Roundup: Can You Ask Tweens About Gender Identity?

Beth Saunders

DC Public Schools are on the defensive after asking young teens and tweens what they know about sexually transmitted diseases, drugs, and how they identify themselves in terms of gender and sexual orientation.

Is it appropriate to ask young teens and tweens what they know about sexually transmitted diseases, drugs, and how they identify themselves in terms of gender and sexual orientation? Some parents don’t think so, which led to a flap in a Washington, DC, public school over a survey distributed to middle-schoolers by Metro TeenAIDS, a nonprofit organization contracted to provide a comprehensive sexuality education program called “Making Proud Choices!” (A copy of the entire survey is available.)

TBD reports:

“Polling has been done in D.C., and parents overwhelmingsly support comprehensive sex education in schools,” Tenner told me. Metro TeenAIDS’ pre-curriculum survey is a good example of what that means: It asks students about their sexual orientations and gender identities. It inquires as to whether the students have ever engaged in oral, anal, or vaginal sex, whether they’ve been tested for HIV, whether they know basic STD prevention measures, and whether they feel comfortable saying “no.” It also asks about students’ previous alcohol consumption and drug use.

The DC Public School system released a letter saying that “the opt-out letter to parents regarding this unit in the health class went home on the same day that the assessment was administered.  As a result, there was not enough time to allow for parental response before the unit began.” Oops.

However, the school system also laid down some hard facts:

In reacting to an outcry of opinion over the story, DCPS delivered some real talk: Nearly seven percent of all D.C. teens were diagnosed with chlamydia in 2008. Further, D.C. teens account for half of all chlamydia and gonorrhea cases in D.C.  And more than three percent of District residents older than 12 are living with HIV or AIDS, according to the Washington Post.

So while the teen with whom Solomon spoke might have been bewildered by the school survey on sexual activity, not all D.C. teens are so innocent.

DCPS shot back that the “sex test” was no test at all.

“The ‘pre-test’ Hardy students were given was not a test at all, but an assessment used to determine the students’ baseline knowledge and to responsibly assure that students get all of the information and skills they need to protect themselves,” said a DCPS statement.

…

The survey comes in the wake of the revelation that four students killed themselves over two years in Mentor, Ohio, as a result of bullying. After it was reported that a recent gay student’s suicide was prompted by bullying, GLBT stars like Ellen DeGeneres and Tim Gunn and their allies released messages expressing support for GLBT youth suffering from bullying.

A Health Resources and Services Administration report said that a 2002 poll by the National Mental Health Association found that 78 percent of students aged 12 to 17 reported that kids who are gay or perceived to be gay are bullied. 

Solomon’s writeup of the Hardy Middle School sex-ed program implied that a question asking whether students self-identified as “transgender” or cisgender was in some sense offensive.

Mini-Roundup: Human life as we know it is coming to an end, thanks to the Culture of Death (aka contraception, gay marriage, and in vitro fertilization), according to a speech given to “pro-life” leaders in Europe. Also, apparently, we’re all a part of an Islamic Jihad. (How do they come up with this stuff?)

Oct 13

Oct 12