Rockville's sexperts get it wrong

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Montgomery County [Md.} parents won't hand over their public schools to the sex theorists without a fight. This week, two parent groups sued over their schools' new and expansive sex-education curriculum. The controversial pilot program, slated to begin as early as next week, is one of the most reckless sex-ed curricula in the nation. This is no garden-variety lesson on the birds and bees. It crosses the line from instruction to advocacy and should be sent back to the drawing board.

For one, the curriculum buys into theories that sex and gender are "constructed," not discovered at an early age. A child must develop an "internal sense of knowing whether he or she is male or female," it asserts. That means a child will cogitate over such issues as whether he is male or she is female. This sort of thing might fly in graduate seminars in Berkeley or Cambridge. But in a public-school curriculum, children deserve better.

The program endorses the notion that homosexuality is innate, citing the usual suspects and ignoring dissenting voices. Why should Montgomery County's sex theorists be able to pass off these notions as fact?

The curriculum also takes upon itself the duty to expand the idea of what a family is. It credits same-sex households with being one of nine American family types -- who knew there were nine? To avoid censure, it distinguishes these from gay "marriage." Add to all this the worst elements of the old sex-ed curriculum. Prominent here is the instructional condom-fitting video, whose proponents still insist does not encourage sexual activity.

What's most troubling is that giving the sexperts an inch today could later cost us a mile. As Jon Ward of The Washington Times reported, the sexperts had initially wanted to tell children that "sex play with friends of the same gender is not uncommon during early adolescence" and have them "discuss how you develop your sexual identity." After an outcry, they removed those lines. Clearly, if they had their druthers, they would institute an even more radical program.

County officialdom's arrogance has now provoked a backlash. It's somewhat encouraging that even in one of the most left-of-center jurisdictions in the country, at least some taxpayers and parents have had enough. They are right to object to PC propaganda from the sexperts taking over their public schools.