Texas Slips Same-Sex-Marriage Language Into Texts.

EDUCATIONAL law & legislation; SAME-sex marriage; HEALTH education; SCHOOL administration; TEXTBOOKS; PREVENTION of sexually transmitted diseases

This article reports that just days after voters in 11 states approved bans on single-sex marriages, state school board members in Texas endorsed revisions to new health textbooks that define marriage according to the state's own year-old law, a lifelong union between a man and a woman. The decision could have implications for health education nationwide, given publishers' tendency to cater to the lucrative Texas market. While Texas' last-minute changes defining marriage drew national attention, the move diverted debate from the texts' coverage of contraception and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, an issue that had been argued since public hearings on the content of the books were first held. At least 10 state representatives presented a letter to the state board at a public hearing in September in favor of the textbooks, saying that while the abstinence-only message was required by law, the information on contraception was "optional," and therefore should not be included in students' editions.