Planned Parenthood, Outright Vermont helped write teaching guidelines
by Guy Page
A January, 2019 Vermont Agency of Education guideline to sex ed teachers recommends never using the terms “boy” or “girl” or other sex-identifying terms.
“Full Spectrum: Educator’s Guide to Implementing LGBTQ+ Inclusive Sex Ed” was prepared by Outright Vermont and Planned Parenthood and distributed to teachers on Vermont Agency of Education letterhead.
The directives included say referring to condoms as male or female is “exclusionary.” Instead, teachers should use the “inclusive, non-gendered” alternative: “external and internal condoms.” They also prod teachers to use words that ignore differences between the sexes. For example:
Use Language That Is Gender Neutral:
Folks, Friends, Y’All, Everyone (instead of ‘Boys and Girls’ or ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’)
Use ‘They/Them’ pronouns by default, including in introductions for everyone.
Body-First Language:
When two people are having vaginal sex (instead of ‘when a guy and a girl have sex.’)
People with uteruses often experience this during puberty (instead of ‘girls often experience this during puberty’)
The guidelines also explicitly recommend confidentiality, i.e. students not telling their parents about other children’s sexuality.
Build in confidentiality
• In your ground rules, from day one
• Be sure students know how confidentiality works in your class and with their parents
• Establish group norms or guidelines for class that explicitly recognize and include respect for LGBTQ+ identities
Vermont Daily Chronicle asked Agency of Education Secretary Dan French what information, specifically, should be kept from parents. He responded in an October 14 email: “If [hypothetical student] John discloses his personal information, another student in the class should respect that as being private. What John shares with his parents is his business,” French explained.