Even in liberal California, families are pushing back against lessons on gender identity. The battles could be a blueprint for the rest of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By: Anna North<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Publisher: Vox<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Date: December 3, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ANAHEIM, California \u2014 It\u2019s the second meeting of the Informed and In Charge program at Western High School, and today\u2019s activity is called the \u201csexuality wall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The gist is pretty straightforward: At one end of the classroom is a big sheet of paper with \u201cSexuality?\u201d written in blue marker. \u201cWrite down as many different terms regarding sexuality, regarding identity, regarding gender, as you may have heard,\u201d the instructor, Sinai Torrejon, asks the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A mix of around 20 students from different grade levels \u2014 wearing tank tops and wide-legged pants, ripped jeans and hoodies, false eyelashes and no makeup \u2014 grab markers and get to work. They chat among themselves. \u201cI wrote pan \u2014 pansexual,\u201d one says. \u201cAsexual means you don\u2019t like nothing, you don\u2019t have those feelings,\u201d explains another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The students seem calm and comfortable. Though they take the activity seriously, they\u2019re also having fun with it: One of them uses several different markers to write \u201cbisexual\u201d and \u201clesbian\u201d in letters that look three-dimensional, like they\u2019re popping off the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, the whole classroom has a relaxed feel. The students sit on plastic chairs, not traditional desks. A table at the front holds prizes the teens can win in icebreaker games, like makeup brushes and stickers. One girl casually eats from a container of instant ramen. This is Southern California after all, where open-mindedness and chill are branded exports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When they\u2019re finished, Torrejon helps the students \u2014 all part of a dropout prevention program at Western called the Independent Learning Center \u2014 define the terms on the wall. LGBTQ+, she explains, \u201cis a term that is trying to be inclusive of all the other identities and sexualities that there are.\u201d Queer, she says, \u201ccan be used as a slur or as a derogatory term,\u201d but now some in the LGBTQ+ community are \u201ctaking ownership of that word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, they move into a discussion of the differences between gender identity, gender expression, and sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCan someone else tell you<\/em> what your<\/em> gender identity is?\u201d Torrejon asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d several students say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs it okay to not be 100 percent sure yet?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes!\u201d is the enthusiastic response from the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A bit later, Torrejon tells the class, \u201cYou are your own person. You are unique. You are perfect the way you are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welcome to the future of sex education in America. California wants to lead the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But even in one of the bluest of blue states, where just about 32 percent of voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump in 2016, programs like the one at Western are getting backlash. In 2016, the state passed a law requiring that schools offer LGBTQ-inclusive sex ed with lessons on gender identity and expression as well as materials on HIV prevention and healthy relationships. Last year, the state released draft guidelines aimed at helping schools put the law into practice, and since then, parents have been pushing back \u2014 with some even taking their kids out of public schools so they don\u2019t receive the new sex ed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day before Torrejon gave her lesson about gender and sexuality, parents, advocates, and even students protested outside their legislators\u2019 offices around the state, demanding a repeal of the law. One parent, Shanda Ellsworth-Lobatos, called it \u201ca cognitive behavior modification program to sexualize and groom your children\u201d at a protest not far from Western.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s happening in California is a version of a conflict that\u2019s likely to ramp up around the country in coming years. What some parents and conservative groups call \u201cindoctrination,\u201d sex education advocates call changing the world: teaching students to respect each other\u2019s identities and autonomy in ways they hope will lead to less sexual assault, harassment, and homophobia in society at large. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Jennifer Driver, vice president of policy and strategic partnerships at the nonprofit SIECUS (until recently known as the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States), told me: \u201cWe like to frame sex education as a vehicle for social change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n For many people in their 30s and older, the phrase \u201csex education\u201d probably conjures up images of an awkward assembly in a high school gym, if it conjures up any images at all. Picture Kevin Arnold on The Wonder Years, <\/em>watching his gym teacher trying to draw a diagram of the female reproductive system, but instead scrawling something that looks like a cow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic inspired states to get more serious about sex ed, and by the 1990s, most states required<\/a> some form of HIV\/AIDS education. But conservatives almost immediately pushed