# Utah poised to ban sex education **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141 "2012-03-08T12:39:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/1 "2012-03-08T12:39:13Z")
The bill has passed the state House cand Senate, and now goes to the Governor, who’s up for re-election. > **[Yahoo News: Latest and Breaking News, Headlines, Live Updates, and More](https://news.yahoo.com/)** > > The latest news and headlines from Yahoo News. Get breaking news stories and in-depth coverage with videos and photos. > [@](#): > > “Utah is by far the most restrictive policy out there,” said Rebecca Wind, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health policy. > > “There are no other states that … don’t allow birth control discussion at all, in the way that the Utah legislation does. So it is unique in that respect,” she added. Having lived in the Beehive State, I can easily believe this. Church-run KBYU, a PBS affiliate, regularly censored PBS offerings. Pioneer Memorial Theater, which was actually at a State-run university, regularly cleaned up the plays they showed (including _Amadeus_, which seemed particularly pointless). Until recently, a Utah company re-recorded major movies on DVd with all the objectionable bits removed. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/2 "2012-03-08T12:48:06Z")
What’s this about beehives? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/3 "2012-03-08T12:50:32Z")
Don’t let this be a derailing of the thread, but you can look up “beehive state” easily enough: > **[Why Is Utah Called the Beehive State? (with pictures)](https://www.unitedstatesnow.org/why-is-utah-called-the-beehive-state.htm)** > > Utah is called the Beehive State because bees are associated with industry and perseverance, two qualities that the founders of... ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/4 "2012-03-08T12:56:24Z")
Sorry, embarrassingly I had no clue. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/5 "2012-03-08T13:05:32Z")
They are right - in an \*ideal \*world, sex education should be the job of parents. Unfortunately, some parents are too lazy, some are too embarrassed, some are too stupid. I suppose the kids can just learn it all on the streets, right? ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/6 "2012-03-08T13:40:14Z")
Why should it be the job of the parents? It’s basic biology. If girls are old enough to get their periods, and boys are old enough to have wet dreams, then they’re old enough to know what’s going on with their bodies and what the implications are for the future. It should be part of every biology class from middle school onward. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/7 "2012-03-08T14:03:25Z")
I dunno - silly me, wanting to teach my own kid stuff, hoping that when she has questions, she comes to me, since I just \*might \*have answers for her… Schools aren’t the only places where you learn. ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/8 "2012-03-08T14:13:54Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I dunno - silly me, wanting to teach my own kid stuff, hoping that when she has questions, she comes to me, since I just \*might \*have answers for her… Schools aren’t the only places where you learn. It isn’t a question about whether you want to teach your kids about sex or not, but why is it “ideal” that kids learn all they know about sex from their parents? Even in the ideal world where parents don’t shy away from that discussion, it is apparent that many people are rather ill-informed about the biological aspects of sex and passing that information along to their children is not going to make the situation any better. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/9 "2012-03-08T14:26:08Z")
So why not have sex education at home _and_ at school? The more education the better, especially for something as fundamental as sex. It doesn’t have to be an either / or situation. Err… unless you live in Utah, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/10 "2012-03-08T14:29:51Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I dunno - silly me, wanting to teach my own kid stuff, hoping that when she has questions, she comes to me, since I just \*might \*have answers for her… Schools aren’t the only places where you learn. Is anybody advocating that sex ed be banned at home? No? Then I’m not sure what you’re on about. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/11 "2012-03-08T14:32:08Z")
Why isn’t it called ‘Relationship Education’? ‘Sex education’ sounds as unbalanced as some other bogus phrase, maybe like ‘socialized medicine’. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/12 "2012-03-08T14:44:04Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Schools aren’t the only places where you learn. No - but it’s pretty stupid to have schools where learning is forbidden. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/13 "2012-03-08T14:45:13Z")
If, in an ideal world, parents should be teaching their kids about sex, why do we not hear, “In an ideal world, parents should be teaching their kids calculus!”? The answer to both is that most parents are unwilling and unqualified to teach either. “I want to be the one to teach my kid about sex!” most often means, “…but I’m not going to bring it up until she’s 14, if then!” No one’s stopping you from adding your 2 cents and teaching morals and religious precepts at home. But in a day and age when an alarming number of people [don’t know women have three holes in their nether regions](https://www.google.com/search?q=women+don%27t+know+they+have+three+holes&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&sclient=psy-ab&q=don%27t+know+women+have+three+holes&oq=don%27t+know+women+have+three+holes&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=6078l8899l0l9203l18l17l1l0l0l11l275l2467l0.15.2l18l0&gs_l=serp.3...6078l8899l0l9203l18l17l1l0l0l11l275l2467l0j15j2l18l0&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=bfbad756b3e0f08f&biw=1252&bih=548), leaving biology education to the laypeople is stupid and dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/14 "2012-03-08T14:49:52Z")
