Call or text our hotline: 1-866-999-5263

Hundreds of Texans Testify for Sex Ed — and the Fight is Not Over

by | Sep 9, 2020 | Texas Legislature

 

Last night hundreds of Texans showed up to testify to the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) about the sex ed curriculum. This meeting was part of the year-long process the board has been going through to revise various TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) standards, and the first time they’ve worked on revising the sex ed curriculum in 20 years.

Here’s a snapshot of what happened at the meeting:

  • 77% of Texans who testified spoke in favor of a sex-ed curriculum that is medically-accurate, LGBTQIA inclusive, and comprehensive.
  • There were only 23% who testified against the revisions!
  • The Board refused to extend time during the hearing to allow all Texans to testify. This meant that 196 constituent’s testimonies were not heard by their elected officials.
  • 100% of Texas high school students who testified spoke in favor of the revisions

If you were unable to participate, you can watch the recap of the all the testimonies that took place yesterday on the SBOE meeting archive or by searching the hashtag #TexasIsReady, #TxSBOE, and #TeachTheTruth.

You can also watch The People’s Hearing by our partner’s at the Texas Freedom Network who continued to live-stream testimonies by those who were unable to testify as a result of the Board’s refusal to extend time.

Ways that you can get involved until the next meeting: 

  • Send an email or call your State Board of Education representative! Find out who represents you here. If you’re unsure what to write, check out our guided templates that are tailored for parents, students, educators, youth-facing professionals, and volunteers. 
  • Schedule a Zoom meeting with  your SBOE representative. You can find your representative’s contact information here. 
  • Get rowdy on Twitter and interact with your reps online! Find out what their Twitter handles are here.
  • Write an op-ed in your local paper to mobilize your community to become involved to re-imagine a new sex-ed curriculum in Texas! 
  • Join our Slack channel and connect with other sex-ed advocates who are wanting to change sex-ed in our state.
  • Encourage people to take the pledge to speak-up! The SBOE plans to vote on the new curriculum at the November 17-20, 2020 meeting.