Sex education – spare me

Sex education is complicated because biology is complicated. We should base education on truth, to the extent that we can discern the truth.

I'm not going to give an opinion, because my mind can not encompass the intricacies of genetics. Here's what I found on the first website I dove into. I'm now dizzy, and not going back for more! It begins with "Research suggests that..."

It's not simple xx and xy. It's 46XX and 46XY and 45X and 45Y and 47XXX and 47XYY and 47XXY and 49XXXXY and "some males are born 46XX due to the translocation of a tiny section of the sex determining region of the Y chromosome. Similarly some females are also born 46XY due to mutations in the Y chromosome." And if that is not enough, " ...there is a range of chromosome complements, hormone balances, and phenotypic variations that determine sex."

I know that the Bible says that we are created male and female. That appears to be true, as far as an engineer's design can go, but the genetic machinery seems to wobble a little bit. As we move into an age of genetic manipulation, our knowledge of genetics will grow. We will learn what we will learn. While the religious conservative might not want us to go there, the economic imperative will dominate.

Perhaps we can look ahead to glimpse what will be found to be true. There are societies that are free of a religious imperative to see only a male/female binary. They base their societies on observed behavior, and describe a continuum of sexualities from girly-girl to boy-boy.

I would like to live a thousand years, so I could learn what geneticists, doctors, and dietitians of that future time will believe to be true. But my body is already breaking down at only seventy-five years of age. My curiosity will not be satisfied.

Wiley Hollingsworth,

Pullman