BOSTON — The Democratic-controlled state Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of An Act Relative to Healthy Youth (S 2048), a measure to require school districts that provide sex education lessons to formulate those lessons based on the Massachusetts Health Curriculum Framework.
The bill, which passed the Senate 32-6, does not force school districts to provide sex education, but requires those that do to provide students with "medically accurate, age-appropriate" material. Under the bill, curricula consistent with material in the Massachusetts Health Curriculum Framework is automatically presumed to be in compliance with this requirement.
BOSTON – Democrats appear to be hesitant to pass anti-discrimination measures that would protect transgender people's access to public facilities such as restrooms and changing areas based on their sexual identification rather than their physical gender.
"There are a lot of members who have reservations," state Rep. John Fernandes (D-Milford), the co-chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, told the State House News Service. Known to opponents as the "Bathroom Bill," the proposal pending in the House of Representatives, H 1577, remains under that panel's jurisdiction following a hearing on the matter Oct. 6, as does the Senate version, S 735.
