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| John Garza, an attorney representing three groups challenging the new sex education lessons in Montgomery County schools, says, ‘it’s a tossup right now who’s going to win before the state board.’ (Blade photo by Adam Cuthbert) |
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: JOSHUA LYNSEN COMMENTS
 
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homosexual people.”
Dr. Ruth Jacobs, an infectious disease specialist who works with Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, said the lessons also are problematic because of what they omit.
She said lesson developers left out statistics that could demonstrate the health risks associated with anal sex.
“We are saying that heterosexual kids can easily think that anal sex is a non-pregnancy producing alternative,” Jacobs said, “and they have to be warned of the risks.”
She said students should be told the highest rate of HIV/AIDS transmission in the U.S. occurs via anal sex, and most of those transmissions occur among men who have sex with men.
“Why would we keep this information from our kids?” Jacobs said. “It’s unacceptable to not warn of these risks.”
Challenging the challengers
Jacobs and Sprigg fielded several questions at the meeting’s end including one from a curriculum supporter.
Matthew Murguia, who is gay and works at the National Institutes of Health, asked Jacobs to explain several points, including why she touts “that HIV and gays are together” when 65 percent of all AIDS patients in Maryland are straight.
Jacobs replied by outing Murguia, who had not revealed in his comments that he is gay. She also noted her data was taken from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
“Whatever is necessary for him to say to match his gay agenda, he will say,” she said. “And I have been very careful to stick to the CDC … because I’ve known that there would be concerns.”
After the meeting, Jacobs said she outed Murguia partly because “he’s very annoying to me.”
“I believe that as part of his gay identity, he is defending his gay agenda,” she said. “And so I felt at that point, when he’s attacking me with everything he’s got, to do it without saying he’s gay … I think is disingenuous and wrong.”
Jacobs, who said she treats gay patients, insisted her objections to the curriculum do not make her homophobic.
“I’m not expressing hate speech, I’m expressing a concern,” she said. “That lifestyle has risk. And my stance is sk
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