Oregon Department of Education adopts health education standards to teach kindergartners about the “many ways to express gender” and to teach third grade students “how individuals identify regarding gender or sexual orientation”

The Oregon Department of Education adopted new health education standards for students in kindergarten through the twelfth grade in December 2016. Districts had until the fall of 2018 to implement these new standards. The Oregon Department of Education specifically labeled certain “performance indicators” for kindergarten students. These standards included:

• Name reproductive body parts, using proper anatomical terms, and stages in the basic growth processes of all people.
• List potentially unsafe body fluids and objects to avoid.
• Identify ways to prevent communicable and non-communicable disease and understand the difference (including HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis B and C).
• Recognize that there are many ways to express gender.
• Recognize the importance of treating others with respect including gender expression.
• Identify different kinds of family structures.
• Provide examples of how friends and family influence how people think they should act on the basis of their gender.
• Discuss ways to communicate respectfully with and about people of all gender identities, gender expressions and sexual orientations.

These same “performance indicators” were also provided for students in first grade and second grade. The Oregon Department of Education added the following “performance indicators” for students in the third grade:

• Define sexual orientation.
• Recognize differences and similarities of how individuals identify regarding gender or sexual orientation.
• Recognize the importance of treating others with respect regarding gender expression and sexual orientation.
• Recognize how friends, family, media, society and culture influence how people think they should act on the basis of their gender.
• Recognize sources of medically-accurate information about human sexual and reproductive anatomy, puberty and personal hygiene.
• Recognize sources of support such as parents or other trusted adults they can tell if they are being teased, harassed or bullied based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender expression.

The same performance indicators discussing sexual orientation were also provided for students in the fourth grade. A new performance indicator for fifth grade students included to “discuss ways of expressing gender.” A new performance indicator for sixth grade students included to “define gender roles, gender identity and sexual orientation across cultures.”