Alabama House committee holds public hearings on bills limiting sex and gender instruction

A House committee Wednesday held a public hearing on Wednesday on bills related to sex and gender education. (Getty Images)

An Alabama House committee Wednesday held public hearings on two bills that could restrict sex and gender instruction in public schools, though neither came to a vote.

HB 130 , sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would prohibit classroom instruction for any K-12 student “regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The bill expands a “Don’t Say Gay” law banning those discussions in kindergarten through fifth grade, a measure added in the last hours of the 2022 legislative session to a “bathroom bill.” Butler’s bill is a more limited version of legislation that did not pass out of committee last year.

Butler said that “indoctrination” was happening in schools, and his bill would allow schools to focus on core subjects.

“It is happening all over and it is a component of Marxism, destroying the family in teaching some of these things, let it happen somewhere else other than our schools,” he said to the House Education Policy Committee.

Opponents of the bill said it could keep LGBTQ children from having access to safe space with teachers and could have unintended consequences on limiting discussion of any sexual identity or gender.

Jordan Price said the bill was part of a plan to erase LGBTQ people, and said it could also prevent the teaching of notable women.

“Every first lady would be doubly erased if we weren’t allowed to mention that they were married to men nor that they were women themselves,” Price said.

Proponents of the bill said that it would protect children.

Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl said that he felt it was a “common sense bill.”

“I think this bill just strengthens the law that’s already in place and goes a little bit further making sure that we keep a political agenda or a social agenda out of our schools,” he said.

In his opening description, Butler also said that it would contribute to “purify” the schools. Butler walked that back in discussion with Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, who said that purity was a subjective definition.

“Is that what we should be aiming for?” she asked. “Someone else’s subjectivity?”

“No, ma’am,” said Butler.

HB 195, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, would require sexual education in the state to teach “exclusively and emphatically teach sexual risk avoidance content.” DuBose defined sexual risk avoidance as abstinence first.

The bill does not explicitly prohibit the teaching of contraception but places limitations on instruction, including that it is in line with sexual risk avoidance; does not “normalize, encourage, or promote” sexual behavior by youth and teens; does not say that contraception is 100% effective against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; and “dispels any false sense of security about ‘safe sex.’”

The bill also requires teachers to instruct students on the state’s abortion ban, domestic adoption and infant-surrendering laws. “Our sex ed program will continue to teach primarily abstinence, which is now called SRA, or sexual risk avoidance,” she said.

Christina Clark Okarmus, executive director the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health, which was attacked by DuBose at the start of the hearing, said that Alabama has high rates of teen pregnancy. She said abstinence-only programs do not help reduce teen pregnancy or sexually-transmitted infection (STI) rates.

“I think most of us can agree that young people need messages of abstinence and prevention when it comes to sex,” she said. “This bill, HB 195, is an archaic and dangerous piece of legislation for our youth.”

Many medical and health associations endorse comprehensive sex education as the most effective, but the actual research on the impact of different sexual education programs tends to be sparse and ambiguous, according to a 2023 Hechinger Report article.

Beth Pruitt, a sexual-risk avoidance educator, said they took a holistic approach to education and included information about relationships and drug and alcohol use.

“We need to discuss that, how they are highly effective, but birth control provides zero protection against STDs and STIs,” she said. “Condoms have according to the CDC, an 18% typical use failure rate.”

The CDC says that external condoms often fail due to inconsistent or incorrect use. The CDC says the typical use failure rate is 13%.

Hannah Burkle, a professional health educator with Planned Parenthood, said that she thinks teen parents can be good parents but, in her experience, teen parents said they think that more sex education could have had an impact on them.

“We at Planned Parenthood also agree and believe that parents are the first and most important educators for their children, and from my studies as well as my work, I know that Alabama parents want comprehensive education for their kids,” she said.

Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, the chair of the committee, said the bills would return f or a vote after spring break.

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