New Jersey sex ed standards discussing anal sex in eighth grade ‘age appropriate,' says Gov. Murphy

New Jersey, the state that first required sex ed to be taught in all schools, is under fire once again for implementing controversial standards, which include discussions of gender norms by second grade, masturbation by fifth grade and anal sex and "pregnancy options" by eighth grade.

New health and physical education standards passed by the New Jersey Department of Education were first approved in 2020, and schools are set to implement them this year.

Gov. Phil Murphy, D., defended the standards earlier this month in a "Ask Governor Murphy" discussion on News12 New Jersey, saying they were "age appropriate" for students.

"All of this health and sex education awareness is age appropriate," Murphy said. "You want a country where girls don’t think that they can only wear pink, or only take certain courses, or only play certain sports."

"As you get older, you want to make sure that our young people are aware of what is acceptable behavior and what is unacceptable behavior, so when something bad happens, they know enough to raise their hand and say ‘that doesn’t feel right to me,'" he added.

New Jersey State Sen. Holly Schepisi, R., told Fox News Digital she does not believe the standards are age appropriate, and the Department of Education is taking control away from parents by implementing them.

"It’s really interesting, because there are some school districts… that have now decided to implement some of these standards even at younger ages," Schepisi said.

"We keep seeing a push for more and more at younger ages, and… for myself, one of the most problematic things about it, is parents are not being listened to. There is no kind of engagement in hearing what parents' concerns are," she added.

The latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll showed that 51 percent of New Jersey adults oppose having health and sexual education taught in elementary school. Seventy-one percent support it being taught in middle school, and 88 percent support it being taught in high school. According to a recent New York Times poll, more than two-thirds of registered voters oppose sexual orientation and gender identity being taught in grade school.... (Read more)

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