New proposal to update sex education in Illinois has LGBTQ component

Posted on February 27, 2020
Tre Graham, a high school senior from Marion, identifies as queer (they/them/theirs) and supports a bill to include new information about LGBTQ health in an Illinois sex ed curriculum. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – A proposal to update sex education in Illinois has a strong LGBTQ component.

Meet Tre Graham, a senior at Marion High School.

“As a queer young person in southern Illinois,” he told a Statehouse news conference, “I know that my schools could have done so much better to educate me about my sexual health, personal safety, and how to build healthy relationships.”

From the Illinois Family Institute, James Odom says people like Tre just need some correction.

“God made you the way He made you,” Odom said. “For us to decide, oh, I don’t think it’s right, and I should do it a different way, that’s not the way that we should be focusing.”

Is it about behavior and choice, or is it about, this is how God made me: gay.

“I think it’s about choice.”

Planned Parenthood and Equality Illinois are in support of the Reach Act: Responsible Education for Adolescent and Children’s Health.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]. 

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