Republican lawmakers in various states are introducing new legislation aimed at excluding gender ideology from sex education and reinforcing parental rights over the information their children receive.
This legislative push follows increased efforts by Republicans to reform public school curricula post-pandemic, when remote learning offered parents deeper insights into sometimes sexually explicit or racially charged content their children were encountering.
One bill progressing through the Oklahoma legislature aims to revamp the state’s sex education. If enacted, it would require parental “opt-in” consent for children to attend these classes and ensure that educational material asserts the clarity of biological sex and sexual identity.
This “opt-in” requirement contrasts with current practices in many schools where parents only have the option to opt their children out of automatically scheduled programs.
“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, the bill’s author.
The Oklahoma bill mandates sex education to categorize males and females based on biological sex and teaches students that reproductive roles are “binary, stable, and unchangeable.” It also includes information promoting abstinence outside marriage as the “expected standard for all school-age students” to prevent “out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS, and other related health problems.”
Other states echo similar sentiments. For instance, Arkansas passed a measure last year requiring schools to promote adoption awareness and identify “reasons adoption is preferable to abortion.”
In Oklahoma, the curriculum would also advocate for the “benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage,” and schools would have to recognize sex as an “immutable biological trait,” prohibiting the use of preferred pronouns.
The Oklahoma bill further seeks to ban instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through 12th grade. It also aims to prohibit content promoting “sexual activity that deviates from a traditional family structure,” non-heterosexual orientations, and sex techniques or pleasure-based education. While contraception would only be discussed with an emphasis on risks and failure rates, abortion would not be presented as a “safe reproductive health care choice.”
Some Democrats are concerned that the Oklahoma bill will exclude important topics like “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?”
After passing out of committee with a 4-3 vote in February, the bill will proceed to a floor vote.
Republicans in New Hampshire similarly advocate for an opt-in model for sex education, barring schools from discussing “gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation and identity, or any other lifestyle.”
While tabled by the state Senate, Georgia had a bill proposing to block sex education entirely until the fifth grade. Missouri is reviewing a bill that seeks to prohibit teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation through third grade.
An Idaho bill passed last year redefined sex education solely as “the study of the anatomy and the physiology of human reproduction.”
Other states are focusing on policies regarding parental consent and notification.
In Kentucky, a bill introduced in January mandates schools to inform parents if their child identifies as transgender at school or if the student “requests or receives health services or mental health services related to sexual conduct or behavior, sexual orientation, or sexual identity.” Schools must also provide parents with a complete list of all available services at the start of the school year, requiring parental consent for their child to use 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 states.
Conversely, Democrats are promoting bills they assert ensure “comprehensive sex education.”
The Massachusetts Senate passed a “comprehensive sex education” mandate recently, although it appears the state House will not vote on it. Despite this, the Healthy Youth Act—a model plan advocated by Planned Parenthood—would require districts offering sex education to include gender identity and sexual orientation in their teaching.
This year, Wisconsin legislators resurrected a bill mandating education on contraception, modeled after a law repealed by Republicans in 2012.
