse.”
It will be a tough fight, though, as many politicians are beholden to the kind of groups that push abstinence-only, LGBTQ-shaming sex ed programs. But those groups are the minority. Across most political and religious spectrums, and especially among millennials, the people having kids these days, a majority of voters want to see comprehensive sex education programs, probably because they’ve seen, firsthand, the damage that poor sex ed classes can do to people’s lives.
This isn’t the first time the bill has been introduced, but hopefully it will be the last. President Obama removed the $75 million in funding for abstinence-only education in his 2017 budge proposal, which is a solid first step in the process. If that proposal is accepted, though, it will likely result in many students getting no sex education at all rather than a comprehensive program. But this is precisely why this new act is so important for the health of the country, and why it needs nationwide support from educators, both with their federal and state legislators, to get it passed.