back, calling for sex education to focus on abstinence, and the messages students got about sex could be confusing \u2014 even in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a high school student in Los Angeles in the 1990s, I remember getting a classroom visit from a man living with HIV who helped demystify the virus and talked about prevention. I also attended an assembly led by a woman who said that every time you have sex, it\u2019s like putting a piece of tape on your arm and ripping it off, until the tape \u2014 which represents you \u2014 is covered in hair, disgusting and useless. This, I later learned, is a common abstinence-based lesson<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, 39 states and the District of Columbia<\/a> require some form of sex or HIV education. But only 17 require it to be medically accurate \u2014 meaning educators can teach that condoms don\u2019t work<\/a> or that innate gender differences<\/a> govern everything from how people look at their fingernails to how they carry their books. And abstinence-based education (now sometimes described as \u201csexual risk avoidance education\u201d) has become more common, not less, since I was in high school, thanks to support from Republican administrations. By 2014, half of middle schools and a three-quarters of high schools<\/a> focused on abstinence. The Trump administration has also been a strong backer of the abstinence-only approach \u2014 in 2018, it issued new funding rules favoring abstinence-based programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One big problem with abstinence-only, though, is there\u2019s no evidence that it works. As Aaron E. Carroll reported at the New York Times<\/a> in 2017, several studies have found no effect of such an approach on teen sexual activity. It also doesn\u2019t teach students what they need to know about contraception and sexual health if they do decide to have sex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why sexual health advocates around the country have backed comprehensive sex education for years. Truly comprehensive sex ed should include information on abstinence, but also on sexually transmitted infections and contraception, Driver told me. Lessons should be inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities. And it\u2019s not just about avoiding pregnancy and STIs \u2014 comprehensive sex ed, Driver said, should also include lessons on healthy relationships, consent, and decision-making, as well as analysis of cultural norms and values around sex and sexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sex education can be a \u201cpowerful vehicle to change societal norms,\u201d Driver said (SIECUS recently made this concept part of its name, rebranding as SIECUS: Sex Ed For Social Change<\/a>). For example, the rise of the Me Too movement has sparked \u201ca lot of conversations about consent,\u201d she said. But \u201cvery few people can articulate what consent looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By contrast, \u201cwhat would a world look like if everyone had comprehensive sex education?\u201d Driver asks. \u201cHow would the Me Too movement look very differently?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n California might be about to find out. The state has been on the forefront of the movement toward more comprehensive sex education for years. In 2003, the state passed a law<\/a>requiring that HIV prevention be taught in public schools, and that all sex education materials \u201cbe appropriate for use with pupils of all races, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and pupils with disabilities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n But critics said the law was too vague<\/a>, and in 2016, the state implemented the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA)<\/a>, which requires that students get sex education that includes information on HIV and pregnancy prevention, healthy relationships, gender identity, and more \u2014 including abstinence \u2014 at least once in junior high and once in high school. All course materials must be medically accurate, and discussions of relationships must be inclusive of same-sex couples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, school districts around the state have been updating their curricula to comply with the law. For example, Anaheim Union High School District, which includes Western High School and about 16 other junior high and high schools, added lessons on human trafficking and gender identity expression to its high school health curriculum to comply with the law, said Patty Hatcher, a health curriculum specialist with the district. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In many districts, like Anaheim Union, California students get sex education from their health teachers. But some districts also bring in visiting teachers from groups like Planned Parenthood and Girls Inc., a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to fostering the health and education of girls. In many cases, the visitors supplement what the district is already doing. But when there\u2019s no one trained on staff, the outside groups may provide all the sex education required by the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the course of about 12 class periods, the Girls Inc. program teaches students about menstruation, birth control, STI prevention, sexual harassment, consent, dating violence, and more. Classes are open to anyone who identifies as a girl, no questions asked, according to Jessica Hubbard, director of program services for the Orange County branch of Girls Inc. The organization doesn\u2019t offer an equivalent program for boys, but at Western Independent Learning Center, where most classes are online, students of all genders may also take an online health class that includes sex education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n About 25 miles away in Irvine, also part of Orange County, the district adopted Teen Talk<\/a>, a