Michigan’s top school board OKs new health, sex ed guidelines after lengthy debate

LANSING, MI – Michigan’s top school board green-lit new state health education guidelines on Thursday after a lengthy show of support and continued opposition from conservatives over the framework’s widened sex ed content about gender and LGBTQ+ identities.

Details about the guidelines were initially shared in September with the State Board of Education amid the Michigan Department of Education’s public input period.

School leaders have said the standards, which have not been updated since 2007, are not meant to require specific health instruction in classrooms. Instead, officials said it’s supposed to support local districts while also enshrining parents’ right to opt their children out of sex education as already mandated in state statute.

“Sex education is not new in Michigan. The mention of the LGBTQ community is not new in Michigan,” Tiffany Tilley, the state board’s co-vice president, said Thursday, Nov. 13.

“Because control is local, districts get to decide whether they want to have sex education or not. That is not something that MDE or the State Board of Education mandates, and we’re not changing that.”

MDE officials said sex ed has been part of the state’s public education system since 1959. The latest update would expand reference to things like maintaining healthy relationships and keeping safe from abuse in addition to defining gender identity and expression and sexual orientation, primarily starting with middle-schoolers.

Currently, local school districts maintain control of sex ed curriculum with help of advisory committees, half of whose membership must be parents.

Despite the emphasis, what MDE promoted as the “Michigan Health Education Standards Framework” has been widely opposed by Republican state lawmakers, the subject of contention on the House Oversight Committee and the subject of ire for public commenters at state school board meetings earlier this fall.

Critics have said they believe discussions involving LGBTQ+ terms should be left at home.

Much of that opposition continued to be voiced on Thursday, though more supporters of the framework appeared to speak during public comment than in the past.

John Grossenbacher, a former GOP candidate for state representative in Macomb County, presented the state board with a petition that, he said, was signed by over 1,600 parents, asking officials reject the standards.

“I shouldn’t have to have my daughter exposed to something I disagree with,” he said.

A group of pastors also presented a resolution alleging the guidelines would, as read by Pastor Michael Smith, “inject subjective gender ideology and fluid definitions of sexual orientation into public school instruction, allowing teaching children to view identity as self-defined, rather than God-given.”

Sterling Bentley, a transgender man and PhD student in social work at Michigan State University, advocated for guidance in sex ed that’d help under-recognized student populations see themselves in the curriculum they’re taught.

“Queer and trans people rarely see ourselves reflected in the news, on social media or in classroom discussions, which means neither do our peers, which means we are constantly forced to explain and defend ourselves and our humanity,” he said. “It is exhausting, it is dehumanizing, and it is isolating.”

MDE officials told lawmakers last month that recommended health curriculum should cover LGBTQ topics along with information about healthy relationships and understanding differences to help promote tolerance and prevent children from being bullied because of their identities.

Brianna Bryant, a 24-year-old from Detroit, said she was a survivor of domestic violence and lauded the state’s inclusion of information about mental health and healthy relationships in the guidelines. She said it was “crucial” to harm reduction and prevention, and that she wished she had that sort of comprehensive sex ed growing up.

“I wish I had the tools and language to talk about my feelings of what has happened to me and domestic violence,” Bryant said. “That is something that may not have been highlighted here today with all of you.”

The adoption of guidelines Thursday came in a 6-2 vote with Republican board members Tom McMillin and Nikki Synder voting against.

McMillin proposed an amendment to the standards that would’ve described the distinction between identities, expression and orientation as believed concepts versus literal truths.

“I brought this up back in September. To say that they ‘are’ … it is a belief,” he said. Board of education members voted his amendment down.

Before the final vote, MDE officials broke down steps to address some concerns aired over the last couple of months, including revising the drafted update. Those steps included:

• Reorganizing guidelines into three sections to be clear with an appendix outlining all related health and sex education laws in Michigan
• Moving sex education topics to its own section within the guidelines so it’s separate from other health topics
• Enhancing language concerning parent rights and opt-out laws, reinforcing parental authority throughout the document

Citing the variety of feedback, including surveys, letters, public comment and other input, MDE officials said the state tallied 1,083 people who opposed gender-inclusive details and 1,511 who supported them.