August 19, 2022 | Letters to the Editor | Honolulu Star Advertiser

https://printreplica.staradvertiser.com?selDate=20220819&goTo=A10&artid=2

Hawaii voters, please do not vote in the general election for any incumbent Democratic member of the state House of Representatives who voted in 2022 for House Bill 1697: Relating to sexual health education.

This bill sought to require state Department of Education sexual health education programs to restrict information taught in sex ed curriculum in Hawaii’s schools. This bill requires that sexual health topics only include “positive and accurate representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, other sexual orientations and gender identities.”

Teaching about the not-positive aspects would violate the restrictions, although the not-positive consequences for acting on the teaching would still happen in the students’ lives.

The Democrats in the House passed this bill and luckily the Senate did not hear it — yet. Before you cast your vote, please ask the Democratic House candidate on your ballot how he or she voted on HB 1697. Let’s not give the House members who voted “yes” any more time in office.

James Hochberg

Downtown Honolulu