For Immediate Release
January 30, 2019

Contact: Mark Scott
mark.scott@familypolicyalliance.com

House Bill 1032 includes unlawful censorship, oppresses parental rights

 DENVER (January 30, 2019) – Colorado Springs-based Family Policy Alliance, a national organization that represents more than 15,000 Coloradans and thousands more nationwide, spoke against controversial public-school sex education requirements being proposed by Colorado lawmakers.

House Bill 1032 would require children in local public and charter schools to learn the explicit sexual experiences of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. While promoting these alternative types of sex, it specifically prohibits gender norms like male and female and the inclusion of faith-based values.

Stephanie Curry, an attorney for Family Policy Alliance and a parent of two children in Colorado public schools, testified against the bill today to the House Health and Insurance Committee, pointing out the state “does not have the right to censor traditional values so that it can force its own views about sex and sexuality on every school, family, and child.”

“This bill may be parading around the Capitol as a ‘comprehensive sexual education’ bill, but Colorado families know that it is really unlawful censorship, an attempt to oppress parental rights, and advance a political agenda, while silencing any views about sexuality that don’t align with the state’s,” Curry told legislators.

The full text of Curry’s testimony to the committee:   

Madame Chair and members of the committee, good afternoon.  My name is Stephanie Curry and I am an attorney with Family Policy Alliance, a national organization which represents more than 15,000 Colorado Residents who are strongly opposed to HB 1032 for three reasons.

First, Censorship. The state can’t have it both ways. HB 1032 declares in one sentence that youth should be empowered “to make decisions that are consistent with that youth’s needs, values, and life goals.” In another sentence, it tells these same youth and their families their “needs, values, and life goals,” honorable beliefs that have been foundational cornerstones for their families, are in fact, according to the bill authors, values of “shame, stigma, and fear”— and therefore worthy of censorship by this state.

This state does not have the right to censor traditional values so that it can force its own views about sex and sexuality on every school, family, and child.

Our values are protected by the United States Constitution.

Second, Parental Rights. Parents, not the state, have the inalienable, constitutional right to the moral upbringing of their children. This means parents, not the government, have the right to define the inner boundaries of what this legislation calls “safe and healthy relationships.”

We represent mothers, fathers, and families across our state who emphatically declare, “Healthy relationships are not synonymous with sexual activity,” whether it be same-sex, transgender, or heterosexual sex. Respect, self-acceptance, and inner strength are not synonymous with sexual acts. Parents have every right to teach their children what these values mean to them. This bill would allow the state to indoctrinate children on state sexual values, while censorings others – those of parents.

 We oppose the State’s unconstitutional attempt to take over parental rights.

Third, Devaluing Children. HB 1032 attempts to define the value of our children by their sexual behaviors or lack thereof. This legislation displays a strange obsession with whom our children are sexually attracted to, how often they’re having sex, and what kind of sex they’re having. Except factually, most our student are not having sex with anyone. The number of our youth having sex has dropped significantly since the 1980s and even more in the past 10 years with the majority of teens choosing abstinence.

This bill’s deficient viewpoint on sexual behavior has no place in our schools. Let kids be kids!

This bill may be parading around the Capitol as a “comprehensive sexual education” bill, but Colorado families know that it is really unlawful censorship, an attempt to oppress parental rights, and advance a political agenda, while silencing any views about sexuality that don’t align with the states.

When it comes to modeling healthy relationships, this bill fails. Our children deserve better. Vote No on HB 1032.

###

 Family Policy Alliance works to advance biblical citizenship and promote good public policy that protects religious freedom, families, and life.