What The Hell Is Wrong With People Who Think Idaho Is Teaching Kids Pornography?

This is a serious question.

The Idaho Department of Health Welfare (IDHW) had to send out an actual press release this week denying that they are funding or in any way providing lessons on "porn literacy" to elementary school students. This was because a ridiculous organization for right wing fanatics with poor reading comprehension skills called the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) has been going around saying they were.

Rather than teaching Debbie Does Dallas 101 , of course, what students are actually learning in the entirely optional sex-ed classes offered by public schools is ... literally just the normal sex-ed that they have everywhere.

Via IDHW 

IDHW does not support or fund any "porn literacy" for children in Idaho. DHW provides evidence-based, optional sex education curriculum, called Reducing the Risk, for Idaho schools. Reducing the Risk does not discuss porn literacy, and it is not a subject taught in the curriculum DHW provides. DHW does not collaborate with or seek the endorsement of Planned Parenthood for sex education curriculum.

Sex education in Idaho schools is addressed in Idaho Code 33-1608. High schools or school districts can choose to offer Reducing the Risk as part of a sex education curriculum. Schools that choose to offer Reducing the Risk do so with parental consent. They offer opt-in or opt-out for parents, in accordance with school district policies and Idaho Code.

Reducing the Risk is medically accurate and covers the following National Health Education Standards:

-How to say no to sex
-Abstinence planning
-How to avoid sexually transmitted infections
-Birth control methods
-Where to find a healthcare provider
-Talking to parents/caregivers about values

The "Reducing the Risk" course materials are provided by an education non-profit called Education, Training and Research, which provides a number of different health-related courses for students and teachers. The materials that the IFF objected to were not, in fact, actually included the "Reducing the Risk," course — which, again, is entirely optional.

IFF's initial press release included a number of big stretches that involved following links on school health curriculum pages that went to websites that acknowledge the existence of trans people, explain concepts like gender transitions and polyamory, and address how to get an abortion (in states where it is legal, which, sadly, is not Idaho).

I am just gonna point out that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints has a settlement in Idaho and that Sister Wives is still running on TLC. These kids probably don't need to go to an educational website to find out that polygamy, a form of polyamory, exists.

The organization does provide a "porn literacy" course, but it is not for students. It is for parents and teachers who want to know how to talk to children about pornography, should the issue come up. Given that it is very likely that adolescents will encounter pornography or find out what it is at some point, what with the internet and all, this is actually a very good idea. While these IFF-type parents may feel they know exactly how they would handle such a thing — probably with some thorough shaming, a steady diet of Kellogg's Corn Flakes and some creepy Victorian anti-masturbation devices ...

The bow is really what ties the whole four-pointed urethral ring together. 

But others may have questions, and that is what such a course is for. Parents who would want their children publicly or even privately shamed by a sex-ed teacher for mentioning pornography or confessing to having looked at it on the internet are very likely in the minority, as are parents who think that if no adults ever tell them that pornography exists, young people will never find out about it.

There were also a number of other accusations about the course being thrown around right wing media, where one site even went so far as to claim that the schools were teaching“students how to hide porn browsing from parents.” The IFF didn't even claim that, they just made it up. It seems very clear that these people are taking "porn literacy" to mean something entirely different than what sex educators are talking about, just as they do literally every time they learn a new academic term.

There has to be something deeply, deeply wrong with the people who believe this nonsense. I truly cannot wrap my head around the idea that these people seriously think that their kids are gonna go to school and watch pornography. Is it that they are just completely sheltered and assume everyone outside of their culture is evil and on a mission to corrupt all of their children and turn them into MKULTRA-programmed sex robots?

Is it that they are paranoid and delusional? How does any of this work? How does anyone believe anything this objectively stupid?

Quite frankly, anyone who does believe it, if they have children, should be subject to a welfare check and a psych eval to ensure they are not the Mom from Carrie . I, for one, am very concerned that they may be locking their children in closets while screaming about their dirty pillows.

carrie GIF    Giphy 

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