Teen Sex Ed Class in St. Mary's

Howdy! 

We are raising advertising funds for the cancelled, and now rescheduled, Teen Sex Ed class at the St. Mary's County Library. The Southern Maryland Chapter of the the Washington Area Secular Humanists is going to be hosting the previously scheduled class at the Lexington Park Library on May 21st at 2:00. All of the proceeds from this Go Fund Me campaign are tax deductable, and 100% of the collected funds will be used for the sole purpose of promoting this single event (and maybe for pizza for the teens).

Thank you for your support! 
Samantha McGuire
President
Washington Area Secular Humanists 

For those of you who are not familiar with the background on this issue, here is a lengthy explanation for you - with links! The local St. Mary's County library (along with Charles, Queen Anne and Kent) booked a sex ed class for teens. The instructor, Bianca Palmisano, is a lebsian, who is sex positive and was the keynote speaker at the DC slutwalk (*gasp!*). A local pro-life, pro-chastity, Christian objected and got her cronies to object (loudly!) and the class was cancelled. This article was the one that brought this issue to my attention:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/maryland-public-libraries-called-out-for-offering-youth-sex-ed-classes-led

That was followed by this one in our local newpaper(on page 3):
http://countytimes.somd.com/archive/2017/03-mar/2017-03-02.pdf

and this one which is bit more balanced:
http://www.somdnews.com/independent/spotlight/sex-education-class-a-no-go-in-southern-maryland/article_1c9d0d51-427e-5000-9d70-7a42d6b59f18.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

Then myself and other members of TWW and SMASH went and spoke at the craziest public forum I have ever been to. I felt like I was in that town in Footloose. I am at the 50:15 mark - I am sure you won't be able to bear the whole thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYKniafcw64

The ringleader of the protesting group then posted this blog post:
http://apriestlife.blogspot.com/2017/03/leonardtownboard-meeting-on-sex-ed-in.html

I reached out the library director to voice our opposition and he invited us to speak at the Library Board of Trustees meeting. 6 out of the 7 speakers were there to support the class. I was there representing WASH and SMASH, we also had a a speaker for Together We Will Southern Maryland, a speaker from the Jewish Community, a person from the LGBT community (who also spoke at the County Commissioners meeting), a representative of the local Planned Parenthood, and my 15 year old LGBTQ stepish son speak. During that meeting, the speakers got sprinkled with holy water by an observer and when I intervened on my teen's behalf, I got holy water flung at me. The guy got himself thrown out of the meeting and banned from the library. Very exciting.

The Library released a statement reiterating that the classes are cancelled and why:
https://www.stmalib.org/pdfs/pr/LibraryTrusteesPressRelease.pdf

The local paper did another one sided article not quoting any of the speakers that were there to speak for the class and down playing the holy water thing (this one behind a paywall - so it is attached)

The other speakers, myself included, all contributed to a letter to the editor calling out the censorship, homophobia and religious nature of the objections.


Then the story got picked up by the "Friendly Atheist" Hemant Mehta
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/04/03/a-sex-educator-offered-to-teach-free-classes-at-maryland-libraries-and-conservatives-freaked-out/