Oppose Comprehensive Sex Ed - House Health Finance Committee
The Problem
H.F. 358 (Jordan) is endorsed by Planned Parenthood's advocacy arm in Minnesota. It mandates sweeping new statewide comprehensive sexual education (CSE) curriculum to be taught in our state’s public schools. It sexualizes children.
The bill will harm children and families because:
- It encourages public schools to invite and subsidize with tax-payer money so-called "community groups," such as Planned Parenthood and Family Tree Clinic, into classrooms to instruct children in ideologies that promote harmful theories about sexuality and thwart healthy child development.
- It gives bureaucrats in the Minnesota Department of Education authority to develop non-age-appropriate programs for use in Minnesota schools that sexualize children.
- It specifies that the instructor does not need to be a licensed teacher nor an employee of the school.
- It usurps the role of parents as the primary educators of their children.
- It mandates the teaching of gender identity ideology for all kids starting in Kindergarten through 12th grade.
- It opens the door to curricula that harm healthy development by:
- Teaching children, starting in Kindergarten, that sex or "gender" is "assigned" not "recognized" at birth. Not only does this negate common sense, it ignores science which proves that our sex is engrained in every cell of our bodies from the moment of conception.
- Promoting abortion ("bodily autonomy") and instructs students in explicit and graphic sexual activities, with step-by-step instructions.
- Requiring the teaching of diverse sexual identities and orientations and how to "consent" to sexual activity.
- Requiring that students be provided with local resources where they can obtain information and services related to sexual and reproductive health, such as abortion.
Church Teaching
Parents/guardians are obliged to ensure that their children’s education in human sexuality occurs within the context of the moral principles and truths of the Catholic Church, whether it be done at home or in educational centers chosen by them (Catechetical Formation and Chaste Living, p.23). Parents should be very concerned about what this bill would mean for their children in traditional public and charter schools who will be faced with this new curriculum.
As Catholics we know that, "sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul," (CCC, 2332) and that, "everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life." In Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si it states, "God uses the body to reveal to each person his or her sexual identity as male or female. A person’s embrace of his or her God-given sexual identity is an essential part of living a fulfilled relationship with God, with oneself, and with each other (Laudato Si §155)."
Our children deserve curricula that does not call into question their sexual identity, but instead affirms their identity as children of God created as male or female and that help them to understand how the two sexes - properly ordered - compliment, affirm, and help each other to flourish.
The Catholic Church is clear on the role of parents as the primary educators of their children: "'The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.' The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable." (CCC, 2221) The Catechism states, "Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children, " (CCC, 2223) and continues, "parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies." (CCC, 2224) This is made far more difficult for both the parent and child when those influences are being brought directly into the child's classroom.
Learn More
Oppose Comprehensive Sex Ed - House Health Finance Committee
The Problem
H.F. 358 (Jordan) is endorsed by Planned Parenthood's advocacy arm in Minnesota. It mandates sweeping new statewide comprehensive sexual education (CSE) curriculum to be taught in our state’s public schools. It sexualizes children.
The bill will harm children and families because:
- It encourages public schools to invite and subsidize with tax-payer money so-called "community groups," such as Planned Parenthood and Family Tree Clinic, into classrooms to instruct children in ideologies that promote harmful theories about sexuality and thwart healthy child development.
- It gives bureaucrats in the Minnesota Department of Education authority to develop non-age-appropriate programs for use in Minnesota schools that sexualize children.
- It specifies that the instructor does not need to be a licensed teacher nor an employee of the school.
- It usurps the role of parents as the primary educators of their children.
- It mandates the teaching of gender identity ideology for all kids starting in Kindergarten through 12th grade.
- It opens the door to curricula that harm healthy development by:
- Teaching children, starting in Kindergarten, that sex or "gender" is "assigned" not "recognized" at birth. Not only does this negate common sense, it ignores science which proves that our sex is engrained in every cell of our bodies from the moment of conception.
- Promoting abortion ("bodily autonomy") and instructs students in explicit and graphic sexual activities, with step-by-step instructions.
- Requiring the teaching of diverse sexual identities and orientations and how to "consent" to sexual activity.
- Requiring that students be provided with local resources where they can obtain information and services related to sexual and reproductive health, such as abortion.
Church Teaching
Parents/guardians are obliged to ensure that their children’s education in human sexuality occurs within the context of the moral principles and truths of the Catholic Church, whether it be done at home or in educational centers chosen by them (Catechetical Formation and Chaste Living, p.23). Parents should be very concerned about what this bill would mean for their children in traditional public and charter schools who will be faced with this new curriculum.
As Catholics we know that, "sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul," (CCC, 2332) and that, "everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life." In Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si it states, "God uses the body to reveal to each person his or her sexual identity as male or female. A person’s embrace of his or her God-given sexual identity is an essential part of living a fulfilled relationship with God, with oneself, and with each other (Laudato Si §155)."
Our children deserve curricula that does not call into question their sexual identity, but instead affirms their identity as children of God created as male or female and that help them to understand how the two sexes - properly ordered - compliment, affirm, and help each other to flourish.
The Catholic Church is clear on the role of parents as the primary educators of their children: "'The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.' The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable." (CCC, 2221) The Catechism states, "Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children, " (CCC, 2223) and continues, "parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies." (CCC, 2224) This is made far more difficult for both the parent and child when those influences are being brought directly into the child's classroom.
Learn More