Oregon high schoolers given lessons in LGBTQ vocabulary words

In a worksheet given to students at Sprague High School in Salem, Oregon, students were asked to match LGBTQ+ terms to their given definitions.

The undated document, posted to Twitter by Libs of TikTok, showed students being required to match terms like "straight," "gender expression," and "questioning" to their given definitions.

Definitions included: "The assignment and classification as male or female at birth based on external physical anatomy," "One’s internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or other gender(s)," and "an inclusive term to describe people who do not want to be labeled by fixed definitions of male/female or gay/straight, they reject binaries."

One definition, which assumably goes with the term "questioning," states: "a normal process that everyone goes through, in which a person learns about and explores their sexuality and identity."

The lesson assignment follows with Oregon’s Health Education Standards and Performance Indicators, which in high school has students looking at the differences between biological sex, sexual orientation and identity, sexual behavior, and gender identity and expression.

As a category of sex education or Oregonian students, "Affirming Identities and Anti-Oppression" looks at understanding different identities.

"Affirming Identities and Anti-Oppression (AIAO) outlines the knowledge and essentials skills students need to address and affirm fundamental aspects of the identities of self and peers as it relates to gender, race, ethnicity, family structure, and culture; how peers, media, family, society, culture, systemic oppression, and a person’s intersecting identities can influence attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and behaviors that individuals maintain; and the importance of respecting differences in others," the Oregon Department of Educations states.

A sub-topic for this category states: "Understanding of systemic oppression that negatively impacts health and wellbeing (e.g. harm from racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, cissexism, sizeism, ageism, antisemitism, colonization, xenophobia, etc.)"

This sexuality education curriculum given by the state of Oregon also includes the Menstruation Dignity Act, passed in 2021 by Governor Kate Brown. This act recently saw Portland area schools vowing to place period products and instructions on their usage in both girls and boys restrooms on their school grounds.