research-based curriculum for students of all genders that covers anatomy, STIs, pregnancy prevention, and body image, among other topics. It also includes one lesson specifically devoted to sexual orientation and gender identity, which \u201cdoes a great job in dispelling myths and stereotypes\u201d like the idea that being gay is a choice, Kelli Bourne, who is in her 14th year of teaching health science at Lakeside Middle School, told Vox. But it also uses language throughout that\u2019s inclusive of all orientations and identities: \u201cTeen Talk does not favor one type of relationship over another,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, the goal of Teen Talk is to \u201cdrive home to kids that there is a range of values\u201d when it comes to sex, Bourne said. And values \u2014 whether something is okay or not okay \u2014 are at the root of a lot of questions students ask in class, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to sex and sexuality, Bourne explains to students, some people believe one thing, and others believe something else. Ultimately, \u201cit\u2019s up to you to decide what you believe,\u201d she said, \u201cwith input from your parents and your family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n About a month into the school year, around 20 people gather outside Assembly member Tom Daly\u2019s office, about 10 miles from Western High School. These are the families in Orange County who feel that, despite what programs like Teen Talk say, they\u2019re not getting enough input. They feel their kids are learning values at odds with their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the latest of several \u201cSex Ed Sit Outs\u201d to protest the law, parents hoist handmade signs with messages like \u201ceducation not indoctrinate\u201d and \u201cno gender ID ideology.\u201d Some have brought their kids, who play on the grassy median strip next to the sidewalk. A few older students take a more active role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One first-year high schooler, for example, holds a cardboard sign reading, \u201cAB 329 is a sexual grooming program.\u201d He is here with his mom, but he tells me he also believes that the sex education law violates freedom of religion. \u201cIt\u2019s either you\u2019re a girl or you\u2019re a boy,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I agree with.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, many parents say CHYA violates their parental rights. \u201cThis law doesn\u2019t respect our beliefs and rights as parents to teach our children how they should behave and live,\u201d one mom, Ofelia Garcia, tells me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven if I didn\u2019t have any grandchildren or children, I would be doing this,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cAs a daughter of God, this is to speak for my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garcia says she\u2019s against \u201cthe gender ideology\u201d put forth by CHYA, and that she hopes the law will be revoked because \u201cbecause otherwise our children are going to be against us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fear that sex education will pull kids away from their parents is a common theme. So is a concern about lessons involving gender identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shanda Ellsworth-Lobatos, for example, tells me she started homeschooling her son, a third-grader, after she found out his Anaheim elementary school was planning a Diversity Week but had not notified parents of content involving LGBTQ or gender-nonconforming people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Students were going to read Jacob\u2019s New Dress<\/em>, a children\u2019s book about a boy who wants to wear a dress to school, she said. \u201cThey had a whole series of things that they were going to do with the children but they were not going to disclose to the parents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ellsworth-Lobatos also said teachers had been told \u201cif a child is struggling with gender identity, not to notify the parents.\u201d On the whole, she said, the school was \u201clack of transparency\u201d and \u201cparent alienation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Anaheim Elementary School District (separate from Anaheim Union, which includes only junior high and high schools), however, says alienating children from their parents is the opposite of what it intends. \u201cClear communication with our families is paramount,\u201d Elsa Covarrubias, the district\u2019s director of communications, told me. She said it was absolutely not district policy to keep parents in the dark about children\u2019s gender identity. \u201cWe are in contact with parents regarding anything that impacts their children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Girls Inc. says it encourages students to talk to their parents about what they learn, and the group hosts evening events where parents can be more informed about the program. Also, CHYA requires that sex education in California encourage each student \u201cto communicate with his or her parents, guardians, and other trusted adults about human sexuality.\u201d And the law allows parents to opt their children out of sex education if they choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But parent protests have continued, heating up last year with the release of a state document called the Health Education Framework. The framework isn\u2019t law or a required curriculum \u2014 instead, it is intended as guidance to help school districts develop curricula in line with CHYA. But parents soon began protesting My Princess Boy, <\/em>a picture book about a boy who wears dresses and a tiara, and S.E.X: The All You Need to Know Sexuality Guide to Get You Through Your Teens and Twenties, <\/em>a book by the founder of the popular sexual health information site Scarleteen. Parents said<\/a> the material was too explicit, and objected to teaching younger children about gender identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, the state removed six books<\/a>, including My Princess Boy<\/em> and S.E.X.