In Brief

Staff Reports

Utah’s Legislature Passes Bill Making Sex Ed Optional & Prohibits Discussion About Gays &  Contraception

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Utah's Republican dominated legislature passed a measure Tuesday that makes teaching sex education optional for the state's schools and prohibits any instruction about homosexuality or the use of contraception. Under the language of the new law,(HB 363), parents will be required to opt their children 'in' to sexual education classes as opposed to having the option to 'opt-out,' and any sex-ed classes are mandated to only teach abstinence.

Democratic Senator Ross Romero pointed out that the bill will likely deprive many young people of sex education if they don’t have parents who provide it at home. He offered an amendment that would have allowed teachers to still answer questions about homosexuality, contraceptives, or sex outside of marriage so that gay teens are not deprived of vital information about their identities, but the amendment was defeated. Romero said: 

“We’ve been discussing this as if every child has the benefit of two loving and caring parents who are ready to have a conversation about appropriate sexual activity, and I’m here to tell you that’s just not the case.”

Republican Senator John Valentine rebuked his colleague's stance arguing: 

"I recognize that some parents do not take the opportunity to teach in their own homes, but we as a society should not be teaching or advocating homosexuality or sex outside marriage or different forms of contraceptives for premarital sex."

Another Senate democratic, Pat Jones called the bill “a mandate against reality."

The bill now heads to the state's Republican Governor and should he not veto the measure and signs it into law, Utah will become the first in the union to stop teachers telling pupils about contraception as a way of protecting themselves from infections and unwanted pregnancies.

A spokesman for the State Senate's Democratic caucus said that the effects of this legislation "will be disastrous for Utah’s young people." 

Studies conducted by leading research groups and academic university's medical groups have shown that abstinence-only education is completely ineffective. A spokesperson for The National Institutes for Health in Bethesda, Maryland, noted that success of such programs has been evaluated by how many participants take a virginity pledge, but studies show that students who take the pledge are still just as likely to have sex. Studies also have shown those who take the pledge are less likely to use condoms and birth control. The studies tend to agree that teaching abstinence-only sex education increases the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections.

Additionally, LGBTQ advocate groups argue the restrictions on discussing homosexuality will proliferate anti-gay stigma.

Indiana GOP Lawmakers Try Last Ditch Effort To Kill Gay Youth Group Licence Plates

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA -- Indiana GOP Lawmakers are rushing to revive a bill that targeted specialty auto licence plates before the scheduled end of the legislative session this Friday. The original bill according to its sponsor, State Senator Ed Soliday,(R) was to "stop the proliferation of specialty plates," and to force a public accounting of how the various groups who benefit from the plates spend monies raised from the plate sales. However, after a public outcry, accusing Soliday and other GOP lawmakers of catering to the demands of conservatives angered that one plate benefited a youth group for LGBTQ youth, Soliday withdrew the bill last month saying that "the thing just became political."

According to the Indianapolis Star newspaper, GOP lawmakers now intend to insert the language of Soliday's bill as an amendment to another bill which deals with motor vehicle issues.

The Legislature's Democrats are angered by what they are saying is an improper end-run about legislative rules and traditions, aimed at pacifying the state's conservative voters and Republican constituents still enraged that one of the specialty plates for the LGBTQ support group exists.

The Star reports:

Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, retorted that must mean "there are no gentlemen left" in the legislature.

DeLaney is on the joint House/Senate committee discussing SB 257. It had what may be its only public meeting Tuesday, and no mention was made of inserting the specialty plate issue into the bill, he said.

"They're going to distort the whole conference process, they're going to distort the whole legislative process," DeLaney said. "This is, in my mind, really sad that the moderate members of the Republican caucus are being browbeaten by the social conservatives."

The Star reports that Mary Byrne, executive director of the Indiana Youth Group, said she was not surprised the issue has new life.

"I really felt like it was dead, but knowing the extent these people will go to to take this license plate away from us, I guess I'm not surprised," Byrne said.