Surely people understand it’s not really about sex - if it was about sex the entire curriculum would last about 10 minutes ‘This goes there, you leave it in too long you get a baby. Any questions? Good, lesson over’. People do get the importance of kids discussing and reflecting on all the kinds of relationships they have, obligations and responsibilities, about morality, decency, etc? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/15 "2012-03-08T15:01:55Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > Surely people understand it’s not really about sex - if it was about sex the entire curriculum would last about 10 minutes ‘This goes there, you leave it in too long you get a baby. Any questions? Good, lesson over’. > > People do get the importance of kids discussing and reflecting on all the kinds of relationships they have, obligations and responsibilities, about morality, decency, etc? I’m more interested in menstruation, learning about fertility cycles, birth control, STI prevention, pregnancy development and infant care and yes, a bit about self-empowerment, thinking for yourself, realizing that your friends who are talking about sex the most are probably doing it the least and resisting peer and date pressure to have sex before you feel ready. Me being me, I tend to throw in a bit about how yeah, sex is really really good, but not generally for your first or second time, because elbows get in the way until you have some practice. But yeah, even the nuts (_snicker_) and bolts of a woman’s monthly cycle can take a few hours, if you’re being thorough. With my kids, I start small and slow, and we have many conversations over many years, totaling probably 30 hours or more. When I teach it in workshop settings, I have a 1.5 hour version and a 6 hour version. If I was going to do it in a Health Class, I could easily fill 45 minutes a day for 10 weeks. About three quarters of that would be pure biology, contraception and STI prevention. So while it’s not ONLY about sex, it’s a lot about sex, and the ramifications of sex, and the consequences of sex to your body and safer sex. Even if we take out all the stuff that could be construed as “morals”, even if we take out the strategies to withstand peer pressure, even if we take out the “sex can be wonderful, with the right person at the right time” parts and other things that can be politicized into “encouraging” kids to have sex…there’s still a lot of biology and health to cover. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/16 "2012-03-08T15:03:23Z")
The Salt Lake Tribute has a great [take on this](http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/53668404-82/bagley-cartoon-facebook-lake.html.csp). ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/17 "2012-03-08T15:05:25Z")
Good lord, if it had been up to my parents to teach me about sex, I’d still be wondering where babies come from. When I started my periods (the summer between sixth and seventh grade - seventh being when we got the talk in school), I honestly had no idea at all what was happening. If my aunt hadn’t been visiting I don’t know how long it would have taken me to find out. I was way too embarassed and mortified to ask my mother. When my younger sister had questions, my mother sent her to me for information. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/18 "2012-03-08T15:12:41Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > Surely people understand it’s not really about sex - if it was about sex the entire curriculum would last about 10 minutes ‘This goes there, you leave it in too long you get a baby. Any questions? Good, lesson over’. > > People do get the importance of kids discussing and reflecting on all the kinds of relationships they have, obligations and responsibilities, about morality, decency, etc? The bill in question is not talking about _adding_ a relationship class to the curriculum. It’s talking about _preventing_ reproduction - a major biological topic - from being covered in biology class. That said, I don’t actually think it’s a public school’s job to teach morality and decency, unless the school in question is prepared to hear from _all_ of the public on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/19 "2012-03-08T15:15:27Z")
> [@Baracus](#): > > It isn’t a question about whether you want to teach your kids about sex or not, but why is it “ideal” that kids learn all they know about sex from their parents? Even in the ideal world where parents don’t shy away from that discussion, it is apparent that many people are rather ill-informed about the biological aspects of sex and passing that information along to their children is not going to make the situation any better. Bingo. My mom came to my 5th-grade class on the subject to see what exactly they were teaching, and told me she actually learned quite a bit. It’s basic biology, but that was not her strong point. I’m glad she let me be taught by someone who actually knew the subject matter. That’s not to say that my 5th-grade instruction (or, later on, my high school instruction, which was much more detailed and graphic, as it should have been) were everything I have ever learned about sex and relationships. Mom certainly supplemented on that front. Which is as it should be. ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141/20 "2012-03-08T15:16:01Z")
> [@Mrs.Cake](#): > > If my aunt hadn’t been visiting I don’t know how long it would have taken me to find out. Was her first name Florence by any chance? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-poised-to-ban-sex-education/615141.md?page=2)