The Battle Ground School District is poised to adopt the much talked about high school sexual health and safety curriculum on Oct. 28. I have read letters to the editor in this paper about the “sex ed curriculum,” and heard many citizens’ comments made at the Oct. 14 school board meeting.
There were many good points made, to which, if you were at the meeting, you would have seen changes made in response to some of the concerns raised by the community. Sincerely, thanks to the curriculum adoption committee and the school board for listening and responding.
I would like to talk about sex, gender and sexual orientation, though I’m not an expert, because these were mentioned by many in our community as some of the most objectionable subjects in the curriculum.
The process of sex determination begins with the sex chromosomes, X and Y, but these building blocks may look a bit different or incomplete sometimes, and sometimes extra sex chromosomes slip in, producing not only XX (genetic female) and XY (genetic male), but also XXX, X0, XYY, XXYY, etc. So, even at conception there are more than two “genetic sexes” possible.
The sex chromosomes direct the formation of the testes or ovaries (gonadal sex), which in turn produce sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) in different predominance patterns for males and females. These hormones direct the formation of the external sex organs, which are discernable by the end of the first trimester. Depending on the amounts of each sex hormone and the fetus’ sensitivity or insensitivity to them, the resulting external sex organs can look unambiguously male or female, ambiguous, or there might be both male and female organs present together (sex assigned at birth).
In the next two trimesters the brain structure and functionality are formed, which plays a key role in the perceived sexual identity, called gender, sometimes clearly discernable in a toddler, and sometimes gradually unfolds — especially in non-binary people. Please check out an amazing infographic in a Scientific American blog post, “Visualizing Sex as a Spectrum.”
The last thing to form is the sexual orientation. A Christian pediatrician named JoaniLea Jack and her librarian husband, after three years of extensive research on what studies have been done on the causes of homosexuality, have compiled a very helpful list of peer-reviewed studies, arranged by the various factors contributing to sexual orientation. Under genetic influence there were twin studies, genome studies, pedigree studies, female fecundity, and birth order studies; the next category was brain sexuality; and the last category, postnatal/environmental factors, had zero entry, meaning no such studies exist — supporting that being LGBTQ+ is a biological reality, rather than a choice. Please see, “The Jury is In: The Science of Human Sexuality,” and “Unfolding Miracles: Human Sexuality,” also by JoaniLea Jack.
I hope that these resources will be a springboard for learning and constructive dialogue about the subject of sex, gender, and sexual orientation in our community. If anyone is interested in such dialogue, please email me!
Eunice.HealingBridge@gmail.com
