What’s Really Behind the Attack on Sex Education in the U.S.

Last month concluded with yet another blow to sex education here in the states, this time in Indiana, where a proposed sex education bill in the state senate was edited at the last minute, specifically stripping the requirement to teach students about consent. This is only some of the latest in the long fight that’s been happening mostly at the school, district, county, city, town and state level in the US, making policies really inconsistent on a national level. While I’ll try to break things down here, a robust understanding would probably require hours digging through the state profiles section on SIECUS’s (The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) website. The condensed overview would go something like this: only 30 of the 50 states require any kind of sex education, just 3 mandate that it be comprehensive, and fewer than half of U.S. teens receive sex ed before becoming sexually active. And when it comes to consent specifically? Only 11 states require it to be taught. Rather than going state by state, I want to zoom out and highlight some of the larger political strategies that are actively threatening youth sex education today.

Who Hates Sex Ed & Why?

When not writing for the Teach Us Consent Newsletter, I run a grassroots organization that teaches sex education to teenagers, digitally, across the US. We opted to work with individual young people and their families as opposed to schools, knowing how much red tape we’d likely encounter. We opted to offer digital programming, in order to reach youth in states where sex ed access is limited or nonexistent. Recently, while planning for an event in Texas, I came across for the first time a parent “activist” group specifically positioned against sex education. It isn’t uncommon to find parent groups up in arms about pronouns, or imagined drag-queen reading hours, and of course I could have predicted that there were individual parents who held disdain towards the concept of sex ed. But statistically, 96% of parents support at least some level of sex education. It’s the elected representatives who aren’t listening to the majority. Because so many decisions are made at the local level, small numbers of passionate parents (who may even organize themselves into advocacy groups like this) paint this as a “parents rights issue,” and tend to get the last word. These politicians approach the topic with their own biases, as youth sex education has been largely framed in conservative spaces as pornographic — either adults sexualizing young people or encouraging them to become sexually active with one another.

Abstinence Only

Following the AIDs epidemic, the 20th century Purity Movement took shape in the United States. A number of bills and federal programs supporting abstinence only education were proposed and made into law, like the Adolescent and Family Life Act. The introduction of purity balls, virginity pledges and chastity related events into white, Christian spaces happened simultaneously. This all was largely a means of reinforcing traditional gender roles.

Like many countries, the US hasn’t quite escaped the harmful components of its history, and beliefs about purity are so embedded into the culture that they’re no longer confined to religious circles. Today, abstinence only is even the law of the land in 17 states. If the logic behind these programs is rooted in a biblical notion that sex should only occur within marriage, then the strategy seems to be: deny, deny, deny. Deny that young people may experience sexual desire, may masturbate, or may engage in sexual activity with one another. Psychologically and physiologically, you do not magically transform into a sexual being after never having been one upon saying the words “I do”. And the outcomes prove this, as research has shown these programs don’t decrease the number of STIs, or even delay when young people first have sex. On the contrary, studies have shown that in states where abstinence-only education is prominent, teen pregnancy and birth rates tend to be higher.

Baby Olivia

Many are likely aware of the 2022, federal decision to revoke Roe v. Wade, and how conversations about abortion access have intensified across this country. What people may be less aware of is how this issue has made its way into classrooms. The anti-choice group Live Action produced a three minute video titled “Meet Baby Olivia”. The film sets out to essentially humanize fetuses using animation, and is full of scientific inaccuracies. Lawmakers in Tennessee, North Dakota, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and West Virginia have proposed or passed legislation to mandate that the video is shown in grade school health classes. Beyond learning incorrect information, the larger concern is how this kind of messaging contributes to anti-abortion stigma in the minds of young people.

Why do we Need Sex Ed?

The list of personal and social benefits associated with comprehensive sex education is long. It includes delayed sexual debut, reduced risk of unwanted pregnancy and STIs, better communication skills and less shame. Studies aside, sex education is about equity and autonomy. It gives young people the tools to make informed choices, set boundaries, and understand their bodies and relationships. Myself and other advocates in the US hope that lawmakers and hesitant parents will come to see what we already do: that comprehensive sex education is not a threat, but a tool for thriving.

In the meantime, we’ll stay on the ground, fighting the good fight to expand access for the next generation.