Vessel

By now I assume you have heard of the four different child suicides because of harassment and bullying of their suspected sexual orientation. There have been deaths following this same pattern before now, and at even younger ages - 11 is the youngest I have heard of.

It is true that it is caused by bigotry and hatred of people with a minority sexual orientation. There must be more acceptance of people different than ourselves. The issue, to me, is sex education. When I was a youth advisor we offered OWL (Our Whole Lives sex education program) to 4th and 6th graders and not a single parent signed their kids up at our church. They said 11 was too young for sex education.

When society has 11 and 13 year olds killing themselves because they are being harassed by ignorant children, education can never be started too early.

Sex education can be age appropriate and is more about boundary setting than “sex”. For example, I have been educating my children since birth. They know the correct names for all their body parts. They know they have a right to their bodies, and when they, or someone else says ‘no’ - they are not allowed to do that anymore, whether it is a tickle contest, playing tag, or me putting clothes on them. Short of medical necessities like changing diapers, bathing, and putting on a band-aid, I do not touch my children if they tell me no. This skill at a very early age teaches them to respect and value their bodies.

Likewise, age-appropriate sex education for pre-pubescent children is vital and boundary setting. They learn what is going to happen to them at puberty before it happens. They learn about different gender identification and sexual orientation before they encounter it. Most of all, parents and children learn how to discuss these issues within healthy boundaries. Sex education does not teach morals. In other words, telling them what sex is does not mean one is telling them to have sex. It does not affirm any person’s orientation. It is knowledge. What is done with the knowledge is up to the parents to tell their kids, but ultimately the kids will make choices on their own. It has been consistently proved that the more kids know, the better choices they make.

This goes back to our affirmation that every person has inherent worth and dignity - even kids! They need to know, they need sex education. It is a matter of life and death.