Inclusive education includes sex education
Comprehensive and inclusive sex education is protective, not harmful, to students.
Students who have a strong knowledge of diverse sexuality, their own bodies, boundaries, and consent are less likely to be victims of sexual harassment, abuse, and assault.
Students who see themselves, their peers, their loved ones, and their diverse communities reflected in their books and other academic materials are more likely to be accepting of themselves and others.
Representation is important. Students who are LGBTQIA2s+ (and all students) have the right to access relevant and relatable books and other educational materials, not confined to only cis-het (cis-gendered and heterosexual) literature. How are they going to understand how to have safe, consensual sex if no one teaches them?
How will LGBTQIA2s+ students learn about safe, consensual sex if no one teaches them?
Who are the experts here?
Why are a few small-minded, backwards-thinking parents having the opportunity to speak for entire communities? Why are some parents, who clearly lack knowledge themselves, trying to overrule the expertise of trained educators and administrators?
I certainly don’t want someone else’s bigoted beliefs influencing my son’s education, nor anyone else’s. Our kids and our communities deserve so much better than that.
I want my son to grow up in an inclusive, welcoming community and to be educated in an inclusive public school system. I want him to see the adults in his life standing up against homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression and marginalization.
“Libraries have a core responsibility to safeguard and facilitate access to constitutionally protected expressions of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and opinion, including those which some individuals and groups consider unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable.”
— CFLA
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