An ad for the camp states that children will participate in ‘affirming, non-binary, body-positive, social emotional learning through play.’
LGBTQ activists in Indianapolis, Ind. are hosting a sexual-education summer camp for elementary schoolers.
The four-day program is open to third-through-fifth-graders and costs $250 per child. A web page advertising the event states that enrolled children will participate in “affirming, non-binary, body-positive, social emotional learning through play” with an “inclusive sexuality educator.” After the event attracted negative social media attention Monday, the Eventbrite page was taken down.
The organizer, Our Whole Lives curriculum facilitator and “sexuality educator” Ashley Robertson, has advocated for “sex-positive parenting” that challenges gender norms. Robertson has performed condom demonstrations with the Girl Scouts, endorsed “holistic BDSM education” and sexual kink exploration, and promoted LGBTQ literature, according to social media posts reviewed by National Review. In April of 2021, Robertson led a workshop titled “Potty Training & Early Sex Ed.”
On the public Facebook group titled “Let’s Talk About Sex Ed with Ms. Ashley,” Robertson said, “I adapt the acclaimed Our Whole Lives sexuality education curriculum (OWL) to facilitate classes and workshops in Indianapolis, in a whole new way appealing to all learning styles.”
Our Whole Lives was developed by Sex Ed for Social Change (SIECUS), which has attached its brand to the National Sexuality Education Standards, an initiative to federalize sex education for K-12 public schools, according to Monica Cline, a former sex-education specialist who was trained by Planned Parenthood. Cline said she walked away from the field to expose the goals and harm of comprehensive sex education for children.
“They believe children are sexual from birth and that they need to believe that gender is fluid,” Cline said of the organizations.
On November 8, Robertson posted a censored photo of a child on the page playing with a condom with the caption: “Are YOU comfortable with condoms? What is the only way to get comfortable with the unknown? Exposure. Practice. Opportunities. Pushing out of your comfort zone. Kids are no different. Have your kids have the opportunity to explore condoms? It takes many repetitions before kids master knowledge. This means they should have MANY exposures to condoms, why we need to use condoms, and how to use them. Make it fun! Take the pressure off.”
In an Instagram post recounting her Our Whole Lives class on October 26, 2021, Robertson said that her sixth-through-eighth-grade students asked her the following questions during that day’s session: “Why are my balls so itchy?”, “What is squirting?”, “How does an erection work? Is there a bone that grows inside the penis?”, “Why do people randomly have wet dreams?”, and “What is the best birth control?”
Purple for Parents Indiana, which has fought against the sexualization of children in public schooling, was outraged at Robertson’s program, calling it the “child grooming camp for minors” on Facebook. Robertson rejected PFP’s claims, labeling them “a hate group here in Indiana” that targets “books, social emotional learning, LGBTQ+ folx, etc.”
Chalkboard Review co-founder Tony Kinnett, a former teacher at Indianapolis Public Schools who claimed he was fired for criticizing the administration’s lack of transparency over the teaching of critical race theory, first reported on the summer camp Monday.
Ronda Miller, the president of PFP, told National Review that she wasn’t surprised by the camp, as she’s observed that they’re somewhat common and advertised on a seasonal basis before kids start summer vacation. It’s also not shocking that Planned Parenthood is involved, she said.
For example, last summer, a Virginia summer camp partnered with Planned Parenthood South Atlantic to host “Teen Connections” for grades 6-12, with participating campers receiving a $100 Visa gift card and the special title of “peer educator,” Cline claimed. The website links to sex education videos produced by Amaze, covering pornography, masturbation, sexual orientation, gender identity, STDs, and pregnancy. For younger children, there’s Amaze Jr. videos, many of which feature what many parents might consider inappropriate content.
Cline said that in Austin, Texas, where she’s based, there was a scheduled peer-to-peer sexual-education training targeting teenagers, who she claims the Office of Population Affairs will incentivize with a $100 stipend to attend the camp and become sex educators so they can share what they’ve learned with their classmates. The Texas camp has been temporarily postponed, Cline said, but it’s likely to occur since the organization behind it has received government funds.
The sexual-education camp developments come as some Republican states have taken a bold stance on parental rights, restricting progressive curriculum on gender ideology, sexual orientation, as well as critical race theory, especially to children largely considered too immature to understand them.
The Florida Senate just passed the Parental Rights in Education bill, which stipulates that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” Proponents of the bill, such as Governor Ron DeSantis, have argued that it restores the authority of parents to discuss those subjects with their own children at their own discretion.