Bills clear state Senate Call for ‘nonbinary’ licenses, ‘medically accurate’ sex ed
Two bills involving gender and sexuality — one that would allow state residents to mark their sex as “X” on driver’s licenses and birth certificates, and one that would require “medically accurate” sex education in public schools — cleared the state Senate this week.
“Some (programs) have taught abstinence only, some have taught an abstinence only-centered curriculum, where we know that’s not the reality of what we’re dealing with today,” said state Sen. Sal DiDomenico, D-Everett, who’s now shepherded the sex-ed bill through the Senate four times.
He has “a lot of hope” that the bills will pass through the House and eventually become law this time, he said.
Massachusetts schools are not required to teach sex ed. If it’s taught, the only requirements, created in 1990, are to explain the benefits of abstinence and to notify parents that it’s being taught, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.
The new bill would still allow school districts or parents to opt out of sex ed for their children, but if it’s taught, the curriculum each district chooses would have to be, as the bill puts it, “medically accurate,” “ageappropriate,” LGBTQ+-inclusive and would include a consensual sex and intimate-partner-violence component.
“It’s very easy to feel like everything is OK in Massachusetts,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, the executive director of NARAL ProChoice America’s Massachusetts chapter. Given recent abortion law changes in states like Texas, she said, “more folks are starting to realize that even if things are going OK, they might not always be, and so we really need to set up the right kind of education for our kids.” She hopes these changes in other states will “galvanize” state lawmakers to pass the bill.
Hart Holder added that there is a “huge need” for consent education in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Starting young, she said, helps children be “fluent” in this topic.
The other bill would allow adults to change their birth certificates and licenses to sexes including “M”, “F” or “X.” Sasha Goodfriend, director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women called this bill “critically important” to the validation of people’s identities, and can improve access to services if they feel more comfortable using their ID.
“There’s a lot of agencies already around the state who have added nonbinary markers to their databases, so really, this is catching up,” she said.
Andrew Beckwith, executive director of the JudeoChristian-rooted Massachusetts Families Institute, opposes both bills. On the ID bill, he said gender identity is “inappropriate” to use on government documents because it’s a “social construct.”
On the sex-ed bill, he called past state-approved curricula “wildly inappropriate” and “sexually explicit.” He also decried the “one-size-fits-all” approach that would be mandated by the state, though districts would be able to choose their own curriculum within the state guidelines.