Sexual education is mandated in 33 states and the District of Columbia, but specific laws and department of education policies vary widely from state to state. Ten states, for example, have policies requiring discussing sexual health for LGBT identified youth or instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, while 16 states require instruction on condoms and contraception when sex education is provided.

While they must follow state mandates, local school boards have a lot of authority as they decide what curriculums and resources will be used in sex ed instruction. So it’s important for parents and other concerned citizens to know what school board candidates believe about sex education in public schools.

That’s where groups like SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change (formerly the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) and other radical organizations come into play as they seek to influence local boards of education regarding what standards and curriculums are chosen.

In a partnership called the Future of Sex Education (FoSE), SIECUS, Answer and Advocates for Youth have produced what they call “National Sex Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K-12.”

It’s no secret that public school board meetings across the country have been tumultuous of late, with concerned parents showing up to criticize board policies that cover topics such as mask mandates, transgender bathrooms, preferred pronouns, sex ed curriculums and the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

On October 4, the United States Attorney General (AG), Merrick Garland, sent a “memorandum” to the directors of the FBI and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, as well as to the head of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Criminal Division and all federal prosecutors, instructing them to use all of the DOJ’s “authority and resources” to discourage “threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views.”

Is marriage needed to create stronger families? Does being married make families better off financially? Is society better off when more people are married? According to a recently released survey, an increasing number of Americans answer these questions in the negative.

The American Family Survey, which took results from 3,000 respondents, was conducted by YouGov for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University and was published by Deseret News on October 12.

When polling on the overall importance of marriage within society, the group found an increasingly negative view of the institution. According to the survey, a record low of 52% of respondents agreed that marriage was needed to create strong families – down from a high of 63% in 2017. The percentage of people who agreed that marriage makes families and children better off financially also dropped from a high of 66% in 2017 to a record low of 58% in 2021 – even though research shows this to be a fact.