(Daily Caller News Foundation) — Bill Taverner, executive director of Planned Parenthood’s Center for Sex Education, said in 2015 that all people are sexual beginning at birth and has advocated for sexual education to include porn literacy, according to Fox News.
Taverner has called for expanded sex education beginning in kindergarten and advocated for “porn literacy,” according to Fox News. His claims that children are sexual beings is echoed by his employer, Planned Parenthood, which has said humans are sexual at all ages, Fox News reported, citing an organization document.
“[We have] in our society, an assumption of asexuality of people with intellectual disabilities. It’s a myth that’s perpetuated, and really we are all sexual beings from birth until death,” Taverner said in 2015, according to Fox News.
Taverner’s advocacy has also included his 2012 claim that certain age groups of children should be taught about pornography in sex education and his 2012 comments that online pornography and erotica could be helpful for young people learning about sexuality, according to Fox News.
Your preteen may come across porn while searching the internet or looking for something to watch on TV. It can be confusing and unexpected for you AND them. Learn more about how to talk to your teen about what they’re seeing: https://t.co/vehiGkN0oA pic.twitter.com/a8q0ArXoGQ
— Planned Parenthood (@PPFA) July 3, 2020
“I think that there’s this yearning for information that young people have that … hasn’t changed,” he said, acknowledging that some of this information is bad or inaccurate. “[The] delivery of how we get information is quite different. I think that the internet is a major influence on how people learn about sexuality. There’s access to erotica, pornography. That was very different for young people 30 years ago. It’s certainly not as accessible, certainly not as instantaneous. So there’s a lot of information that is useful.”
Planned Parenthood has made similar claims to Taverner’s.
“Sexuality is a part of life through all the ages and stages. Babies, elders, and everyone in between can experience sexuality,” a Planned Parenthood document similarly read, according to Fox News.
Planned Parenthood and Taverner did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
