Sex Education Camps for Children Offer Seminars on Questionable Adult Themes

Christopher Rufo, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty. (The Epoch Times)

An organization that promotes sexual education for children has been holding seminars laden with explicitly controversial themes.

Journalist Christopher Rufo first reported on the organization in March. He told The Epoch Times that the workshop is for children as young as 13.

“Having sex on drugs,” “sex working,” self-pleasure, self-managed abortions, and other explicit themes are among the seminars offered at the Sexy Sex Ed girls workshop in Kentucky.

One description states “this workshop will include discussion, games, and some hands on practice (on hands!).”

The “Sexy Summer Camp Schedule” began in July 2021 and ended in August.

According to their website, the organization started in 2012.

“Sexy Sex Ed is a workshop series that compels teenagers and people of all ages to openly discuss personal and political consent, sexual safety, and anatomy,” the website states. “Using visual & performance art, open dialogue, and popular education methods, Sexy Sex Ed fills a vital gap in reproductive education as a creative, cultural healing solution in rural Appalachia.”

In a video that was posted on the website, its founder Tanya Turner criticizes current sex education that promotes abstinence as a failure.

“The data shows that abstinence-only education isn’t working,” Turner said.

She said in her Appalachia region of Kentucky there is a higher unplanned pregnancy rate than the national average, which she attributes to strict abortion laws.

As a part of her sexual education, she states, “Masturbation is really healthy and I recommend it to people of all ages. All ages. As soon as my nephews could talk, they were doing that.”

Donations to the organization are facilitated by ActBlue, a progressive nonprofit online fundraising software and political action committee.

According to its website, the organization has a dozen educators in five states and is supported by the Appalachian Community Fund and the Kentucky Health Justice Network, two organizations self-described as social and reproductive justice outreach groups.

On March 8, Rufo reported a screenshot from the organization’s website that showed that a page had been deleted, which Rufo said was an attempt “to scrub their information from the internet.”

Many of the screenshots Rufo shared, such as the biographies of the volunteers, can no longer be found on the website.

“The founder of Sexy Summer Camp, Tanya Turner, identifies as a witch,” Rufo said on Twitter. “She says she was raised by ‘a host of witchy women’ in a ‘coven-like mountain matriarchy.’ She uses tarot cards, crystals, and sex toys as part of her practice and encourages people to ‘join her coven.’”

The website described her as a “femme, fat, queer, magical pleasure worker, educator, & artist” who was raised in “rural Kentucky.”

Sexy Sex Ed didn’t immediately respond to The Epoch Times for comment.

‘Let’s Talk About Sex Ed with Ms. Ashley’

A similar sexual education group in Indiana called Let’s Talk About Sex Ed with Ms. Ashley was reported on by Tony Kinnett, co-founder and executive director of the Chalkboard Review—an education commentary organization that examines issues of intellectual diversity.

The group, founded by Ashley Robertson, scheduled a June “Sex Ed Summer Camp” for grades 3rd through 5th in Indianapolis.

Her classes are described as “non-binary, sex-positive, body-affirming, inclusive, and are based on the principle that people can make informed choices for their own bodies based on their own values given science-based information.”

On Let’s Talk About Sex Ed’s Facebook page, Robertson describes herself as trained by the Our Whole Lives (OWL) program, a Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) sexual education initiative for children.

According to UUA’s website, OWL, which is offered to kindergarten to adults, is a “comprehensive, lifespan sexuality education curricula for use in both secular settings and faith communities.”

Kinnett reported that the sex education summer camp is $250 per ticket and that it will involve condom demonstrations, as well as examine transgender and “kink” topics.

Kinnett said he found the course through Eventbrite, though many of the pages he linked have since been removed.

In the summer camp class, he reported that the 3^rd through 5^th graders would participate together so they can learn that “Gender is a spectrum and not a binary. Everyone needs to learn about all bodies so they can be supportive friends, partners, and parents if that happens in their futures,” according to Robertson.

Robertson didn’t immediately respond to The Epoch Times for comment.

Arguments have been made stating that because of easier pornography access online, children need to be introduced earlier to sexual education, while those in opposition point to a growing trend in the sexualization of children in schools and in popular culture that could make them more susceptible to sexual predators, as well as lead to mental health issues, division within the family unit, and premature sexual activity.

In many schools nationwide, sexual reading material and curriculums are surfacing alongside math, science, and English courses that have sparked outrage in parents who have demanded that the themes of the material exceed inappropriateness.

“3rd Grade can see kids as young as 7 & 8 years old,” Kinnett wrote on Twitter. “Sexualization at these ages shouldn’t be normalized, much less accepted in any form.”