Maryland and Virginia Schools Incorporate Homosexuality, Transgenderism into Curriculum

Excerpted from Wide Berth Allowed on Teaching About Homosexuality, by Daniel de Vise, published Jan 16, 2007, by Washington Post:

Montgomery County’s overhaul of its sex education curriculum, which has inspired a lawsuit, petition drives, national news coverage and the formation of fiercely polarized community groups, was itself inspired by two words buried deep within the regulatory code of Maryland, which advises school systems to teach “sexual variations.”

The county school system invoked those regulations in defense of disputed new lessons that introduce students to sexual orientation and transgenderism in grades eight and 10…

“Everyone’s watching Montgomery right now, in no uncertain terms,” to see whether the new curriculum survives an expected legal challenge, said Jean-Marie Navetta, spokeswoman for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a national nonprofit organization. If the lessons emerge intact, they could be replicated…

The structure of state regulations about sex education speaks to the delicate balance between providing lessons to children about sexuality, discrimination and public health and respecting the religious and moral values of parents…

The Montgomery Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development — the panel required by state law — recommended five years ago that sexual orientation be introduced to the health curriculum…

The resulting lessons, which discussed sexual orientation in the context of tolerance and diversity, satisfied the citizens committee and school system staff and placed the liberal-leaning county at the forefront of such teachings. But the curriculum met fierce resistance from some parents. A group collected 3,700 signatures on a petition opposing the lessons…

Montgomery’s new curriculum will focus on the subject in two 45-minute class periods in grade eight and two in grade 10. Anne Arundel devotes about half as much time at a single grade level, either nine or 10. Instructional materials tell teachers to “examine gender identity, gender roles and gender stereotyping” and to “describe sexual orientation and the impact on self and others.”…