A More Candid Approach To Sex-Ed

Montgomery Board Approves Lessons On Homosexuality

The Montgomery County school board yesterday approved new lessons on sexual orientation for use in every middle and high school, introducing homosexuality and gender identity in health classes where they have not been discussed except in response to a question from a student.

Two lessons, totaling 90 minutes, will be added to health courses in grades 8 and 10 in the fall, along with a 10th-grade lesson and instructional DVD on the correct use of a condom. The curriculum revisions, while short, place Montgomery in the forefront of a movement toward more candor in teaching about homosexuality in public schools

"I know that these issues are not without emotion," said Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, speaking yesterday in a televised meeting. "But I do think this is the right thing to do. And I also think it needs to be done in the right way."

Much of the nation is moving toward an "abstinence-only" approach to sex education, which emphasizes the advantages of confining sex to marriage. But school systems in liberal communities are heading in the opposite direction, teaching more about sexual orientation, as well as contraception and abstinence, in what is termed "comprehensive" sex education.

Weast made a final addition Monday to the Montgomery lessons, instructing teachers to say -- only in response to a student's question -- that the psychiatric community does not consider homosexuality an illness. It cost him the support of the most conservative school board member, Stephen N. Abrams (Rockville-Potomac), who said he was "extraordinarily offended" to learn of the change Monday night.

Other board members had pushed for the revision, as had a 15-member citizens advisory committee, a group that worked with Weast's staff to develop the lessons. The advisory group lobbied strenuously for the last-minute change. Its members overwhelmingly favored the new curriculum, although two represented organizations that opposed it.

The school board vote went 6 to 1, with only Abrams opposing the amended lessons. Student representative Sarah Horvitz was absent but could have voted on the measure.

Six middle and high schools field-tested the lessons in March. Health teachers in other Montgomery schools have not been permitted to discuss sexual orientation except in response to a student's query.

"Where we were before was nothing," said board member Patricia O'Neill (Bethesda- Chevy Chase).

The new lessons were five years in the making. Board members and civic leaders felt the old policy -- avoiding the topic -- did not befit a community known for its progressiveness. But a first attempt at revising the lessons prompted a lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. issued a restraining order in spring 2005, faulting teacher materials that criticized religious fundamentalism.

Rewritten lessons -- tightly scripted, screened by lawyers and trimmed of all religious content -- have met with equally determined opposition from a consortium of citizen groups led by Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum. They contend that the new lessons, like the ones proposed two years ago, favor the viewpoint that homosexuality is socially and morally acceptable. They sought to introduce such cautionary topics as the dangers of anal sex and to challenge the notion that sexual orientation is inborn.

About 35 protesters gathered outside school board headquarters yesterday morning, chanting, "Health before politics." They included Douglas Streeks, 18, a graduating senior from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville.

He said of the new lessons, "I think their agenda is to get students to accept this stuff as normal, and it's not."

Opponents have appealed to the Maryland State Board of Education and to State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, who refused to halt the field tests but said arguments for and against the curriculum were "balanced equally on each side." The state board is expected to rule this summer.

John Garza, president of the lead protest group, asked why the county board couldn't wait until then to go forward.

"What if they actually rule in our favor?" he said.

The new lessons are heavy on definitions and worksheet exercises about harassment and tolerance. A passage from the grade 8 lesson, for example, dismisses as myth the idea "that a person is homosexual because he or she is not yet interested in the opposite gender." More candid grade 10 lessons describe gay, lesbian and transgender people "celebrat[ing] their self-discovery" and are the main source of controversy.