Minnesota Family Council raises concerns about proposed changes to sex ed

The State of Minnesota is now in the process of revising its sexual education standards and implementing new benchmarks.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The State of Minnesota is now in the process of revising its sexual education standards and implementing new benchmarks.

What's new?

What we know:

The Department of Education has published a 77-page draft proposal of its new K-12 academic standards in health. It includes topics like mental and emotional health, personal health and wellness, and sexual health.

The draft proposal includes lessons in third grade defining gender identity and expression, and explaining the difference between sex assigned at birth, and gender identity and expression. It also addresses sexually transmitted diseases in the fifth grade and communicating consent in the sixth grade.

Minnesota Family Council has concerns

Some groups, like the Minnesota Family Council, are voicing their concerns about what is being taught and when. The group says the lessons would violate Minnesota law because they are not grade-level appropriate and objective.

What they're saying:

"Parents are the ones who should teach their kids about these very sensitive subjects, if they want to teach them about it at all. Gender identity and expression these are very ideological concepts that were invented not too long ago," said Doug Wardlow of True North Legal, the independent public-interest law firm affiliated with Minnesota Family Institute.

Founder and Executive Director of Honest Sex Ed Minnesota, Dr. Meg Bartlett-Chase, says right now, there are no state standards when it comes to sex education. Lessons vary from school to school.

She believes students deserve accurate, inclusive and accessible sex education, and that starts by building a strong foundation.

"Sex education isn't something we need to be scared of, it's not something we need to have shame about," said Bartlett-Chase. "It would be strange for us if we were looking at our education system now and we were saying, 'Hey let's introduce calculus to our high school students without introducing them math first or addition'... I think we can think about sex education in a fairly similar way."