<\/em>, from the framework, a final version of which is slated to be released early next year<\/a>. But some parents were unsatisfied, and with the start of a new school year, protests began again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n California\u2019s Orange County, where Anaheim is the largest city, has been one of the biggest hubs of pushback against CHYA (other counties in the blue state where parents have protested<\/a> include Santa Clara, just south of San Francisco). The county is historically Republican territory. Ronald Reagan launched his political career<\/a> with a speech in Anaheim in 1965, and Richard Nixon\u2019s presidential library is in the nearby city of Yorba Linda, where he was born. A majority of residents voted for John McCain for president in 2008<\/a> and Mitt Romney in 2012<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Orange County is changing \u2014 the county went for Hillary Clinton in 2016<\/a>; in 2018, Democrats flipped four congressional seats there, turning the county entirely blue<\/a>. But in some ways, Anaheim feels more like middle America than like Los Angeles, less than 30 miles to the northwest. Near Assembly member Daly\u2019s office, a Hooter\u2019s restaurant advertised \u201cMilitary Mondays.\u201d And as protesters against the sex ed program lined the sidewalk, more than a few passing drivers honked in approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orange County has always a specific brand of conservatism, though: It\u2019s not the type of place where overtly anti-LGBTQ messages are always spoken out loud. Residents are used to having to curb their language for surrounding progressives. And Republicans in California aren\u2019t known for holding particularly socially conservative views \u2014 residents sometimes use the term \u201cCalifornia conservative\u201d to refer to someone who\u2019s liberal on social issues but favors low taxes and small government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that is to say that some of the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric espoused by Republicans around the country \u2014 like former Virginia attorney general and recent Trump appointee Ken Cuccinelli, who has said<\/a> that acts of homosexual sex are \u201cagainst nature and are harmful to society\u201d \u2014 are less common here. Aggressiveness is not the norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, most of the parents on the sidewalk on this September day say their opposition to CHYA is not about homophobia or transphobia, but about their desire to choose what their kids learn. \u201cIt\u2019s not about hate or disliking or anything like that,\u201d Ellsworth-Lobatos says. \u201cIt\u2019s about my parental rights and what I want to teach my child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then again, there is a minority that imparts a more direct message. At a forum on CHYA held by the Anaheim Republican Assembly the night before the protest, Arthur Schaper, an activist with the \u201cpro-family\u201d group MassResistance, referred to the law as the \u201cCalifornia Unhealthy Perversion Act.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere has to be a culture shift in this state,\u201d he told the crowd of a few dozen at a German restaurant not far from Daly\u2019s office. \u201cBeing gay is not okay. Yes, I just said that. If I can\u2019t say that in Anaheim, we\u2019ve got a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What proponents of laws like CHYA have on their side is research and numbers. In California, a large majority of parents have historically supported comprehensive sex education \u2014 89 percent, according to one 2006 survey<\/a>. Nationally, most parents also support comprehensive sex education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to one 2017 study<\/a>, more than 93 percent of American parents think it\u2019s important to teach sex education in middle school and high school. Meanwhile, 92 percent of Democratic parents and 75 percent of Republican parents said high school sex education should include discussion of sexual orientation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the abstinence-only approach, education like the kind students at Western and Lakeside get is also supported by research. Comprehensive sex education programs have been shown to reduce sexually transmitted infections and increase use of contraception \u2014 as well as reducing sexual activity, the goal of abstinence-only programs, Carroll reports at the Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the benefits go beyond those typical markers of sexual health. \u201cWe know that comprehensive sex ed can help people develop healthier relationships\u201d as well as helping them have \u201chonest conversations with their parents about values,\u201d Driver said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also evidence that sex education can help reduce sexual assault. One 2018 study found<\/a> that students who received sex ed that included discussion of how to say no to unwanted sex were significantly less likely to experience penetrative sexual assault once they got to college. Abstinence-only sex education did not have the same effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While anti-sexual harassment advocates often emphasize teaching people not to commit harassment and assault, rather than teaching people to avoid it, there\u2019s evidence that education can help in this way too. A 2015 study<\/a> found that a middle-school program that taught communication and emotion management reduced instances of sexual harassment and homophobic name-calling at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sex ed can also help to dismantle gender stereotypes. \u201cWith comprehensive sex ed, young people are able to