On an episode of a conservative radio show, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) compared sex education classes in public schools to life in [a cartoonishly exaggerated dystopian version of] the Soviet Union. Apparently, teaching teenagers about contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases in school is somehow the same as parents surrendering all control over their children’s lives entirely to “the State.”
Let the kids be innocent… Let them enjoy their life. You don’t have to force this sexuality stuff into their life at such a point. It was never intended to be that way. They’ll find out soon enough… Mankind has existed for a pretty long time without anyone ever having to give a sex-ed lesson to anybody. And now we feel like, oh gosh, people are too stupid to unless we force them to sit and listen to instructions.
As if the point of sex education was to teach young people how to have sex instead of anatomy, contraception, pregnancy, disease and safety. Actually, Gohmert, the Soviet Union didn’t have great sex ed, in fact, abortion was the main form of birth control. He then goes on to say something about Soviet authorities taking children away from their parents if they said something negative about the government and then implied that by supporting sex education, “a lady from MSNBC” is saying “hey, children belong to the state” and it gives him “the chills.”
But Gohmert isn’t really trying to make sense. He is simply employing scare tactics to defend a system that requires female dependency on men, discouraging girls to take their own lives in their hands by learning about birth control and planning and avoiding pregnancy resulting in unwanted economical and biological ties.
(Photoshop: Kyle Petreycik/ANIMALNewYork)
