As a parent of a soon-to-be kindergartener, I'm much more concerned about violence in our schools, about our children being exposed to anxiety-inducing active shooter drills, about an actual shooter taking my child's life, than I am about her being exposed to sexually explicit materials. I'm very tired of the government trying to "tamp down on" or censor sex and sexuality, which is a human condition and a human right. 

We parents don't need sex and sexuality to be censored in schools. If we want to guide our children and talk about the beauty and danger of sexual activity and gender identity in our own homes, we most certainly can. If we want to give those the Christian spin of sin and hellfire, we can do that, too. No one is stopping us, certainly not the schools. 

Schools, however, are institutions of public knowledge and should not be censored. Schools need to include to all people, and they need to represent the diversity of human beings. The fact is, sex exists, LGBTQ+ people exist, and we aren't changing those things by not talking about them or making it harder for educators to talk about them. 

Basically, I trust professional educators and principals to choose developmentally appropriate material for their classrooms and their students. I view them as partners in the raising of my child, and if I have an issue with something that's being taught, I have no problem talking to my daughter or her teacher about how or why I disagree. I very strongly oppose censoring educators or making it harder for them to give my child the gift of learning different ways of being and different perspectives. I want my daughter to be educated, and that includes learning about ALL there is in the world, even things that make her uncomfortable or challenge her world views. For this reason, I strongly oppose SB 656.