The lows are low, but the highs are home — I’ll add the comment I liked from the editorials...

I’ll add the comment I liked from the editorials section of today’s newspaper tomorrow afternoon or something, but for now, a handful of links:

First of all: bluh I could never be a parent, not until they give out degrees for parenting, and honestly I think a six-year undergrad + masters program requirement for having kids might solve a lot of our problems

Second of all, kids with access to computers (i.e. nearly all of them) can easily find porn and information about sex online long before they’re even physically interested in it. I know I did, because all the cool kids online were doing it, although they were old enough to have sex drives. I did spend a lot more time online than the average kid would, so of course I had more opportunity to do it, but even still it’s not exactly difficult.

When kids already have access to things infinitely more “damaging” than proper education about tolerance and safe sex - there are enough guys as it is who expect sex to be like porn - I don’t see why any logical human being would object to this. Of course, it isn’t the logical ones who got the curriculum pulled, but they’re being harmed by the influence of an incredibly vocal and incredibly biased part of the population, and that’s a shame.

“Teaching a 9-year old that gender identity comes naturally will save future ostracism, angst, bullying, and self-hate. Teaching a 12-year old about masturbation and intercourse will help clear taboos and misinformation associated with those forbidden unknowns.
As a family physician, I am faced daily with a plethora of fears and disastrous events emanating from ignorance, religious, and sanctioned practices. The gamut runs from forced marriages to imported cousins, female circumcision, premature ejaculation, total fear of any sexual practice and guilt-ridden obsessive thoughts. These are manifested by generalized anxiety disorders, depression and suicidal tendencies.
Parents should have the responsibility to educate children about sexual matters, but let’s be honest, how many do? Is it still healthy to have "educated” young men and women believing that each time they masturbate, they’re violating their religion and depleting their “reserves” so any slip is followed by the worst self-hate and guilt? Some parents and religious leaders still teach that semen comes from the spinal cord.
Proper nomenclature and removing taboos shouldn’t affect childhood innocence. Six-year-olds will still learn how to tie their shoes and play with Barbies, but they will know they have a penis instead of a wee-wee and a vagina instead of a coochie.“

"Is it ironic that the religious right is fighting hard to prevent sexual orientation education in the public system, since the entire purpose of public education is the prevention of unscientific policy. Despite overwhelming expert opinion that gay kids begin displaying gender variance years before puberty - I was 4 - and that attempts to eradicate undesirable orientations can lead to catastrophic harm for developing adolescents, many religious communities still insist such feelings can be "corrected.”
Yet, schools still teach lesbian, gay, bisexual/pansexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues only in the context of sex-ed programming, thereby reinforcing the widespread myth that being gay is only about sexual taste.
Religious conservatives’ right to restrict their children’s acces to medical opinion is no more of a “family value” than my parents’ right to protect my safety. Where were religious conservatives’ “family values” when their kids were beating me up?“

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