That could have been part of what Ciattarelli was referring to in his comment about sodomy, but his campaign didn’t specify. They opposed the law requiring LGBTQ-inclusive lessons and linked it to educational standards for health and physical education, issued by the state in 2020, that says students are expected to be able to “define vaginal, oral, and anal sex” by eighth grade. Such changes to curricula have been criticized by Christian activists, like the Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey. The other law requires school boards to include instruction for middle and high schoolers that portrays the “political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.” This is intended to decrease bullying that LGBTQ students and those with LGBTQ parents face in schools. It is said to be the first state to require LGBTQ-inclusive teaching for all subjects, but it’s up to individual school boards to determine how exactly this is implemented into curricula. One law requires all schools beginning this fall to provide instruction on diversity and inclusion, including on gender and sexual orientation.
In New Jersey, two laws recently signed into law address sexual orientation and schools. Controversies over transgender student athletes and teaching so-called critical race theory dominate right-wing media outlets and animate Republican candidacies around the country. Indeed, his website makes no mention of his desire to end LGBTQ inclusivity education, and it did not come up publicly during the primary campaign.īut issues involving education and racial or sexual identity have caught fire on the right. The campaign did not provide specific instances of mature content being taught to young children in New Jersey.Ĭiattarelli is widely seen as a moderate Republican, and conventional political wisdom in New Jersey suggests that to win statewide office a Republican should focus on fiscal matters, like high property taxes, not cultural wedge issues. That is a parent's job, not the school district’s.” It has to do with mature content being taught to young children. We’ve seen enough of that at the federal level the last four years with the Trump administration.”Īsked about the comment about sodomy, Ciattarelli said in a statement that it had “absolutely nothing to do with someone's sexual orientation and the inference that it does is purposefully misleading.” He added, “Read my statement.
Christian Fuscarino, executive director of Garden State Equality, said Ciattarelli’s use of the word “sodomy” sounded as if he was “speaking in code or virtue-signaling to a very specific group of people.” Fuscarino added: “He goes on to say more bluntly that he wants to roll back some of the progress the LGTBQ community has made.