States With Anti-Gay Sex Education

The Supreme Court will decide in the current term whether all 50 states must allow same-sex couples to marry. No doubt the justices are aware of how public opinion on the issue has evolved. But while legal gay marriage has spread rapidly over the last several years (see this map), sex education laws in many states remain in the Dark Ages—even in states where gay marriage is allowed.

In Arizona, for example, two men or two women can tie the knot, but no student can be exposed to curriculum that "promotes a homosexual lifestyle" or "suggests that some methods of sex are safe methods of homosexual sex." In South Carolina, where same-sex couples have been able to marry since last year, students are forbidden from learning about homosexuality "except in the context of instruction concerning sexually transmitted diseases." 

Sex education is only mandated for middle or high schoolers in 22 states, but almost every state in the nation has policies governing what teachers should emphasize or avoid if they teach sex ed. In 20 states, this means spelling out how teachers should cover homosexuality: 9 states require that information on sexual orientation be "inclusive," while the 11 states in the chart above have either pro-heterosexual or anti-homosexual biases.

Source: Mother jones