Our kids deserve schools that keep them safe and help them thrive. The Healthy Youth Act would require public school districts that teach sexuality education to use curriculums that are medically accurate, inclusive of LGBTQ students, and provide instruction about healthy relationships and consent.
From Texas to Florida, state lawmakers are enacting laws that attack LGBTQ children and adolescents for political gain. It is distressing to see political leaders try these same tactics in Massachusetts, which was the first state in the country to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ students, with passage of the Safe Schools law in 1993.
The complete fabrications about the Healthy Youth Act offered by state Republican leaders are a reminder that we cannot take either personal liberty or state recognition of the humanity and dignity of all residents for granted. These rights rest on action from state lawmakers, and we hope that the Legislature soon passes the Healthy Youth Act.
Carrie Richgels
Manager of policy and advocacy
Fenway Health
Jaclyn Friedman
Chair, Healthy Youth Act Coalition
Boston
We’re all raised with biases — the key is to acknowledge them
The recent comments from Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl perpetuate a common misperception (“School official refutes Diehl’s claims,” Metro, May 27). He said, “I find it exceptionally offensive that high school students are being told they are intrinsically guilty of racism and bias within their soul, and to thereby imply that they lack innate ability to see beyond bias.”
What Diehl is not understanding is that we are all raised with biases. Reams of research document this. However, we all have the ability to see beyond bias if we can acknowledge and challenge it. The problem arises when we deny or avoid our biases.
Jennifer Wolfrum
Watertown
