To the editor:

State Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook is the last person on Earth to whom I would entrust the safety of my grandchildren. Under her political agenda, my grandkids may not have access to great art or to the rich resources in literature, and surely they would not have access to comprehensive sexuality education.

The notion that a poster in a sex education class would be damaging “because it would affect their brains” is clearly not good science but, more importantly, strikes a very condescending attitude towards today’s youth. The irony of Sen. Pilcher-Cook’s repressive and sex negative stance towards sexuality education keeps sexual health professionals like myself in business.

I cannot tell you how many couples I have worked with, who struggle to have a healthy sexual bond within their relationship, are the products of families and schools who did not inform and affirm their sexuality, who believed that “ignorance is bliss” and who so deeply internalized fear, guilt, shame and sex-negative messages that a healthy sexual bond was compromised and often unattainable.

I’d gladly forgo my clinical practice if young people would get what they need to be sexually healthy adults capable of sustaining intimate bonds within their relationships. But as long a Pilcher-Cook and the Kansas Legislature propose laws, I have a thriving practice and so many couples struggle to make meaningful connections with each other.