Senate Bill 1: An Act concerning transparency in education? Or something else?

The Connecticut legislature has taken up discussion of Senate Bill 1. In keeping with recent history regarding disingenuous names for legislation (remember last summer’s Inflation Reduction Act that authorized spending on climate change and expansion of the IRS?) this bill is called “An act concerning transparency in education”.

It’s not clear from reading the bill how it would improve transparency in education. However, what is clear is that it creates a mandate that CT public schools offer “comprehensive sex education”.

At first glance such a mandate may seem innocuous. However, the fact that the Democratic majority in the State legislature has decided to insert such a mandate where none existed before, and in the context of a bill whose title suggests something different, suggests a certain level of deception. This is particularly so given recent history on the topic of sex education in CT public schools.

Many will not remember the events of last fall when Governor Lamont said during a televised debate that teaching about gender identity during sex education in CT schools does not and should not happen. The Governor had egg on his face when it turned out that the “Healthy and Balanced Living Curriculum Framework” available on the State’s Department of Education website specifically mentioned instruction in gender identity as a “Core Content Indicator” for grades 3-5 and grades 6-8. The framework was later modified to remove this indicator for grades 3-5, but it remains a suggested topic of instruction in grades 6-8. It appears that the Department of Education DID intend for CT schools to provide instruction in gender identity to children in grades 3-5, and removed this suggestion only after a watchdog group pointed out the inconsistency with the Governor’s statement (See here for a description of the incident).

A similar bait and switch seems to be occurring with SB-1. The bill does not define what constitutes “Comprehensive sex education”. However, we can infer from looking elsewhere in the CT General Statutes and also at common sex education standards that are being promoted nationally.

First, the General Statutes. We find in Section 10-25b the requirement that the state Department of Education develop a “model curriculum” and that one element of that curriculum shall be “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexual orientations and gender identities studies”. It would not be at all surprising if the State Dept of Ed decided to interpret the law requiring comprehensive sex education as requiring implementation of its model curriculum.

So, in four months we have moved from the claim that gender identity studies is not being taught in CT schools to what appears to be a backdoor mandate insisting that it must be taught.

Next, the national standards. There are many out there. A popular suggested standard can be found here. These standards not only suggest teaching about gender theory and masturbation in elementary school and anal sex in middle school; they also suggest the need to teach about intersectionality, racial justice, internalized racism and reproductive justice. For instance, page 11 of the standards note that “the updated NSES calls attention to overt and covert discrimination, which may be based on biases, including institutional, structural, interpersonal, and internalized racism.”

This suggests that “comprehensive sex education” in the eyes of those trying to get state legislatures (like Connecticut’s) to mandate it is far more than simply teaching children to understand the basics of human sexuality. Rather, it is an opportunity to indoctrinate children into a set of highly questionable ideological principles that have little or nothing to do with sex.

I encourage all CT residents reading this to contact the members of the Senate Education committee and urge them to vote NO to SB 1.

As written, SB1 is not at all about promoting transparency in education. Rather, it is a Trojan Horse for radical gender ideologues to educate young Connecticut children in fashionable ideas about race and gender that have little basis in science.

Danele Rhoads

Danele Rhoads is the Connecticut Chapter Leader of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR). She and her husband are raising their three children in Connecticut and are small business owners.