Maine Voices: Banning sex education would be very bad for kids

Posted at 4:00 p.m.

Updated 54 minutes ago

On April 29, the Republican Party of Maine presented its platform at the state convention. The ambitious list includes "ban on sex education". To do so would be a grave mistake, though their desire to do so is not surprising.

I am currently writing a book on the history of sex education which means that I think, speak and write about sex education more than the average person and what my research has taught me, along with the research of countless experts, is that sex education in public schools are generally good.

However, not all sex education is the same. "Sex education" for abstinence alone has consistently been shown to be ineffective in delaying the age of "intercourse" and does not appear to affect pregnancy rates or sexually transmitted infections. In addition, these courses are often shame-based, religiously motivated, and homophobic.

On the other hand, inclusive sex education should be age-appropriate, medically accurate, and inclusive, and while learning abstinence, it also includes information about contraception, along with a host of other topics such as gender, consent, and self-respect. read. Students who received inclusive sex education were generally less likely to have sex, get a sexually transmitted infection, or become pregnant.

Sex education in America is a confusing mess and individual states have been left alone in deciding which laws to implement sex education. If sex education is compulsory in a state, then every school is often given the power to decide which program to use.

In Maine, schools are required to teach "comprehensive family life education" courses that teach sex education. This sex education, according to SECUS, a sex education advocacy group, should not be comprehensive, should not include information on sexual orientation or gender identity, and should emphasize abstinence. It must include informed consent and, fortunately, must be medically accurate.

So sex education in Maine is a kind of mixed bag with different needs that seem to stem from different motives. And, as SECUS says, "local control of sex education presents unique challenges that have led to major differences in the quality of sex education students receive." Thus, sex education in Portland can be very different from sex education in the Presque Isle.

In general, however, concerned adults hoping to see young people physically healthy, confident, informed, and comfortable in their own skin should strive to expand comprehensive sex education programs in our state.

If Republicans in Maine want young people to be healthy, delay sex, and prevent sexually transmitted infections, it would make sense to support inclusive sex education in our public schools. However, this is not clearly what Republicans in Maine want and in this regard, their platform speaks for itself.

The desire to ban sex education is nothing new - it is as old as the topic itself - and we are seeing more and more across the country on behalf of the Republican Party. As we see extreme flagrant abortion bans in other parts of the country, transgender people are being denied health care and Roe vs. Wade is in danger, we need to remember that sex education is also part of the talk of reproductive justice.

And here in Maine, where we can consider ourselves lucky to be free from these most abominable acts, we must seize the opportunity to defend sex education for as long as we can, especially when we have political groups to do so.

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