Should Massachusetts public schools that teach sex-ed be required to teach third-graders that they can change their gender?
If Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey’s administration gets what it wants, it will happen.
The Healey administration has proposed an updated framework for the state’s health and physical education curriculum.
It would make this change by telling kids that sex and “gender identity” are different — and that they needn’t align. Here is what the proposed curriculum framework for Grades 3 through 5 say about “gender identity”:
Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Sexual Health [3.5.GS]
Describe the differences between biological sex and gender identity, and explain how one’s outward behavior or appearance does not define one’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
Describe a range of ways people may express their gender and that some people’s gender identity (how they think about themselves) matches others’ expectations about what their bodies look like on the outside and others do not.
Explain how gender identity and sexual orientation can vary in each individual.
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education plans to review the proposed framework at a meeting on Tuesday, June 27.
The board is scheduled to vote on whether or not to send the framework out for public comment. If the board votes yes, members of the public will have 60 days to comment on the draft framework. After the public comment period, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will review the feedback, consider revising the framework, and vote on whether it will adopt this framework.
Under the proposal, the individual school districts that teach sex-ed would choose education materials they use to teach the material included in the health framework, according to a press release from the governor’s office. Or, they could avoid teaching the material by eliminating sex-ed in the district.
“School districts have discretion to determine how the standards will be implemented at the local level,” said Jeffrey Riley, commissioner of elementary and secondary education, according to the press release. “We hope the framework will be a resource of lasting value for schools and districts.”
Some materials that schools use that promote the idea that sex and gender are different include the Genderbread Person, Gender Unicorn, and Genderbread Cookie, among others, as NewBostonPost has previously reported.
Healey praised the proposed framework in a press release, claiming that it is “grounded in science.”
“As the proud daughter of a school nurse and health and sex education teacher, I believe strongly that all students deserve inclusive, medically accurate, and age-appropriate health guidelines,” Healey said in a press release issued by her office. “All of our students benefit when they learn from up-to-date, evidence-based material grounded in science. These new guidelines will empower students with the skills they need to build healthy lives in school and beyond.”
A press spokesman for the Healey administration could not be reached for comment on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday to explain how changing genders is rooted in science. Nor could a spokesman for Riley.
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