In a radio interview last Thursday, State Rep. Lori Saine (R-Weld) argued against House Bill 19-1032, which outlines state-wide standards for publicly funded schools electing to teach sex education.
Saine told conservative host Jimmy Lakey on northern Colorado’s KCOL radio station, that she believes the Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education bill will undermine parental rights.
“Why is the state government involved in this?” said Saine, “and forcing these schools to teach a certain curriculum. Why isn’t this left up to the parents?”
Saine did not acknowledge a provision outlined in the bill which allows parents to opt out of the comprehensive sex education program. The bill only requires that school districts which elect to offer sexual education in schools must teach comprehensive sexual education.
Lakey voiced his own concerns over specifics of the Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education bill.
“It does specify that the curriculum cannot be heterosexual specific, in other words, you have to go through the LGBTQRS alphabet,” said Lakey, “you got to make sure it is all inclusive and that’s the problem.”
To be clear, the bill does not ban any sexual identity from a curriculum. Instead, it aims to include all gender and sexual identities in a comprehensive sex education curriculum.
At the end of the interview, Saine called on listeners to ask Democratic legislators to vote ‘no,’ hoping to stop the bill before it moves to the Senate.
The Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education bill passed the House Health and Insurance Committee with a 7-4 vote in favor.