reject or unlearn the harmful stereotype that depicts boys as constantly working to \u2018score\u2019 by having sex with girls and, conversely, depicts girls as non-sexual beings who are responsible for managing the behaviors of boys,\u201d SIECUS communications manager Zach Eisenstein told me in an email. Some abstinence-only programs<\/a>, he said, reinforce these stereotypes by comparing girls to Crock Pots (because they supposedly take a long time to \u201cheat up\u201d) and boys to microwaves (which heat up quickly). <\/p>\n\n\n\n When students learn that there are a variety of gender identities and expressions, they \u201care better suited to identify, question, and reject feeding into harmful gender stereotypes from the start,\u201d Eisenstein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the students at Western wrote terms on the sexuality wall, the class moved on to a discussion of the idea that girls like dolls and boys like action figures, or that girls should be pretty and boys should be strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat language really does have an effect on us,\u201d Torrejon told the class. \u201cWe absorb that and we internalize that, and then as we get older we kind of put those stereotypes on other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inclusive sex education can be especially protective for LGBTQ young people, Driver said. Research shows that when a school has an LGBTQ-inclusive sex education program in place, LGBTQ students are less likely to experience depression, drug or alcohol abuse, and bullying, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such education has benefits for all students, Driver said, including those who don\u2019t identify as LGBTQ. \u201cStudents learn to value other people\u2019s perspectives,\u201d she explained. \u201cThey learn to value and have empathy for people who are different from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For proponents of inclusive sex ed, this is the goal: for students to learn not just to protect themselves from STIs and unintended pregnancy, but to treat each other \u2014 and themselves \u2014 with care and respect. And if they get education like this now, the thinking goes, maybe when these kids become parents, they will be more accepting of their children\u2019s identities and help them make informed choices. Homophobic views like those expressed by Schaper will be less common in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the research supporting it, and the parents who want it, comprehensive sex ed still isn\u2019t the norm in many places around the country. In part, that\u2019s because education in America isn\u2019t federally controlled. Even with a more supportive president than Trump, the White House only has so much influence over what goes on at the state and local levels. And at those levels, there are enough parents opposed to sex education \u2014 and enough conservative groups to back them up \u2014 to block a lot of attempts at change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, implementing comprehensive sex ed remains an uphill battle, but one a growing number of states feel is worth fighting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If history is any guide, California has often helped lead the way on progressive legislation, from a law loosening abortion restrictions<\/a> in 1967 to one legalizing medical marijuana use in 1996<\/a>. And with state legislatures turning increasingly Democratic in 2018, some see a coming \u201cblue wave\u201d that could bring with it more socially liberal reforms around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then again, if California has taken years to fully implement its 2016 law, change elsewhere in the nation is likely to move even more slowly. For example, when an Arizona school district considered implementing a comprehensive sex education curriculum called Rights, Respect, Responsibility in 2018, the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel sent the district a cease and desist letter<\/a>. The group said the school district was in violation of an Arizona law banning HIV\/AIDS education that \u201cpromotes a homosexual lifestyle.\u201d The state repealed that law<\/a>earlier this year, but such restrictions are still on the books in several states<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because schools tend to be locally controlled, \u201cthere\u2019s so much variation among what young people will receive\u201d not just from state to state but from district to district, Driver said. In California, for example, while Anaheim has been on board with CHYA from the beginning, other nearby Orange County School districts delayed implementation, according to EdSource<\/a>. And while Girls Inc. used to teach sex education across the county, districts started dropping the program when protests against CHYA started heating up. Now Anaheim is the only one left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For opponents of CHYA and of LGBTQ-inclusive sex education more generally, these delays are a good thing. Education about sexual orientation and gender identity \u201cshould be done in the privacy of your home,\u201d Ellsworth-Lobatos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But supporters of inclusive sex education say they\u2019re not teaching kids ideology. They\u2019re just respecting who their students are: nonbinary, male, female, gay, straight, asexual, or any of a variety of the above and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe movement toward an education based on acceptance over abstinence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Conservative pushback is mostly about LGBTQ inclusivity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The benefits of comprehensive sex education are well-documented<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
While most parents are in favor of comprehensive sex ed, change is slow.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n