Recently, Hawaii rolled out a sex education program for middle school students called “Pono Choices,” which is geared toward helping Hawaii’s teenagers make lifestyle choices that will help them avoid teen pregnancy and STDs. It includes a heavy dose of Hawaiian cultural values; indeed, “pono” means “righteousness” in Hawaiian.
This curriculum was badly needed in a state with the 10th highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation and the lowest percentage of sexually active high school students who use condoms. So no reason for controversy there, right? Well, apparently not. Thanks to the loud and uninformed objections of a Republican state representative who thinks Pono Choices is pro-gay, this curriculum can only be taught to students whose parents explicitly opt into it.
Bob McDermott is one of seven Republicans in the Hawaii House; he represents the 40th district on Oahu’s west side. He is also one of the most virulently anti-gay state legislators anywhere in this country. He has waged a one-man crusade to get Pono Choices eliminated on the grounds that it promotes homosexuality.
According to Honolulu Civil Beat, McDermott seems to have quite the fixation with anal sex–a fixation that is “not supported by credible studies.” He claims that straight men who have anal sex hate women, and that gay men should stay away from anal sex.
He was concerned enough to write a report calling for Pono Choices to be reformed or scrapped because it not only made anal sex and homosexuality behavior sound normal, but could potentially give teens “the impression that homosexuality and lesbianism are quite common.”
He also objected to its “implicit endorsement of homosexuality.” This prompted the state department of education and the state board of education (Hawaii, unlike the other 49 states, has no local school districts) to suspend the program for ten days pending an internal review. That review mostly knocked down McDermott’s objections, finding that it had beneficial results for students.
That still wasn’t enough to calm McDermott down, so the department of education created a volunteer panel of educators and citizens to review Pono Choices’ appropriateness. That panel’s report mostly affirmed that the curriculum was medically accurate and age-appropriate, but recommended some minor changes. However, on the same day of that report’s release, the state announced that Pono Choices would only be taught to students whose parents signed a permission form opting into the curriculum.
To put it mildly, this is a bad idea.
All available evidence shows that teen pregnancy and STDs are a public health concern, and this decision by Hawaii officials increases the chances that a good number of students won’t get information they need to make potentially life-affecting decisions.
Lest you think this is an idle concern, this story made me think of something my 10th-grade health teacher told me. One of his students had fanatically religious parents who wouldn’t allow her to take part in sex ed classes. She later got pregnant–and didn’t know how to handle it.
According to Daily Kos Elections’ exhaustive database of election results by state legislative districts, McDermott’s district is as blue as they come on paper. Obama carried the district with 63 percent of the vote in 2012. Mazie Hrono beat Linda Lingle almost as handily, with 59 percent of the vote.
If you’re reading this and you live in the Honolulu area, now might be a good time to find a Democrat whose views on sexuality aren’t as dangerously backwards as McDermott’s views appear to be.
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Darrell Lucus is a radical lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
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