ACLU Accuses Rhode Island Department of Education of ’Isolating’ GLBT Students
The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island stated in a press release that the Rhode Island Department of Education has not properly looked over an abstinence-only-until-marriage course of schoolwork that threatens to harm students, particularly GLBT students and those students in gay families. The course of study was developed by Heritage of Rhode Island, a family and faith-oriented organization that believes "one of the biggest hazards to our children’s futures is their sexual health and related high-risk behaviors," according to their official Web site.
One of the major problems the ACLU has with Heritage of Rhode Island’s course is that it "isolates" GLBT students and students in gay families. The reason, says the press release, is that it suggests "that marriage is responsible for better health, lower rates of injury and illness, lower rates of depression and an increased [according to Heritage’s course] ’likelihood that fathers and mothers have good relationships with their children.’"
The ACLU states that they believe this focus "appears to be a roadmap to instilling depression, if not fear, in gay and lesbian teens who cannot benefit from marriage and in other students who live in non-traditional households." Rhode Island has non-discrimination policies for GLBT youth, which this coursework "undermines," according to ACLU Rhode Island Executive Director Steven Brown. ACLU believes this curriculum also places teens in danger of having accidental pregnancies and STDs.
"Since 1997, the federal government has spent more than a billion dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs," the release states. "Yet research indicates that many such programs do not help teens delay having sex, and some studies show that these programs actually deter teens from protecting themselves from unintended pregnancy or disease when they start having sex."
The ACLU wants the Rhode Island of Department to take definitive action on this issue. "If Heritage is unable to comply with state standards for comprehensive sexuality education then it is up to the Department of Education to pull the curriculum from the schools," says ACLU of Rhode Island Executive Director Steven Brown, according to the release. The ACLU submitted a five-page letter to the Department of Education on December 18th, in an effort to get them to rethink this curriculum.
Bookmark: 
