Big Meeting: Friday, March 9 -- Don't Miss It

This battle over sex education is something bigger than Montgomery County -- in fact, we ought to remember we're the lucky ones. We live in a place where most people are pretty cool about accepting differences between people, our county is more educated than most, more diverse than most -- more progressive than most. We fight this battle knowing that we have the support of our community, at least. We know people here want inclusive, comprehensive sex education for our public school students.

Some places aren't like that. Some places people demand conformity, there's a lot of pressure on you to obey the law of the herd. Shelby Knox came from one of those places: Lubbock, Texas, home of Buddy Holly, immortalized by Mac Davis in the line, "Happiness was Lubbock Texas in my rear view mirror."

Shelby was raised as a conservative Christian Texas girl, and ended up starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at her high school and pushing for comprehensive sex-ed. I won't spoil it for you, let's just say it was an uphill fight, and in the end there's not much you can really do about some things. This is all filmed in a documentary, The Education of Shelby Knox, which played at the Sundance film festival in 2005.

The news is that Shelby herself will be in Ashburn, Virginia, tomorrow, Friday, March 9th. This press release from Mainstream Loudon:

Mainstream Loudoun reported today that youth activist Shelby Knox is coming to Loudoun on Friday, March 9th to participate in a program that will address the need for a responsible, fact-based approach to sex education in our community. The program — “What’s So Scary about Information? An Evening with Shelby Knox” — will start at 7:15 p.m. and will take place in the Building 1 Auditorium on George Washington University’s Ashburn campus. The program is free and open to the public. Sponsors include Mainstream Loudoun, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun, and St. James United Church of Christ.

...
The March 9th program will include a screening of a documentary that was made about Shelby’s campaign. This documentary — “The Education of Shelby Knox” — has won numerous awards, including “Best Cinematography” from the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. PBS has also featured the film as part of its Point of View series. After the screening, Shelby Knox and Jennifer Aulwes, State Policy Coordinator for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, will conduct a panel discussion with the audience.

Loudon County isn't that far away from us, geographically or demographically. It's just a quick spin around the Beltway.

But they're starting to worry down there that their sex-ed curriculum could fall to the betterthanyous. As they note in their press release:

Mainstream Loudoun has previously reported concerns about an “abstinence-only” trend in Loudoun County Public Schools. This year alone, three local high schools — Loudoun County, Dominion, and Douglass — have invited comedian and abstinence-only proponent Keith Deltano to conduct assemblies for the entire student body. Mainstream Loudoun members attended two of the assemblies as well as a parent workshop and reported that Mr. Deltano used scare tactics and shock value, withheld and misrepresented medical information, and promoted stereotypes about boys and girls.

“Our children are walking out of these assemblies unprepared and misinformed,” said Ms. Hawes. “There are better ways to teach the benefits of abstinence and better ways to protect our children. We hope that a conversation with Shelby Knox can help point us in the right direction.”

Hey, there's nothing else going on, right?

Go.