The University of Utah’s College of Health and Family and Consumer Sciences in the Social and Behavioral Sciences College is offering a new course in the spring titled Human Sexuality to educate students about the emotional, physical and social components of sexuality. The course will feature guest lectures from rape recovery specialists and panel discussions with members of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered communities. This class attempts to go beyond just the mechanics of sexual behavior according to The Daily Utah Chronicle.
Cheryl Wright, chairwoman of the department of family and consumer sciences told the Chronicle that when it comes to sex education, “There is a lack of education on this topic. Many parents don’t feel comfortable talking to their children about sex and students can get a lot of misinformation from friends.”
Maybe some parents aren’t comfortable with the topic, but that doesn’t mean that they should abdicate their parental responsibility and pass it off to educators where they lose control over the issue. When educators are only too anxious to discuss this issue that should be a red flag to the parents.
The instructor Lindsy Jorgensen told the Chronicle that because everyone has different ideas about sexuality, there is no right or wrong opinion and students who take the class are asked to be respectful of different views—code word for outside the normally accepted views, especially in heavily Mormon Utah.
The students will be required to keep a self-awareness journal to respond to lectures, speakers and questions provided by Jogensen. Some of the topics for journal entries include, “Do you consider yourself to be sex-typed or androgynous?,” ” What would you tell a teenager about sex? Why?” and “How important is love and being loved to you?”
This class is a perfect set up for the gay community which spends a lot of effort with children and youth getting them to question their sexuality and to draw them to its side. While many students may be comfortable being heterosexual, college is often a time of great experimentation and courses like this will only serve to expand such experimentation and lead to more confusion for those taking the class.
The University has been very gay-friendly over the years and with this course they are sure to please the gay community while thumbing their nose at those that believe that sexuality is a personal issue and has no place in the classroom.
Don Irvine is the chairman of both Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
