TAKE ACTION BY WEDNESDAY, 2/28
Tell your MA state senator that gender identity lessons should not be a required part of MA sexuality and health education.
Image from a 3/4 grade classroom in MA
This Thursday, Massachusetts’ Democratic Senators are expected to vote in favor of a bill (S.268) that would require gender identity to be part of the sex education curriculum offered in K-12 public schools across the state.
The so-called “Healthy Youth Act” has previously passed in the Senate. However, House lawmakers have rejected the bill on four separate occasions. This session the House is reportedly poised to pass the bill given the “momentum on their side” and a likelihood of support from Gov. Healey.
So, are Democrat lawmakers in the Commonwealth aware that parents on both sides of the political isle oppose the requirement that gender identity theory be included in sex-ed curriculum? Or, are they prepared to pass this legislation despite growing objections from parents and others in their own party?
The time to take action is now. Call or email your state senator and tell them that sex education curriculum should be based in science NOT gender theory.
To locate your state senator and state representative, click here.
Here is a long letter from a reader to a MA state senator on the bill:
Dear Senator XXXXXX,
I am a life long Democrat, a former elementary school teacher and a mother of two. I am writing to urge you to vote against Senate bill 268, An Act relative to healthy youth, as it is currently written.
For the most part I believe that this bill is commendable and ensures that the youth of Massachusetts will receive thorough and highly valuable instruction in health and sexual education. However, I am strongly opposed to requiring that the concept of “gender identity” be taught as it is currently presented in the newly adopted Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Framework. I believe that this framing of “gender identity” violates the standards of medical accuracy, and in many cases, age-appropriateness, which, in the interest of brevity, I will not address in this letter.
The Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Framework presents the idea of “gender identity” as a fact, a universal truth, without context, not to be questioned and to be affirmed by all students and teachers alike. However the idea of “gender identity” is based on unverifiable and non-falsifiable premises and functions more as a type of religious or spiritual belief than as scientific or empirical truth. And as such, it will conflict with deeply held beliefs of students, their families and school personnel.
Furthermore, the concept of “gender identity,” as currently taught, perpetuates ideas such as: a person can be “born in the wrong body,” there are “boy brains and girl brains,” it is possible for a person to “change sex” and that sex itself (as opposed to gender roles) is merely a social construct. Such statements are not only medically inaccurate but they are, I believe, based on regressive stereotypes, misogyny and homophobia.
It is primarily for these reasons that I think that whether or not to include the concept of “gender identity” in health and sexuality curriculum is best left to the discretion of individual district school boards in consultation with school administrators. For it is school boards, superintendents and administrators who are most directly accountable their staff, families and students and who best understand their needs and concerns.
Lastly, I would like to draw your attention to recent polling, reported in the New York Times, titled “Support for Teaching Gender Identity in School Is Split, Even Among Democrats.” As I am sure you are well aware, there has been a significant increase in lawsuits brought by parents against schools for perceived violations of their rights as a result of implementing policies and curriculum concerned with “gender identity” issues. No doubt, as the tide shifts and the general public becomes more and more aware of just how much of an outlier the US is, in comparison to numerous European countries, in its uncritical and reckless acceptance of many of the tenants of gender theory and gender medicine, there will be greater and greater demand for accountability and caution.
Thank you for considering my request that you vote against S.268 and thank you for the work you do on behalf of the people of the Commonwealth.
Sincerely,
Please feel free to share your letters urging your state senator to vote no of the healthy youth act here in the comments to inspire others and help with wording.