by Paul Chesser
RALEIGH, NC (AgapePress) – Is “mutual faithfulness” important to monogamy? Does the “context of marriage” present the best lifelong means to avoid sexually transmitted diseases? The answer is “no” if you are Sen. Jeanne Lucas or Rep. Verla Insko, two state legislators who introduced legislative bills to their respective chambers that pro-family groups say would water down abstinence education in North Carolina.
“We hope that numerous legislators will share our concerns about what the bill proposes to do,” said John Rustin, director of government relations for the North Carolina Family Policy Council (NCFPC). “It will open up the door for homosexuality to be taught as an appropriate lifestyle to students as young as kindergarten.”
Both Senate Bill 515 and House Bill 855 would change the state’s School Health Education Program, which says in part: “a mutually faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the best lifelong means of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including AIDS, and other associated health and emotional problems.”
The proposed rewrite of the law would remove the words “mutually faithful,” “heterosexual,” and “in the context of marriage,” leaving only the loosely defined “monogamous relationship” to be taught as the “best lifelong means of avoiding [STDs].”
Critics of the change claim removing the words “mutually faithful” misleads students into thinking that those who practice monogamous sex in a series of relationships are safe from STDs. They also say the removal of “heterosexual” provides the opportunity for schools to teach the homosexual lifestyle as a “best lifelong means of avoiding [STDs and AIDS].”
“The cumulative impact of removing all those words would neuter the whole abstinence education, that kids should remain abstinent until they are married,” said Rustin.
Pro-family organizations also question new requirements that change the teaching of “factually accurate biological or pathological information that is related to the human reproductive system.” The proposed bills qualify that the information be “supported by research recognized as accurate and objective by leading medical, psychological, and public health organizations and agencies….”
The NCFPC cited such “leading health organizations” that might be used as research authorities, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. Both those organizations claim that homosexuality is in no way a mental disorder or abnormal, and thus the legislation would further provide opportunities to teach it as an acceptable lifestyle.
“We are seeing a lot of good results because of abstinence until marriage being taught,” said Dr. Ann Frazier, president of Eagle Forum of North Carolina, who has compiled adolescent sexuality studies over the last 20 years. Frazier also helped write the abstinence law as it currently stands.
“[SB 515] will completely gut our abstinence in education law in North Carolina,” said Frazier.
Sen. Lucas also chairs the Senate Education Committee, which will consider her bill.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
