Illinois sex ed law puts school districts in center of latest battleground in education culture wars

Barrington Hills Observer

Aug 29

A copy of "Gender Queer," a graphic novel about a nonbinary teen, sits on a table during the Barrington District 220 school board meeting on Aug. 16, 2022, in Barrington. (H. Rick Bamman / Pioneer Press)

As the mother of five children, Barrington resident Marsha McClary approved of her hometown school district teaching students about the birds and the bees with what she described as a traditional, biology-based sex education program.

So when McClary heard Illinois lawmakers had passed legislation mandating that school districts teaching comprehensive sex education follow new standards created by a New York City-based nonprofit, McClary decided to do her homework.

"I read through the whole thing and in general, I thought, a lot of these things in the standards are wonderful, but then I got to page 21, and for me, that's where the rubber meets the road," said McClary, whose children are enrolled in Barrington School District 220.

In particular, McClary was troubled that the standards required that by the end of fifth grade, Illinois students should be able to "describe the role hormones play in the physical, social, cognitive, and emotional changes during adolescence and the potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender."

McClary was also alarmed to see a requirement that by the end of fifth grade students should be able to "distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how they may or may not differ," as well as "define and explain differences between cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender identity" and understand that "gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum."

"For an 11-year-old person, I'm just not OK with that," McClary said.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act into law in August 2021, making Illinois the first state in the U.S. to formally pass legislation codifying new national sex education standards developed by SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change.

According to the SIECUS website, the nonprofit advances sex education as a means to create a "long-term culture shift that will positively impact all levels of society, particularly issues of gender and racial equity, sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, consent, personal safety, and autonomy."