Nov 07, 2007Quickie Link: Gay Sex Left to Teacher's Discretion
By vanrozenheim
(Canada) - Every year, Grade 9 students anticipate it with a mixture of dread, curiosity and giggles. Teachers sweat over it. Parents have both advocated for it and damned it. It's sexual education and it's lurking in the background of the public education psyche. Sex ed is mandatory, part of a physical education course taken by every Ontario high school student in Grade 9. However, the terms "Gay," "Lesbian," "Trans," "Queer," "same-sex," or "homosexual," are absent from the official documents. In other words, the sexual education curriculum, which sets the standard for what children learn about sex and sexuality in high school, makes no references to the queer community. That gives an out to Ontario schools who want to give out diplomas but don't want to teach about Gays.
