Just when you thought Tennessee lawmakers were taking a few weeks off from being the strangest, most sexually hung-up lawmakers in the land, they decided to come back with a vengeance, passing a bill to amend the state’s abstinence-only sex ed programs [because if there’s one thing Tennessee’s good at, it’s pregnant teenagers!] enumerating various “gateway sexual activities,” such as holding hands:
Tennessee senators approved an update to the state’s abstinence-based sex education law that includes warnings against “gateway sexual activity.”
In a new family life instructions bill, holding hands and kissing could be considered gateways to sex.
[…]
The bill prohibits teachers from demonstrating gateway sexual activity. CaPese said that would include health education models.
Was there a previous problem with teachers feeling the need to demonstrate “gateway sexual activity” before? And if a teacher is caught folding her hands at her desk, is she opening herself up to a world of problems?
This place is so weird…
Think Progress points out that the Tennessee legislature is busy on other fronts too, having just passed a bill allowing schools to teach creationism as science.
