State Rep. Patti Minter, D-Bowling Green, has joined a dozen other Democratic lawmakers in calling for all public schools to offer comprehensive sex education to students between kindergarten and the 12th grade.

Through House Bill 296, and starting during the 2021-22 school year, each school district would be required to provide students instruction covering human anatomy, reproduction and sexual development, along with effective use of condoms and other birth control methods, such as abstinence.

Schools would also need to cover healthy relationships – including how “gender stereotypes can limit all people” – and the “affirmative recognition that people have different sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions,” among other topics.

In supporting the legislation, Minter said that if students don’t receive such instruction in school, they’re more likely to get inaccurate and harmful information. H.B. 296 would also help minimize the risk of unplanned pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, which Minter said is on the rise in Kentucky.

“Comprehensive sex education is common sense,” Minter said. “It keeps people safe, and it creates a healthier and more informed society.”

Minter noted that the curriculum described in the bill must be age appropriate and medically correct.

The full bill is available here.