Senate Bill 5395 would require state public schools to provide comprehensive, fact-based sexual health education. Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver, so opposed the bill that she left her own legislative chamber to protest. The strength of her passion was not matched by the rationale of her argument.
Besides factual errors (“It is teaching young children to have sex”) and threats (“funding will be impacted”), she was arguing to keep young people ignorant of their bodies’ functioning and health. She equated acknowledging the existence of transgender students with promoting “that type of confusion for our young children”. Does Rep. Kraft think that children who do not feel their gender matches their body are not already feeling confusion?
Knowledge empowers. Today’s youth face a complicated world. The more they can understand about themselves and those with whom they share this planet, the more competent and confident they will be. That is worth spending public money for.
If Kraft objects to specific pieces of the proposed curriculum or has evidence from child development experts that there are sections that are not age appropriate, I suggest she put her efforts into changing those parts rather than using fear to deprive our youth of vital information.
