An executive director at a Planned Parenthood’s sex ed division claimed that kids are “sexual beings from birth” in 2015. Bill Taverner is the executive director of the organization’s center for Sex Ed in New Jersey. The location provides training materials nationally and hosts the largest conference for sex educators in the country.
“[We have] in our society, an assumption of asexuality of people with intellectual disabilities,” Taverner said. “It’s a myth that’s perpetuated, and really we are all sexual beings from birth until death.”
While Planned Parenthood didn’t comment, Fox News reports that the organization said in a guide called “Fundamentals of Teaching Sexuality” that “sexuality is a part of life through all the ages and stages. Babies, elders and everyone in between can experience sexuality.”
Fox News also reports that around 2012, Taverner said kids of a certain age should be taught about pornography in sex ed. It’s a view he has held until at least February 2021. During that 2012 interview, Fox News reports he said some of “erotica” was “useful.”
In 2021, he said sex educators never wanted pornography to be the primary source of sex ed and that teaching needs to adapt to modern times.
